Today we acknowledge eight years since the genocide and mass displacement of the Rohingya people of Burma began. 

In 2017, the Burmese military killed thousands of Rohingya and forced more than 700,000 people to flee to neighboring Bangladesh, creating one of the world’s largest refugee camps. In 2022, the United States officially named these crimes a genocide.  

In recent years, the humanitarian needs of the Rohingya people have skyrocketed due to unrelenting violence since the 2021 military coup, natural disasters like Cyclone Mocha in 2023, and the drastic cuts to US foreign assistance this year. Escalating skirmishes between the military junta and the rival Arakan Army have displaced tens of thousands of Rohingya leaving them without adequate food, water, shelter or health care. Some 150,000 more people have fled to Bangladesh, increasing the number of Rohingya refugees worldwide, with more than one million in Bangladesh alone. 

Yet even in this nightmare scenario, the Rohingya people are continuing to organize, advocate for recognition, and seek a more inclusive future in Burma. They strive to create schools, deliver medicine, and stand in defense of their right to exist.  

The U.S. can support the Rohingya in making these goals a reality. Newly-introduced legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Burma Genocide Accountability and Protection Act (H.R. 4140, the Burma GAP Act), calls for the State Department to develop a holistic strategy to address the Rohingya crisis that involves providing humanitarian assistance, supporting refugees, creating protection mechanisms for ethnic minorities, and authorizing accountability and justice programs.  
 

We urge the U.S. to prioritize the provisions of the Burma GAP Act as a major step toward providing the Rohingya with much needed and long-overdue support. This bill would:  

• Ensure that Rohingya refugees in camps in Bangladesh receive enough food  

• Support Rohingya civil society organizations 

• Fund atrocity crime investigations, transitional justice and accountability mechanisms 

• Call on the U.S. to refuse to recognize the Burmese military as Burma’s legitimate government 

We thank Reps. Gregory Meeks, Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee; Michael McCaul; Ami Bera, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific; and Bill Huizenga, Co-Chair of the House Burma Caucus and Chairman of the Subcommittee on South and Central Asia for introducing this bill. 

We urge Congress to pass the Burma GAP Act and ensure that the resources it would provide to the Rohingya people are quickly mobilized. As a coalition of Jewish organizations, we cannot ignore the atrocities continuing to unfold against the Rohingya people, especially while US foreign aid has been drastically cut. 

We call on the U.S. government to do all it can to bring a swift end to the war in Burma, restore democracy, and pressure the military and the Arakan Army to treat the Rohingya and other ethnic minorities in Burma as full citizens with equal human rights.   

About the Jewish Rohingya Justice Network  

The Jewish Rohingya Justice Network (JRJN) is the prominent consortium of Jewish NGOs advocating for the rights of the persecuted Rohingya people of Burma. JRJN’s membership includes 35 organizations and all major branches of American Judaism that together encompass the support of millions of American Jews. 

Inspired by the Jewish commitment to justice, the Jewish Rohingya Justice Network works to promote a robust U.S. and international response to the Rohingya genocide through education of our communities and advocacy in Washington, DC.  

The JRJN was founded in 2017 and has been advocating in solidarity with Rohingya leaders ever since.  

To reach the Jewish Rohingya Justice Network for comment, email jewishrohingyajusticenetwork@gmail.com. For previous statements, click here.