Following a vote last year which split Sudan into two nations, Sudan and South Sudan, al-Bashir and his government have ordered bombing raids along the border of the two nations against civilians, effectively preventing international hunger relief aid from reaching the needy. Several congressmen were arrested as well, including Representatives Jim Moran, Jim McGovern, John Oliver and Al Green, as well as Martin Luther King III. David Saperstein is a Reform rabbi, and director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and Steve Gutow, a Reconstructionist rabbi, is the president of the Jewish Council of Public Affairs.
Gutow said, in a news release issued in conjunction with the protest, “The inhumane cruelty of Omar al-Bashir’s war crimes is too much for us to abide in silence. With one hand he assaults his own people, while with the other he holds back those who would seek to help. I am compelled by G-d, by my commitment to justice and by my humanity to speak out.”