NOVANEWS
RHR is Israel’s “Rabbinic Voice of Conscience,” comprised of Orthodox,
Reform, Reconstructionist, Conservative and Renewal rabbis. We work
for the human rights of Israeli Jews, Israeli Arabs, Palestinians in the
Occupied Territories, African Refugees and Guest Workers. We have received
the Speaker of the Knesset’s Prize for our contributions to Israeli Society, the
Niwana Peace Prize, the Ghandi Peace Prize, etc., We have been endorsed by
many rabbinic organizations, churches, etc., around the world. RHR-North
America both supports RHR and works for human rights in the U.S.
We have so many important projects we work on, www.rhr.org.il/eng, and help
with any of them would be appreciated. However, I am particularly concerned
right now about Palestinians whose lands are being taken over by settlers,
Israelis who are being denied public housing, and the some 30,000 Israeli
Bedouin in the “Unrecognized” villages of the Negev whom the government
plans to expel from their homes.
For my birthday, I am particularly asking your help on behalf of tens of
thousands of Bedouin live in “Unrecognized” villages not on State maps,
although they either existed before the State or are populated by Bedouin
moved to their current location by Israel. Others have been already forced
to give up their lifestyle, and have been herded into artificially created
towns that have become magnets for poverty, crime, drugs and despair. Fear
mongers argue that the Bedouin are going to take over the Negev. The fact
is that they are 30% of the population, but they lay claim to only 5.4% of
the land.
The Jewish National Fund, which does wonderful and holy forestry and
ecological work, has sadly been involved in planting trees on Bedouin land.
The village of El-Arakib has been demolished over 30 times since July 2009
by the JNF and Israeli Land Authority, even as JNF forests close in from
different directions, and threaten to leave only the El-Arakib cemetery in
the heart of a forest testifying to the community that once existed there..
El-Arakib residents have Turkish, British and Israeli proofs of land
ownership, including purchase documents from 1908.
The oldest graves are from 1914. The State has tried to tell the Israeli courts
that because they expropriated the land in the fifties, these ownership document
are meaningless. In one case a judge accepted that argument. Thankfully, in a
second case Judge Nehama Netzer has rejected the argument and will hear the
case. She also issued a non-binding request to the Israel Lands
Administration and JNF not to create facts on the ground before the Court
rules.
Israeli democracy is alive and kicking, but needs our help. In addition to
financial contributions to help us prevent the Israeli Knesset (parliament)
from passing a law to expel the Bedouin, you can write to the officials of
your government and to Israeli officials. You can also write to the JNF in
your country, asking them to draw a moral red line. The JNF argues that
they are simply the forestry service for the State. We say “Shev v’al
ta’asheh,” “Just Say No.”
RHR-NA, in partnership with the Jewish Alliance for Change, is coordinating
this campaign in North America. You can learn more at
http://www.jews4change.com/. , or on the site of our Israeli partner, the
Co-Existence Forum, http://www.dukium.org/eng/. Many congregations have used
RHR’s prayer for El-Arakib,
http://rhr.org.il/eng/index.php/2011/07/a-prayer-on-the-ruins-of-el-arakib/.
If you can, please make a financial contribution to support the
demonstrations, media work, lobbying we are doing, the materials we want to
create. A portion of the contributions made to RHR-NA for RHR remain with
RHR-NA to support our work. However, if you can request that for my
birthday wish that this be a special donation going 100% to RHR for this
specific cause. Outside North America, you can also contribute on line at
https://israelgives.org/custom/rhr/cart, or via the New Israel Fund.
Together, we will create some justice!
B’Vrakha (In Blessing),
Arik
Rabbi Arik Ascherman
Special Projects-Rabbis For Human Rights
