December 30, 2021
Cited article by Al Jazeera
HRRC acknowledges the withdrawal of this award proposal as a victory for international justice and recognizing accurate histories. It is crucial that countries who intend to bestow honors on individuals investigate fully the accuracies of works by the proposed recipients.
Article Summary
In early 2021, Germany proposed to award Israeli historian, Gideon Greif, with the country's Order of Merit for his contribution to Holocaust research. However, the proposal has now been withdrawn due to previous publications by Greif that deny the Srebrenica Genocide. The report was published in July 2021 and directly contradicted the findings of the International Criminal Court on the Srebrenica Genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1995. Specifically, Srebrenica refers to the systematic killing of approximately 8,000 Bosniak men and boys by the Serb forces in July 1995.
It is emphasized that while the proposal of this award is being withdrawn, and the award itself delayed, that this does not detract from Greif's work regarding the Holocaust and the German Jews who have immigrated to Israel. Multiple organizations herald the withdrawal of the award as a victory for truth and justice, and a victory against genocide denials and those who would falsify history.