The typical quest for sensational news by the press should not however succeed in overlooking other important, though less sensational, news, such as the trial of the Executive Director of Rabbis for Human Rights, Rabbi Arik Ascherman. Rabbi Ascherman, who is on trial in Jerusalem for trying to prevent the demolition of two Palestinian homes in east Jerusalem, appeared together with two other codefendants for their second session this Wednesday. The protest, which the rabbi calls an act of civil disobedience over an `unjust and immoral Israeli policy,' could result in a three year jail sentence. Rabbi Ascherman reported that at the scene of one demolition, “the families were hysterical. The grandmother was wailing while the father of the family was clutching at his heart and others were begging us to do something. It was simply heartbreaking… we watched helplessly as the pneumatic drills tore into the home. To officer after officer I read off chapter and verse from the various international conventions which Israel is a party to. Commanders ordered their people not to listen or take the paper.” The two demolitions that took place left two large extended families homeless within a matter of minutes. The 100 or so members of Rabbis for Human Rights try to promote human rights from a Jewish religious perspective. They are chiefly engaged in non-violent protest against home demolitions and the rebuilding of demolished homes, the provision of humanitarian aid to besieged Palestinian villagers, and the mobilization of rabbis and supporters in Israel and around the world to petition Israeli officials regarding human rights abuses. The rabbis also help bring human rights issues to the Israeli Supreme Court. This time, however, their zealous efforts to defend people’s basic right to a home has made them the subject of Israeli court proceedings. The presiding judge rejected the defendants’ defense that protesting home demolitions is legitimate given that the policy of home demolition is an unjust and discriminatory policy, which prevents Palestinian residents of east Jerusalem, who cannot attain permits, from building homes legally. While the rabbis’ actions might be technically illegal according to the narrow interpretations of Israeli law, the effective Israeli policy is certainly illegal according to international law, not to mention unjust. The Israeli Or Commission clearly concluded that it is not possible to understand the policy of so called “illegal” building and demolitions outside the context of the discriminatory land policies directed against both Palestinians and Israeli Arabs. It should be noted that the homes that were demolished were not demolished for any security reasons, as none of the people in these homes engaged in activities defined as illegal by Israel. B’Tselem, the Israeli human rights organization, reports that since 1987, literally thousands of homes have been built for Jews in these same areas, many receiving permits retroactively. Since 1987, 2,500 Palestinian homes in the West Bank and in east Jerusalem have been demolished for administrative reasons leaving more than 16,000 Palestinians homeless. Since 1987, the Israeli authorities have "administratively" demolished at least 2,500 Palestinian homes in the West Bank (including east Jerusalem), and hundreds of other structures. However, none of these points seem to have made an impression on the judge and the next hearing scheduled on September 14th, 2004, will unlikely see a turn in the judiciary’ s common evasion of examining the core of the matter. As Israeli courts seem unwilling to tackle the core issue, the burden falls even stronger on the Israeli society to examine the human and moral implications of such a home demolition policy. The quiescence to this and other similar policies will inevitably lead to the destruction of the society behind them. Rabbis for Human Rights
Rabbis for Human Rights – North America
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By: Rabbis for Human Rights
Date: 24/03/2004
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Court Refuses to Take a Stand on Home Demolitions
PRESS RELEASE
This morning, Wednesday, March 24, 2004, Judge Rivka Feldman of the Magistrates Court in Jerusalem rejected the claim of “defense of justice” at the trial of the three defendants: Rabbi Arik Ascherman – Executive Director of “Rabbis for Human Rights”, Shai Eliezer and Omer Ori, accused of opposing home demolitions.
Rabbi Arik Ascherman responded to the Judge’s decision saying: “We are very disappointed with the decision handed down at this, the beginning of the month of Nissan in which we celebrate the exodus from Egyptian injustice. It saddens us to find out that we have a court of law, but not a court of justice at a time we should especially be sensitive to the situation of the stranger who lives among us: “because strangers you were in the land of Egypt” (Leviticus 19: 33-32).
Rabbi Ascherman said that more than 30 “administrative” home demolitions have taken place in Jerusalem since the beginning of the calendar year. The Or committee has already criticized the policy of home demolitions and has stated that the Israeli government limits the possibility of Arab citizens (and even more so of Palestinians) to build legally. There needs to be legal implementation of this finding, in order to immediately stop this injustice immediately which affects so many lives. It appears that the judge did not take into account the full meaning of the concept of civil disobedience. We intend to continue our struggle to persuade the court to acknowledge the real injustice of the policy of home demolitions. The whole world is watching this trial and we do not intend to lose”.
Present at the court this morning were Sufian Maswadeh, whose home the defendants were trying to protect when arrested, Jacob Picheny, a representative of Rabbis for Human Rights supporters in North America, rabbis and activists. As at the first cession, an overflow crowd was forced to wait outside the courtroom.
For more details:
Documents submitted to the court include:
1) Court Decision/Minutes
Rabbis For Human Rights
By: Rabbis for Human Rights/North America
Date: 14/03/2004
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400 Rabbis Publicly Oppose Home Demolitions in Israel
Shomrey Mishpat: Rabbis for Human Rights/North America
MARCH 14, 2004 PRESS RELEASE
400 RABBIS PUBLICLY OPPOSE HOME DEMOLITIONS IN ISRAEL
An unprecedented open letter to Prime Minister Sharon against the Israeli policy of administrative home demolition, signed by 400 Rabbis from across the United States and Europe, will appear as a full-page ad in several Jewish newspapers on Friday March 19. In their ad the rabbis express their support, as Zionists and long time supporters of Israel, for Rabbis for Human Rights, a multi-denominational rabbinic organization in Israel that has opposed home demolition policy since 1997. The rabbis write, "even when our beloved state is under frequent murderous attack by enemies, it is essential to Israel's physical and moral survival that we live up to the central ethical teachings of our heritage."
The ad will appear in the Forward, the New York Jewish Week and possibly in an Israeli newspaper, a few days before the next court hearing in the trial of Rabbi Arik Ascherman, executive director of Rabbis for Human Rights, who is on trial in Jerusalem for attempting to prevent the demolition of two Palestinian homes. The rabbis express their solidarity with the actions of Rabbi Ascherman to protect the human rights of Israelis and Palestinians and to uphold the Zionist vision of a "Jewish state that exemplifies the values of justice and compassion."
The signers of the ad include rabbis of all the movements, many prominent rabbis who teach in rabbinical seminaries, leaders of national Jewish organizations, congregational rabbis and rabbis who work in many diverse educational settings and as chaplains. This is the first time that such a large group of rabbis, long time supporters of Israel, have taken a public stand in support of their colleagues in Israel and against the home demolition policy.
Rabbi Gerald Serotta, Chair of Rabbis for Human Rights North America which organized the rabbi's letter, said, "the home that Rabbi Ascherman was trying to protect were not demolished for any security reason. None of the people in these homes engaged in violence or harboring terrorists. They were demolished because of a violation of zoning regulations in the context where it is almost impossible for Palestinian families in those parts of the West Bank under Israeli civilian control or in Jerusalem to legally obtain building permits."
The signers urged the government of Israel to rescind its policy of home demolitions and exonerate Rabbi Ascherman.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Rabbi Brian Walt, executive director, Rabbis for Human Rights North America Phone: (508) 696-1880 Email: brianwalt@rhr-na.org Rabbi Gerry Serotta, chair, Rabbis for Human Rights North America Phone (301) 587-2273 Email: rabbiger@gwu.edu Rabbi Arik Ascherman, executive director, Rabbis for Human Rights Israel Phone 011-972-50-607034 Email: ravarik@actcom.net.il
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By: Joharah Baker for MIFTAH
Date: 27/05/2013
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Believing in Jerusalem
Last week, Israel barred a UNESCO fact-finding mission from entering the country, charging that the Palestinians had ‘politicized’ the mission before it had even arrived. The mission was tasked with looking into conditions of historical sites in the Old City of Jerusalem, something Israel apparently found to be very threatening. Looking at the state of Jerusalem’s eastern sector today, it is understandable why Israel would not want UNESCO or anyone else walking around the Old City, especially the Palestinian-populated parts of it. Because anyone who does, will see the devastation that Israel and its settlers have wreaked on one of the oldest and most beautiful cities in the world. Excavation works are being conducted in and around the Aqsa Mosque to make way for more Jewish construction at the place where Waqf authorities say Ottoman and Abbasid artifacts have long been tucked away. A Muslim graveyard is being dug up just outside the Old City’s Jaffa Gate, to build – ironically – a museum of tolerance. Today, two stores were forcefully taken over by Jewish settlers in Al Hakari, one of the neighborhoods in the Muslim quarter and every day, it seems that more and more homes are either being demolished by Israeli municipality authorities or being taken over by Jewish settlers. The “Judiazation” of Jerusalem is a term many Palestinians and Arabs use for what Israel is doing in the city. In a nutshell, it is the long-term plan Israel is gradually carrying out to change the Arab Palestinian character of Jerusalem. This means demolishing old and historical structures, displacing Palestinians, handing over their homes to settlers and trying to erase the Palestinian or Arab history of the city. The sad truth is that, on the surface, Israel has succeeded in this to a large extent. Pockets of Jewish settlers now live in the heart of Muslim quarters and aim to take over more and more. Sheikh Jarrah, one of the more affluent Palestinian neighborhoods of Jerusalem, is now pierced with Jewish flags waving from homes that have been wrestled from their Palestinian owners, and Israel’s light rail train cuts right down through Palestinian neighborhoods outside of the city center. The train, of course, is not meant to service the Palestinian population but rather to connect Jewish neighborhoods and settlements in the city, but the area confiscated from Shufat and Beit Hanina for its construction simply fell into the plan. What the UNESCO mission would not have seen even if they made it into the Old City is the overall humiliation that the Palestinian population of Jerusalem must endure on a daily basis because of Israel’s military occupation. Trips to the Israeli ministry of interior must be made just to prove that one lives in the city for fear that their residency rights may be revoked; young Palestinian men are stopped randomly by Israeli soldiers to check their ID cards or just to harass them, and settlers are always given the luxury of maximum security whenever they walk the streets. If settlers want to march through the city, the Palestinians are told to close their shops, are barred for hours from reaching their homes if they run along the path of the march and are always the ones blamed if any kind of confrontation between the two sides breaks out. Jerusalem is being squeezed by these measures more and more each day. But there is always that glimmer of hope, that strength that shines through proving that all is not lost. On Shavuot, Israeli settlers and extremists poured into the Old City, singing loudly, banging on the shop doors and waving huge Israeli flags. The sight was disconcerting to say the least. However, the afternoon of that same day, at Damascus Gate, passersby were met with a completely different scene. Palestinian flags waved in determined Palestinian hands under the threatening eye of heavily armed Israeli police and soldiers. The youths were fearless, demanding freedom, with strong, unrelenting voices. The sight of the Palestinian flag waving at the entrance to Damascus Gate was a breath of fresh air. All is not lost and never will be because hope is eternal and determination and strength come from a never-ending spring. That day at Damascus Gate is what all Palestinians must keep in their minds’ eye in spite of the daily oppression of the occupation. No matter how many missions Israel bars from entering or how many houses it takes over, there will always be those brave souls who, despite the risks, will always raise Palestine’s flag. Joharah Baker is a Writer for the Media and Information Department at the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH). She can be contacted at mid@miftah.org.
By: Joharah Baker for MIFTAH
Date: 20/05/2013
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Let Mohammed rest in peace
There is no point falling into the pit of countering the claims being made about the death of Mohammed Al Durra, the 12-year old boy from Gaza whose videotaped killing was seen around the world. The boy, crouching in fear behind is equally afraid father as bullets whizzed around them, was killed admittedly by the Israeli army. Later, the army recanted after investigating the tape, saying Durra was killed by Palestinian fire instead. Well now, Israel is changing its story altogether, saying he was not killed at all. In fact, he was probably not even wounded and the French channel that broadcast the footage and brought some pretty bad rap to Israel, had most likely filmed a charade. The reason why I will not waste my time countering this claim is that even with the great lengths the Israeli government went to to prove that the boy was never killed, it could not provide any irrefutable proof that Mohammed Al Durra – who would be 25 now – is still alive. No pictures, no testimonies, no hospital or morgue officials giving statements to refute his death, have been provided. Only sketchy information about ‘poor quality footage’ and the fact that it seems as though the boy moved his arm after he had slumped over his father following the explosion. My point is this: indeed, Mohammed Durra’s death was at least one of the catalysts that fueled the second Intifada, and thus, was an important event in the history of the Palestinians. However, more importantly – most importantly to me –is the fact that this is about a boy who died in sheer terror, with his distraught father futilely trying to shelter him from the barrage of bullets coming their way. Mohammed Al Durra was a boy, with a life, a family and friends. He died a horrible death and now he is being made to die a second one. I did not know Mohammed or his family, but I can only imagine how awful it must be for them to read these claims now and feel the pain of losing their child all over again. If nothing else, this is disrespect for human life of the worst kind. Some may postulate that the rehashing of the Durra case is a personal jab at the French cameraman who shot the footage, Charles Enderlin. Perhaps. But as a Palestinian who has seen the pain endured by numerous families who receive the horrible news that their sons or daughters have been killed by the Israeli army, my concern is for his family and for his memory. He should be left to rest in peace. If Israel has axes to grind with French journalists or with the international community for holding it accountable for its actions, then so be it. Israel is not lacking in the public relations department. That being said, there is just one decent thing left to do. Leave Mohammed Al Durra and his memory alone. Joharah Baker is a Writer for the Media and Information Department at the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH). She can be contacted at mid@miftah.org.
By: Joharah Baker for MIFTAH
Date: 13/05/2013
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Recognition and justice is our demand
This week Palestinians will commemorate Al Nakba, the catastrophe that befell the Palestinian people when Israel was founded. Every year, Palestinians hang placards pointing to the right of return, they carry keys symbolizing the homes they were forced to leave and could not return to and remember the Palestine that was lost to them 65 years ago. This year will be no different. Every May 15, Palestinian recall their catastrophe and demand justice. They demand that they are granted the right of return for those who were made refugees virtually overnight and were then relegate to a life they did not choose. But more than anything, they demand recognition of the tragedy that befell them rather than a denial that it ever happened, or worse, that it was of their own making. It has been 65 years since Israel was established in 1948, which means those who were cast into exile are either very old or have long passed. Those who experienced the Nakba are now few and far between, clinging to those few precious memories of a small garden in front of their house in Jaffa or of the salty smell of the sea in their neighborhood in Haifa. The rest of us are either descendants of these refugees or ordinary Palestinians who feel their cause is our cause because we are one people. But the Palestinians have made one thing clear. The refugee issue will not die with the last refugee. It is felt nationwide, the loss, the injustice and the fact that those who were forced from their homes have mostly passed, longing for their beloved homes. We cannot turn back time. What was lost has been altered, destroyed, changed or taken over by Israel’s newcomers. What we can do is hold on to the right to be recognized, for the injustice to be rectified in word and deed and for Palestine to never be lost in our minds or hearts. Joharah Baker is a Writer for the Media and Information Department at the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH). She can be contacted at mid@miftah.org.
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