Pears Foundation donates £90,000 to Uyghur campaign

A British Jewish philanthropic group has made a £90,000 donation to a campaign urging the end to persecution of Uyghur Muslims by China.

The Pears Foundation’s support is set to boost the initiative called ‘Stop Uyghur Genocide’, driven by members of that community in the UK.

It comes amid claims China has incarcerated more than a million of the Muslim minority in ‘re-education’ camps, where there are reports of forced labour, sterilisation and indoctrination.

Spearheading the British Jewish community’s support for the campaign, the donation, which was facilitated by Jewish human rights charity René Cassin, will go towards rolling out a national grassroots organisation and buildings campaigns.

The campaign already won two key victories, with Parliament voting to recognise the genocide in April, before committing to a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in 2022, earlier this month.

Stop Uyghur Genocide’s executive director Rahima Mahmut said: “It is hard to put into words my gratitude for this gift, and the support for my fellow Uyghurs that it represents.”

René Cassin’s executive director, Mia Hasenson-Gross said: “This gift is both a testament to Rahima’s hard work and tenacity and a practical expression of the revulsion the Jewish community feels about ethnic and religious repression so brutal and so widespread that the UK and US have labelled it ‘genocide’.”

Meanwhile, former Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable was criticised for saying persecution of Uyghur Muslims did not amount to genocide.

He said that to brand it a genocide was “hyping the language”. Lib Dem MP Alistair Carmichael criticised Cable, 78, as being “wrong”, insisting that there was “clear-cut evidence” of genocide.