Israel - ARIK ASCHERMAN, Rabbis For Human Rights
Rabbis For Human Rights consists of some one hundred rabbis and rabbinical students who work to prevent and/or redress human rights abuses and introduce into the intellectual universe of Israelis an authentic humanistic understanding of the Jewish Tradition. They work through the courts, lobbying, direct field work, public campaigns and, when all else fails, through civil disobedience. On principle the organisation is always working on at least one issue dealing with the human rights of Jewish Israelis and one issue dealing with other groups under Israeli control. The current pillars of the organisation's work are:
"In Rabbis for Human Rights, though our ideas are not always accepted, death squads are not coming to our doors, we are not arrested. We have access to the courts, the Knesset, the press. We can teach. The worst is the occasional threatening phone call, harassment at the airport or difficulty getting a permit to demonstrate. In the Occupied Territories we complain about unnecessary force. Many of you come from places where there is no tear gas or rubber bullets, only live ammunition – to kill.
However, there is no comfort in saying, “It is worse elsewhere.” These are ‘our’ human rights violations. They are not what we expect from our people or our army. They are not how we as rabbis understand our Torah and our religious traditions.
Firstly, both the knowledge and our moral voice come from our presence in places where human rights violations take place and with the victims - and of course, from the Jewish tradition. In addition, there is something hard to quantify and harder to attain – hope. When we break down stereotypes and expose ourselves to some measure of danger, we are planting seeds of hope amongst those who do not believe that they can expect much from the groups we represent.
When we have gone to rebuild a demolished Palestinian home, Palestinians parents have insisted that their children meet us. They tell us that when their children who have seen their home demolished and their parents humiliated, say they want to grow up and be terrorists, they want them to know that not every Israeli is a soldier who comes to demolish their homes. When our volunteers act as human shields to protect Palestinians from settler violence when they harvest their olives, we also create the “Dialogue of the Olive Groves,” between average Israelis and average Palestinians.
On April 15th, 2004, at the end of a demonstration against the Separation Barrier, a 13 year old boy was being beaten by the border police. I and two other Israelis went to the jeeps. The commanding officer beckoned me forward, grabbed my throat and started screaming that I was arrested. The boy was strapped to the windshield of a jeep. I and two others were handcuffed and put in front of other jeeps.
Palestinian youths began to throw stones. My demands not to use us as human shields, to look after the boy, met with threats or laughter.Who knows what psychological scars that boy will have for the rest of his life? He was waking up with nightmares every night. Who knows what he was thinking about all Israelis, perhaps all Jews.
However, when he gave an affidavit to our fellow human rights organisation, B’tselem, he concluded the story of what had been done to him saying, “And then a tall Jewish man came to my rescue and told me not to be afraid.”
There is no pleasure for me as a Jew, as a rabbi as an Israeli and as a Zionist, to deal with the darkest corners of the country I love. However, I will choose to undertake those risks again and again for the boy who will say, “and then a tall Jewish man in a kippah came to my rescue and told me not to be afraid.” It is not only what I as a Rabbi am commanded to do. It is also the only way to insure a better future for my children as well as the children of that boy."
