The Annual Report 2012-2013 of Rabbis For Human Rights

- ‫משפט‬ ‫שומרי‬
‫אדם‬ ‫זכויות‬ ‫למען‬ ‫רבנים‬
RABBIS FOR
HUMAN RIGHTS
‫اجل‬ ‫من‬ ‫حاخامني‬
‫االنسان‬ ‫حقوق‬
2012-2013
Annual Activity Report

As
Opening Word
Rabbi Arik Ascherman
In1995,RabbiJeremyMilgromand
I succeeded Rabbi Ehud Bandel
as co-directors. We developed
a grassroots component to our
work, succeeding in changing
national policy by having one foot
on the ground and the other in the
corridors of power.
In 1995, 95 percent of our work
concerned Palestinians. Based
on the Torah’s teaching that all
human beings are created in God’s
Image, RHR’s general assembly
resolved that we must always be
advocating for the human rights
of both Jews and non-Jews. Today,
the OT remains our largest single
commitment, but it now represents
less than 50 percent of our time
and resources. While we wish we
could put ourselves out of business
by ending human rights violations,
your increased support allowed
us to grow our educational and
internal Israeli socioeconomic
justice work without backtracking
on our commitment to Palestinian
human rights. When I began, the
entire budget was under $30,000.
Today our projected 2013 budget
is over $1,300,000.
RHR is not affiliated with any
political party. We have no position
on borders or final status solutions.
We state clearly that the Occupation
leads to human rights violations, but
leave it to others to determine just
what ending the Occupation will
look like. In terms of socioeconomic
justice inside Israel, we struggle
against the changes in our society
created by the move from a social
welfare economy towards a neo-
liberal economy.
We achieve change through
direct field work, the Israeli legal
system, lobbying our Knesset and
government, public campaigns
and working with the international
community. As a last resort, we
have occasionally engaged in acts
of civil disobedience.
The following report will give
you a good picture of RHR’s
current project areas and future
plans. I reflected after leaving the
directorshipinthecapablehandsof
Ayala Levy in 2010 that it is clearer
than ever that we are not “Rabbi
for Human Rights,” but “Rabbis
for Human Rights.” The fact is that,
while our organization is clearly a
rabbinic organization, our staff is
also interfaith. I was almost moved
to tears at a recent meeting with
an outside evaluator listening to
their passion, commitment and
dedication.There are certain things
that money cannot buy, and are
difficult to define, but they make
all the difference when the chips
are down and the call comes in
after hours.
Finally, I have been reflecting a great
deal lately about what is the essence
of Jewish-based human rights work.
Clearly our first goal is to create a
society which acts according to
our belief that all human beings are
created in God’s Image. We must
develop the “Spiritual vision” that
can see through all that divides
us, including real conflicts, and
sometimes justified anger and fear.
The breastplate the High Priest’s
wore when he entered the Holy
of Holies contained 12 different
stones representing the 12 tribes.
We must go even further. We
achieve holiness when there is a
place for all humanity in our hearts
because we recognize the essential
sameness that unites us in our
diversity. We must be aware of how
unequal power relationships lead
to human rights violations. Ibn Ezra
warns us that when we wrong the
widow, the orphan or the resident
alien, they are all too often voiceless
and powerless to protest. Rabbi
Samson Raphael Hirsch taught that,
even with the best of intentions,
it “Borders on criminality” when
those with property and power
take on the “White man’s burden”
of deciding how to be just towards
those who do not sit at the table.
Rather than saying that they are
powerless, some versions of Ibn
Ezra say that the widow, orphan
and alien have nobody to stand by
their side. We must be those who
stand by their side. But we must do
so as partners, empowering them
to find their own voice.
I look forward to better explaining
what I mean when I have the
opportunitytovisityourcommunity,
or to welcome you here in Israel.
B’Vrakha (In Blessing),
Arik
As many of our North
American friends
and supporters
already know, it was
announced in January 2013 that
RHR and RHR-NA were severing
their fiscal relationship, and that
RHR-NA would now be known as
“Tru’ah.” We are therefore taking
the opportunity to “reintroduce
ourselves” in this report, as well
as highlighting our achievements,
challenges, plans and goals.
The section for each department
begins with a summary of what
the department does and who
is involved. In these opening
remarks, I would like to summarize
the history and mandate of RHR. I
and other staff and board members
are making a special effort this year
to visit communities around the
world. Please contact us if you
are interested in inviting us. We
also make every effort to provide
presentations, text study and/
or tours to visiting groups and
individuals. Please contact us about
our own Jewish Leadership Human
RightsTour October 1st – 8th, timed
so that you can be in the courtroom
with us for a crucial High Court
session on October 3rd.
RHR is “Israel’s rabbinic voice of
conscience.” In successes deemed
impossible, we have in very
concrete ways changed Israeli
policy, improving the lives of both
IsraelisandPalestinians.Anequally
important mandate is to expose our
fellow Israelis to an understanding
ofTorah and our Israeli Declaration
of Independence that challenge
the nationalistic/particularistic
understanding dominant in Israel
today both among religious and
secular Jews. In our work with
Palestinians, we help to break
down stereotypes and restore hope
in the possibility of a better future.
RHR was founded in 1988 by a
group of Orthodox, Reform and
Conservative rabbis, led by Rabbi
David Forman z”l. Today we are
approximately 120 Israeli rabbis,
also including Reconstructionist,
Renewal and Humanistic rabbis.
In the challenging days of the
First Intifada, Rabbi Forman wrote
an open letter to Israel’s Chief
Rabbinate, asking why the religious
establishment focused almost solely
on Shabbat observance and Kashrut.
As important as these things are, he
asked where were rabbis like Rabbi
Abraham Joshua Heschel addressing
the burning moral issues our society
faced from a religious Jewish
perspective. While not ignoring the
very real physical dangers that we
faced, he argued that these threats
could not be used as an excuse to
behave immorally ourselves. In
the words of Hillel the Elder, “If I
am not for myself, who will be for
me? If I am only for myself, what
am I? And if not now, when?” He
loved to remind us that, according
the Midrash, even justice must be
pursued through just means.
Inthoseearlydays,wesawourselves
primarily as a “Shofar,” who by our
very presence visiting the scene of a
humanrightsabusesentthemessage
that this was an issue of the highest
Jewish, religious and moral concern.
However, in 1992 we won our first
precedent-settingHighCourtvictory.
Appealing along with Muslim and
Christian religious leaders, the Court
ignored closed door testimony from
the security forces, and revoked
a curfew in Ramallah that was
preventingChristiansfrompreparing
for Christmas.
QuicklywewereendorsedinNorth
America by the rabbinic bodies
of the Reform and Conservative
movements, and in 1993 received
the Speaker of the Knesset’s Prize
for our contributions to Israeli
society. Rabbi Forman was invited
to deliver a keynote address at the
Nobel Institute conference parallel
to the awarding of the Nobel Peace
Prize to Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon
Peres and Yasser Arafat. Through
the years, we have received
additional endorsements from the
Reconstructionist and Renewal
rabbinic bodies in North America,
as well as the Liberal Movement
in Great Britain, the prestigious
NiwanoPeacePrize,andnumerous
additional recognitions. While the
North American organization we
helped found in 2002 has now
become independent, we continue
to be grateful to British Friends of
RHR, Montreal Friends of RHR
(Soon to be called Canadian
Friends of RHR), Trees of Hope in
the San Francisco Bay Area, and
the thousands of rabbis and lay
people who organize, contribute
and advocate for our shared vision
of an Israel living up to our highest
Jewish values. We are grateful for
our broad interfaith support. What
unites us as people of faith can
transcend our differences.
Opening Word-President and Senior Rabbi
2RHR 2013 3 RHR 2013

Opening Word
RHR Annual Report – Chair’s Letter
Rabbi Barry Leff

Occupied Territories
As you will see from reading this report,
2012 was a year of notable successes for
Rabbis for Human Rights. However, for every
success we also have ongoing challenges.
For example:
After a decade of working and advocating for
the right of Palestinian farmers to access their
lands, the Israeli security forces are doing a
better job of guaranteeing this safe access.
But destruction of olive trees by radical
settlers continues.
We saved the tires and mud school of the
Jahalin Bedouin in Khan El Akhmar from
demolition. But the Jahalin Bedouin near
Mishor Adumim are still threatened with
relocation closer to the garbage dump.
Our letter writing campaign convinced
the Jewish National Fund not to evict the
Sumarin family in Silwan. But the JNF has
only said they are not evicting the family “for
now.”
A building tender that would have resulted in
the eviction Kurdish immigrants in the former
Arab village of Lifta was cancelled, allowing
the residents to remain in their homes. But
the state and the developers have not given
up.
Our legal department secured a victory that
allowed the residents of Bir El ‘Id to return to
additional caves. But the Israeli government
continues to threaten the expulsion of
hundreds of Palestinians from their homes to
create a new “Firing Zone.”
Our Rights Center in Hadera provided
hundreds of Jewish and Arab residents of the
area with advice and legal help regarding
their socio-economic rights. But the situation
of many remains desperate, as shown by the
tragic suicide of Moshe Silman, one of the
many people we helped.
There are many more examples. Is the
“glass half-full” or is it “half-empty?” Both.
Our successes and our on-going challenges
represent the reality of the human rights
situation in Israel and the Occupied
Territories.
Organizationally, the end of 2012 brought
with it a major change: the ending of our
formal affiliation with Rabbis for Human
Rights – North America. RHR-NA has a new
name, T’ruah – the rabbinic call for human
rights. Over the past several years RHR-
NA has grown, and its focus has changed.
We welcome them as a new member of the
Jewishhumanrightsscene. Inthemeanwhile,
Rabbis for Human Rights is now conducting
its own fundraising and advocacy campaigns
in North America.
It is the generous support of our members and
donors that allows us to continue our mission
to help insure that Israel as a nation and a
community lives up to the highest ethical
ideals of the Jewish tradition. The Jewish
people have been called “compassionate
children of a compassionate God.” There
is no greater expression of compassion than
taking action to protect those whose basic
human rights are being violated.
“It is inspiring to work with so many good, devoted
and idealistic people whose vision of peace and justice
remains steady despite everything that happens. It is
heartening to receive constant feedback emphasizing
the importance of our presence as a religious Israeli
group for human rights and to hear that we inspire
hope in others, save Judaism (and humanism) for them,
and break down stereotypes of both Israelis
and Palestinians.
RHR’s Occupied Territories Field Department, led by RabbiYehiel Grenimann, works to protect the rights of
Palestinian farmers in the West Bank to safely access and work their lands throughout the year. An annual
highlight is our Fall “Olive Harvest Campaign,” during which we bring hundreds of volunteers to work side
by side with Palestinian farmers. After ten years, we now see a marked improvement in the willingness of
the Israeli security forces to accept their responsibility (established in a court ruling in 2006) to ensure
that farmers can reach olive trees in even the most dangerous locations. However, the scourge of olive tree
destruction continues. Every year, RHR plants thousands of trees to replace those destroyed or damaged by
settlers, or in areas in danger of takeover. We also advocate on behalf of the rights of the Jahalin Bedouin
near Ma’aleh Adumim to remain on their lands, and run language courses and summer camps for children.
This year, RHR and our coalition partners orchestrated international pressure forcing the Israeli security
forces to commit not to forcibly move the Jahalin without an agreed upon plan for their welfare, but the
intent is still to expel them. We also work in cooperation with other organizations to defend the rights of
Palestinians to remain in their homes in East Jerusalem.
4RHR 2013 5 RHR 2013

I often like to tell aTalmudic story to our staff and
volunteers regarding the nature of our work in
the territories and the appropriate attitude for
this work. The story is about the famous Rabbi Akiva,
an illiterate shepherd who came to Torah study
relatively late in life. He fell in love with Rachel, a
young woman from a rich and educated family. She
agreed to marry him if he studied Torah but he found
learning to read and write very hard. Once while
sitting by a river in a moment of despair, he noticed
water flowing through a rock in the river.He said to
himself: “If water can penetrate and overcome such a
hard rock, I too can succeed.” He went on to become
a great scholar of Torah.
My lesson from this story is that just as the water
was able to overcome the rock, so we can overcome
the evils of the Israeli Occupation through our
determination, however hard (and rock-hearted) it
might seem to us. Water penetrates where there are
cracks and openings in the rock and we too must
penetrate in such a way until the system caves in and
is replaced by something more humane. That is wiser
than confrontational tactics that lead to sparks but no
real change or improvement.”
Rabbi Yehiel Grenimann,
Director, Occupied Territories Field Department
This year RHR marked a decade of
accompanying Palestinian farmers
in their olive groves located near
settlements, unauthorized outposts,
or near the Separation Barrier. Over
the past 10 years, we have ensured
therightsofthousandsofPalestinians
toplant,harvestandprunetheirolive
trees in areas where settlers and/or
the Israeli security forces previously
denied that right. This year we saw
a marked improvement in how the
Israeli security forces protected
that right. In the past decade, RHR,
together with the Harvest Coalition,
has also brought thousands of
Israelis and internationals to meet
with Palestinians in their olive
groves, where they learn about
harsh realities on the ground as they
pick side by side with one another
in solidarity and friendship.
Our work is not complete. Farmers
still have great difficulty obtaining
permits to access their land between
the separation barrier and the Green
Line. Despite the vast improvements
resulting from our 2006 Supreme
Court ruling, requiring that the army
allow Palestinians to safely access
their olive trees, RHR still must play a
crucial role in coordinating with the
army and ensuring that Palestinian
villages be given a sufficient number
of days to finish the harvest. There
are areas near settlements where
all the trees have been poisoned,
chopped down or uprooted. This
year, over 450 destroyed or damaged
trees were discovered at the outset
of the olive harvest alone. RHR and
our coalition partners are searching
for ways to get the security forces
to keep their court obligation to
protect trees and property. While
senior army officials told us they
could do nothing more to stop the
wave of harvest destruction, the US
ambassador mentioned the problem
in the UN Security Council, and
the remainder of the season was
relatively quiet.
A key focus of our work this year
was maintaining and expanding our
contacts with Palestinian farmers
from 50 villages in the Occupied
Territories. RHR’s commitment
to these villages does not end
with agricultural access. Field
Coordinator Zakaria Sadeh regularly
visited the villages and responded
to diverse problems, including
settler violence, IDF inaction, illegal
detentions,problemsatcheckpoints,
IDF confiscation of equipment or
vehicles, and ensuring transport to
hospital for several patients. Among
the Palestinians whom we help, a
real trust in RHR has been created.
The peak of our work with these
villages is during the olive harvest,
which lasts for about one month
beginning in mid-October. This past
year we coordinated with the IDF
to ensure army protection and safe
access for farmers in at least seven
villages during the harvest.As in past
years, we also arranged for several
hundred Israeli and international
volunteers, including members of
RHR, to work in the olive groves
in 11 villages. Our presence in the
field alongside Palestinian farmers
provides protection against possible
settler intimidation, enables farmers
to pick within the limited number
of days that they can safely do so,
and has also become an act of
solidarity between Israeli Jews and
Palestinians. The sharing of lunches
and eating together, Israelis and
Palestinians, is usually the highlight
of the day! By bringing together
Israeli Jews and Palestinians under
the shade of the olive tree, we
believe that we are helping to
change the minds and attitudes of
Israeli Jews and Palestinians towards
one another. We continue this work
because we believe that it helps to
change the face of the State of Israel
into a more humane one.
The ability of Palestinians to
access their lands has improved
immeasurably since our 2006 High
Court victory, and in many cases
we no longer need to maintain a
physical presence or intervene in
order to ensure that farmers can
harvest their olives. In the areas
wherePalestinianscannotgowithout
prior coordination (either because of
closure orders, fear, or because the
army has convinced the Palestinians
that they cannot or should not go on
their own), the number of days that
the army allocates to the harvest is
still inadequate. Unlike last year, this
year all villages we were in touch
with succeeded in completing their
harvest in areas next to settlements.
However, four villages were not
able to complete their harvesting
on their lands trapped between the
Separation Barrier and the 1967
border; the army did not allow them
enough days to reach these areas,
or any at all. In this coming year,
we intend to continue working with
the army to increase the number of
harvest days so that so that farmers
can reach all of their olive groves.
Although the presence of the army
as well as our presence in the fields
givePalestinianfarmersanincreasing
sense of security while harvesting
their olives, 2012 witnessed a
sharp increase in damage to trees
and property, particularly before
the olive harvest even started. In
just one week, for example, 450
trees were damaged, destroyed,
or stripped of their fruit in Yanun,
Krayut, Ein Abbus and Meghayer.
The economic cost of the damaged
trees is immense, and the emotional
cost is also great. As in previous
years, RHR acted on several fronts
to request army protection of trees
and property. Our ongoing presence
in the field and immediate response
to violations continues to be the
most effective way to address the
challenges on the ground.
This report covers both the 2012 and
2013 planting seasons. Each year,
RHR provides approximately 3,000
olive trees to be planted in areas in
danger of takeover, or where settlers
have cut, uprooted and/or burned
trees in acts of vandalism and arson.
We have reduced the number of
places where we bring Israelis to
plant together with farmers because,
in some cases, the farmers prefer
not to attract attention. However, Tu
B’Shvat,theJewishnewyearfortrees,
continues to be the day in which we
organize a major pubic planting,
with many volunteers. In doing so,
RHR presents a different Jewish face
than that of the extremists who carry
out the “price tag” attacks. In 2012,
despite army attempts to block our
arrival, 22 people joined RHR in
planting in El-Jenia village in the
Northern West Bank, where a “Price
Tag” attack had taken place days
before.Thearmyleftafterforcingusto
leave, and the Palestinians were able
to quietly resume work. Nineteen
volunteers and staff members
joined us in planting 50 trees at the
kindergarten in the Jabal, in solidarity
with the Jahalin Bedouin, who were
threatened with being relocated
to the garbage dump of Abu Dis in
early 2012 (see below).
In December 2012, trees were cut
down on lands belonging to farmers
from A-Asawiya. Two days later,
RHR volunteers joined Palestinians
in replanting. In January 2013, we
plantedtreesinKusra,anincreasingly
tense area. Less than a week later,
on the very day we were helping
Fawzi Ibrahim in nearby Jalud (see
below), we discovered that some of
our trees had been uprooted in the
middle of the night. The windows
of a tractor were shattered, and
hundreds of rocks were thrown at
the home of an elderly couple living
on the outskirts of the village. We
therefore returned on Tu B’Shvat
with several busloads of volunteers,
and the Palestinians indicated that
they would set up a system to keep
watch over the trees even at night.
The Olive Tree Campaign – Agricultural Access

Our ongoing presence
in the field and
immediate response
to violations continues
to be the most
effective way to
address the challenges
on the ground.
6RHR 2013 7 RHR 2013

In 2012, Israel destroyed at least 35 rainwater cisterns used by Palestinian communities, 20 of them in the area
of Hebron and the southern Hebron Hills. Usually, the communities whose cisterns were destroyed are a short
distance from settlements and unauthorized outposts that enjoy a regular water supply. While these outposts have
no permits the Civil Administration almost always destroys Palestinian tents, animal pens and food storage facilities
for the lack of permit. Drying up the water supply of Palestinians is an affront to our basic religious and human
morals.
In the summer of 2012, in response to this critical situation, Rabbis for Human Rights began assisting Palestinians
in renovating destroyed water cisterns in the South Hebron Hills. We coordinated with both Ta’ayush and the
Palestinian NGO “EWASH,” which specializes in water rights. Twelve student volunteers from the Canadian
organization “Operations Groundswell” participated in this program. The group and some of our staff members
spent a week renovating a cistern at Bir El Id, near Mitzpe Yair, one of the more radical outposts. The group dug out
the cistern and transformed it from an unusable source of water to one that could start operating again. A week later
after we had dug out this cistern, we learned that Hajj Ismail, upon whose land the cistern is located, was severely
attacked with a knife by four masked settlers. It is possible that this attack was a response to our work there.
Advocating on behalf of the Jahalin Bedouin
The Jahalin tribe were uprooted from
their lands in Tel Arad in the Negev
in the early 1950s and resettled
in the West Bank. Until 1967 the
Jahalin preserved their traditional
Bedouin lifestyle of thousands of
years, supporting themselves mainly
through herding. With the onset of
the Israeli occupation, the Israeli
army took control of large swaths
of the Jahalin tribe’s grazing areas
in the Jordan Valley, closing them
off to Palestinians. The Jahalin were
consequently squeezed into the area
oftheJerusalem-Jerichohighwayand
forced to abandon their traditional
way of life. Since the establishment
of Ma’aleh Adumim in 1975, the
expanding settlement has repeatedly
displaced Jahalin encampments.
Rabbis for Human Rights has been
advocating on behalf of the rights of
the Jahalin Bedouin since 1997 when
an encampment was demolished,
and the Jahalin were given shipping
containers to live in on an exposed
hilltop near the Abu Dis garbage
dump.
In November 2011 we learned that
the CivilAdministration had reached
an advanced stage of planning for
the forced relocation of 600 Jahalin
living near Mishor Adumim to a
landfill site even closer to the dump.
Such a plan, if implemented, would
seriously endanger the health of the
Jahalin.
To help change the face of Israel, and
to encourage the Israeli government
to act on behalf of our Jewish
values, we quickly launched both
international and local campaigns
and protests, with the help of the
Catholic Comboni Sisters and the
Jahalin Association.
We asked our supporters to send
letters protesting the plan to move
the Jahalin to the garbage dump, and
many of you responded. We also
initiated a campaign appealing to
Jewishleadersabroad,whileB’Tselem
organized tours for journalists and
international diplomats.
Although the 18th Knesset was
reluctant to intervene on behalf
of Palestinians in the Occupied
Territories, even in cases of gross
violations of human rights, in this
case the details of the developments
and an outpouring of international
concern permitted us to request a
session to discuss the matter in a
joint meeting of the Environment
and Health Committees, headed
by MK Dov Khenin. We asked
the committee to direct the Civil
Administration to reverse its decision
to adopt the plan to move the Jahalin
to the dump in Abu Dis.
Despite the positions of MKs Arye
Eldad and Uri Ariel of the National
Union Party, and of Uri Maklev of
United Torah Judaism, and despite
the claims by the representative
of the Ministry of Environment
that the site was scheduled to
close, in the end the Ministry of
Defense representative announced
that its ministry would conduct a
comprehensive risk assessment to
cover the environmental risks in the
area slated to absorb the Jahalin;
only afterwards would any plans
be crystallized regarding the actual
relocation – and then only through
dialogue with the residents.
In addition to promising to relocate
the Jahalin only in dialogue with the
Jahalin, the Bedouin community of
Khan El Akhmar was also promised
that its school, built of tires and
mud, would be allowed to continue
until an alternative location was
agreed. This effectively cancelled
the demolition order against the
school until an alternative location is
finalized, much to the delight of the
85 children who attend the school
and their parents. RHR believes
that the right to education is a basic
human right, as well as one rooted
within our Jewish tradition.
RHR welcomed these decisions,
but the Israeli authorities still plan
to demolish the school and to
displace all the Bedouin in the area,
including those in the adjacent E1
corridor. Having finished their study
of health and other Bedouin issues,
the CivilAdministration has suggested
two options to the Jahalin, both of
which would entail displacing other
Palestinians. The Jahalin reject this,
but are willing to consider options in
the Jerusalem-Dead Sea corridor on
land that does not belong to others.
This past summer, RHR again
organized English and Hebrew
lessons for the children in Khan El
Akhmar and al-Jabal. Together with
the Catholic Comboni Sisters, three
RHR volunteers, and Ibtisam Hirsh, a
local Bedouin woman, we organized
a summer camp for 70 children,
during which we even took the kids
to the beach in Tel Aviv for a day. For
most of the children this was the first
time they had ever seen the sea.
Renovating Water Cisterns in South Hebron Hills
To help change the face of Israel,
and to encourage the Israeli government
to act on behalf of our Jewish values, we
quickly launched both international and
local campaigns and protests
8RHR 2013 9 RHR 2013

East Jerusalem
The Campaign against the Eviction of the
Sumarin Family in Silwan
RHR, RHR-NA and additional
partners launched a public letter
writing campaign against the
eviction, organized by Shatil
Fellow Moriel Rothman and our
Communications Department. Our
campaign urged the JNF, as a group
concerned with the well-being of the
State of Israel, to stop this injustice.
In parallel, we also ran an effective
media campaign with dozens of
media reports appearing in Ha’aretz
and the American Jewish press.
Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity held vigils
and demonstrations in Silwan. As a
result, thousands of people
in the US, Israel and around
the world responded, and
In last year’s annual report, we mentioned an emerging campaign to prevent the eviction of the Sumarin family
from their home in Silwan by Himnuta, a subsidiary of the Jewish National Fund. The home had originally been
seized through the subsequently discredited and discontinued practice of declaring properties as abandoned,
even when family members were living in them. The Custodian for Absentee Property transferred the Sumarin
home to the Jewish National Fund. We knew that in similar cases the JNF transferred the properties to settler
groups such as Elad as part of the broader plan to Judaize Silwan. Using lawyers who often work for Elad, the JNF
had a court order that the family could be expelled as of November 28th, 2011.
Campaigning against the Slopes
of Mount Scopus National Park
Victory in Lifta
an American board member of the
JNF even resigned in protest.
As Moriel Rothman recalls,
“Thousands and thousands of
letters were sent, dozens of op-eds
and media articles were written,
a number of protests, tours and
solidarity vigils were held and
when the December 18th eviction
date was again delayed, and then
the next date was delayed again,
it began to become clear that the
JNF did not intend to evict the
Sumarin family in this round of the
battle. Although the victory was
not complete and the possibility
of eviction still remains a reality to
this day, it was a victory.
We had won. The Sumarin family,
the Palestinian and Israeli and
international activists, the NGOs
and Human Rights organizations,
and RHR’s voice of a Judaism that
puts justice first: we had won.”
While the JNF has only said that it
is not evicting the family ”for now,”
we can proudly report over a year
later that the Sumarin family is
still in their home and the process
remains frozen.
The Ruweidi family was in a similar
position, but decided to take
proactive action and sue to register
their land in their name. Again, RHR
was part of a coalition to spread the
word about the case. However, this
time the Court ruled in the family’s
favor, enabling them to register their
property.
Currently RHR is also following the
cases of several families in Sheikh
Jarrah. The family in the most
imminent danger is the Shamasneh
family, where settler agent Arieh
King has apparently succeeded
in locating and obtaining the
cooperation of a woman claiming
pre-1948 ownership. The family
acknowledges that they have been
renting the property, but have
claimed protected tenant status.
RHR acknowledges that Jews can
legitimately own property in East
Jerusalem, but protests the “eifa
v’eifa” double standards that allow
Jews to avail themselves of the
courts to claim property, but not
Palestinians.

RHR has joined with five other
Israeli organizations and the
Palestinian Popular Committees
from A-Tur and Issawiya to
oppose the proposed “Slopes of
Mount Scopus” plan in which the
Municipality of Jerusalem and
the National Parks Authority are
planning to build a “national park”
in this area. There is no reason
to create a national park in this
location, other than to seize the
last remaining land from the two
adjacent villages/neighborhoods.
East Jerusalem has an extremely
disproportionate percentage of
land designated as “parks.” There
are also threatened homes in the
endangered area. Recently RHR
helped to stop the demolition of
three homes that actually had a
restraining order preventing the
demolitions.
RHR was also part of a small victory
in the village of Lifta, just outside
Jerusalem, whose Palestinian
residentsfled/wereexpelledin1948.
Afterwards, Kurdish immigrants
were dumped in the neighborhood.
The Kurdish immigrants are now
being threatened with eviction, and
a tender was granted to demolish
the village in order to construct
high-end homes. RHR was the
only NGO willing to join activists
in successfully getting the tender
cancelled because of the historical
nature of the buildings to be
destroyed. However, the State and
the developers have not necessarily
given up.
" We had won. The Sumarin family, the
Palestinian and Israeli and international
activists, the NGOs and Human Rights
organizations, and RHR’s voice of a Judaism
that puts justice first: we had won."
10RHR 2013 11 RHR 2013

OT Legal Department
Over the past year, RHR has
steadily increased its resources
and capacity to take on an
unprecedented number of legal
cases and to raise awareness
of the plight of Palestinian land
owners in the South Hebron
Hills, both among Israelis and the
international community. Together
with our partner organizations
Ta’ayush and Breaking the Silence,
RHR has been able to elevate our
work in the South Hebron Hills to
new levels. There and elsewhere
in the Occupied Territories, we
have achieved important and
sometimes extraordinary reversals
of the ongoing Israeli annexation
of land.
Inthispastyear,RHRhashad
My favorite RHR moment this
year was early one morning in
the South Hebron Hills, just after
sunrise. We brought a group out
to dig a reservoir for a Palestinian
farmer. Earlier, RHR had helped
him confirm ownership of his land
in the courts. The spot where we
were working is surrounded by
Israeli settlements on the nearby
hilltops. As I was getting ready to
pray Shacharit beside a nearby
well, a Palestinian shepherd
arrived to water his flock. There I
stood, kippah on my head, tzitzit
swaying with my movements. I
could have been anyone from
the nearby settlements. He eyed
me nervously. When he opened
the well to discover that the rope
had been cut and there was no
bucket to draw water, he turned to
leave. “Wait,” I said in a mixture
of Hebrew and broken Arabic,
“we’ve got a rope and bucket.” I
ran back to our worksite, got what
we needed, and ran back to him.
Then together we drew water and
poured it out for the sheep. We
talked about his home, how long
his family had been living in the
area and relations with the nearby
settlements. Just that simple act, of
being openly Jewish and helping
a Palestinian who didn’t know
me from Adam to water his flock,
helping him to be economically
viable in his own homeland, felt
like the essence of our work to
me.
Somanyofmycherishedmoments
involve being openly Jewish in a
context where the association
with Jews is fearful, hateful, or
both. Sitting in a room of about
forty Arab men visiting their father
and relative who had been beaten
up by Jews… Going to assess the
damage to a Palestinian farmer’s
trees after nearly a hundred and
fifty had been cut down. So many
instances of this…
Taking a group of Israeli and
Palestinian religious leaders on
an expedition into the wilderness
to break down barriers and build
mutual understanding. Getting
caught in the rain, finding shelter,
andendingupwearingoneanother’s
clothes.Then, after sunset, davening
Aravit in a tiny room surrounded by
Palestinians, followed by bearing
intimate witness to their own
evening prayers.
Countless visits to the Jahalin
Bedouin, countless cups of tea
and coffee, even though I don’t
drink coffee. Having a heart-to-
heart talk with a Palestinian pastor
about the possibility for peace and
co-existence, discovering how
much we see things the same, and
how much we feel differently. One
of the most difficult and rewarding
conversations I’ve had this year.
Yonatan’s position with RHR is one
of four in various RHR departments
made possible by a generous grant
from the Asia Tan Foundation to
introduce rabbinic students and
young rabbis to the possibility of
human rights work as a part of
their rabbinical functions.
Some memories from RHR’s work this year by Yonatan Shefa
Rabbinical Student Assistant in the Department of Human Rights in the Occupied Territories
RHR’s OT legal department, led by Adv. Quamar Mishirqi-Assad, comprises four full-time attorneys, two field
workers and a legal advisor. The primary focus of our work is preventing or reversing the takeover of Palestinian
lands and ensuring that Palestinian farmers can safely access those lands, Currently, two dormant or simmering
issues are coming to a head and the coming year will largely determine whether the cave dwellers of the South
Hebron Hills hold on to their lands.The first is a renewed attempt to expel the residents of eight Palestinian villages
to create “Live Firing Zone 918,“ and the renewed attempt to wipe Susya off the map. Stemming from our long-
standing goal to end administrative home demolitions, we have a twice postponed High Court appeal to return
planning for Palestinian communities in Area C to Palestinian hands. Much of RHR’s work centers on the South
Hebron Hills and Shilo Valley, and we have had several important successes this year returning land, winning
compensation, and renewing long-denied access. Our growth plan is to find the resources allowing us to build
on our experience and apply it throughout the Occupied Territories. In the past year we have begun to expand,
particularly into the Bethlehem region. We work closely with Kerem Navot, which employs aerial photographs
to understand the history of land takeovers. In the South Hebron Hills we enjoy a strategic partnership with
Ta’ayush, whose activists accompany Palestinians accessing their lands, and with Breaking the Silence, which
engages in advocacy, media work and alternative tourism. We work also with additional Israeli, Palestinian and
international organizations, including Comet, JLAC, Bimkom and B’Tselem.

Just that simple act,
of being openly
Jewish and helping
a Palestinian who
didn’t know me from
Adam to water his
flock, helping him
to be economically
viable in his own
homeland, felt like
the essence of our
work to me.
12RHR 2013 13 RHR 2013

15 RHR 2013
several major achievements.
The most notable include:
Returning the residents of Bir El
‘Id to additional caves. Even after
RHR returned the residents of Bir
El ‘Id in 2009 to their village, from
which they had been expelled
for almost ten years because of
army backed settler intimidation,
the army has continued to issue
demolition orders on everything
they attempt to build, and say that
even some of the original caves
remained off limits. RHR therefore
celebrated as we returned villagers
to five additional caves, a water
cistern and two animal pens RHR
argued that these lands were part
and parcel of the lands we had
already agreed on in 2009.
Palestinians resumed farming
in areas where they had long
been denied access due to army-
backed settler intimidation in the
Shilo Valley. This success means
that for now the unauthorized
hilltop outposts of Esh Kodesh and
Akhia will again be surrounded
by Palestinian worked fields. RHR
submitted a High Court appeal on
behalf of a land owner in Jalud
to return 256 dunams of land
surrounding Esh Kodesh. Not only
had settlers enforced an expanding
“forbidden zone” year after year,
but in 2011 they actually planted
a vineyard on some of these
lands. Most of the human rights
violations RHR deals with in the
Occupied Territories take place
in Area C (the areas still under
full Israeli control, accounting for
some 60 percent of the total area
of the West Bank). Incredibly the
settlers even blocked access to
lands in Area B (under Palestinian
civil control, but Israeli military
control). Under pressure from
the pending appeal the Legal
Advisor closed the area to Israelis
and ordered that the Palestinian
land owner could access his land
in coordination with the Israeli
army. RHR again
had to pressure the army when
its procrastination almost made
Fawzi Ibrahim miss the planting
season for winter wheat and lose
his investment in seeds. On the first
day the reluctant security forces
were not adequately prepared
to deal with settler opposition,
and ordered the Palestinians out
of the fields. On the second day,
despite primarily female settlers
with babies doing everything they
could to block the tractors, Fawzi
finally plowed most of his land
and sowed his wheat. He has not
yet been allowed into the vineyard
because of a settler appeal, and on
the day he plowed, he discovered
an additional vineyard. An in-
depth Channel 2Television expose
broke the story to the Israeli public,
including the connection with
the ongoing attacks on Kusra (see
above in the OT Field Department
report).
Settlers are increasingly filing
appeals against decisions by
the OT Legal Advisor in order to
delay justice; and accordingly
the failure of such an appeal this
year is particularly significant. In
2006 RHR took on the case of
five families (300 people) who
had been forced off their own
land after their livestock had been
poisoned and after they could
no longer endure the harassment
and physical threats posed by the
radical settler Yaakov Talia, who
set up the unauthorized outpost
he named “Lucifer’s Farm.” In
early 2012 the army closed the
area and announced that the
Palestinian families could return
to working their lands. Talia
appealed the High Court decision
but this year requested to cancel
his claim because he understood
that the law was not on his side.
However, he reserved the right to
appeal again, pointing out that if
the State adopts the Edmund Levi
Committee recommendations, the
law will be on his side. Former
High Court justice Edmund Levi
was appointed by Prime Minister
Netanyahu to head a commission
searching to legalize the building
of settlements on land which the
Israeli government recognizes as
privately-owned Palestinian land.
Noting the fact that there were no
Palestinians on this commission
and wondering whether the
effect on Palestinians was at all a
consideration in the deliberations,
RHR submitted a position paper
documenting village by village the
many ways, beyond the obvious
theft of land, in which the existence
of outposts leads to human rights
violations in the villages where
we work. We also submitted an
extensive section based on Jewish
sources dealing with the image of
God, double standards, property
rights of non-Jews in the Land of
Israel, and the inevitable injustice
created when a group holding
power appropriates for itself the
“burden“ of determining how to
be just towards the powerless and
voiceless.
Last year, we reported that we
had managed to temporarily
freeze the demolition of solar
power installations at Imneizel
village in the South Hebron Hills
following our legal work and
immense international pressure.
Recently, the Israeli authorities
requested that we withdraw our
legal appeal as they decided that
the demolitions were not going to
take place at all.
In response to an RHR petition
demanding that the Israeli army
protect Palestinian property
and possessions, the army was
ordered to pay compensation to
elderly Palestinian land owners
directly underneath the Bat
Ayin settlement, who suffer
repeated attacks and damage to
their 60 year old olive trees in
“Price Tag” attacks. However,
the army made it clear
that the compensation
was not an admission of
responsibility, and refused to take
any additional steps to protect
the farmers and their trees. With
all of the positive improvements
in safe agricultural access after
RHR’s 2006 High Court victory,
this is but one of example of
how authorities have not fulfilled
additional stipulations of the
decision ordering security forces
to protect Palestinian farmers
and to bring people to justice.
RHR therefore took this case to
the Israeli High Court, which in
February 2013 gave the security
forces 60 days to explain why they
were not doing more to protect the
landowners.
The Assad family from the village
of El-Khader (between Alon Shvut
and Elazar), has been plagued by
constant settler harassment and
land encroachment. The extremist
settler organization Women in
Green repeatedly has trespassed
on these lands where they have
planted saplings, olive trees and
even erected several benches with
plaques in honor of the donors.
The Civil Administration in Beit
El heeded our request that the
area be closed to Israelis in order
to prevent further incursions into
the lands and ordered the army to
remove the trees planted.
Since the Second Intifada, the
Hajaja-Jabarin family, whose
lands are adjacent to Tekoa, has
been subjected to constant land
closures by the army, attacks by
neighboring settlers on both person
and property, and attempts to
appropriate land by planting trees.
RHR submitted several requests to
the Civil Administration that it take
action against the settlers and the
army. With our intervention, the
family now is able to access lands
that had been inaccessible for
more than a decade.
RHR is appealing the decision to
allow the family to access their
lands only by prior coordination
with the Civil Administration and
is demanding free access to these
lands.

With our intervention, the family now is able
to access lands that had been inaccessible for
more than a decade.

14RHR 2013

Firing Zone 918
For over a decade, the 1,800 residents of 12 Palestinian villages in the area of Masafer-Yatta in the
South Hebron Hills have lived under the threat of demolition, evacuation and dispossession. In 1999,
the Israel security forces declared the area a firing zone and expelled 700 men, women and children.
An interim injunction issued by the Israeli High Court enabled them to return to their homes in March
2000. The State postponed the case time after time, until the new president of the High Court, Justice
Asher Grunis, urged the State to either drop the case or pursue it. The Ministry of Defense intensified
military exercises in the area and declared that it still wanted to expel the residents of eight villages.
They also demanded stringent limitations on development for the remaining four villages. RHR is
not legally representing the threatened villages against the expulsions themselves, but is part of
a broad coalition seeking to organize Israeli public and international opposition to the planned
expulsions. Our legal department is demanding planning for two of the threatened cave communities,
Sfai’i and Majaz, as part of our opposition to planned demolitions of British development projects in
these villages. The victory of March 2000 has become an albatross around the necks of the residents
because of the aforementioned draconian interpretation of the status quo mandated in the interim
injunction that makes development even more impossible than in the rest of the Occupied Territories.
It is therefore not sufficient to merely prevent expulsion.
Zoning in Area C
Susya and Firing Zone 918 are but two of the many examples of how discriminatory planning by
army committees without Palestinian representation lead to home demolitions and the inability of
Palestinian communities in Area C to develop. RHR’s High Court petition demanding that planning
in Area C be returned to Palestinian hands was twice postponed in 2012, and is now scheduled to
be heard on October 3rd, 2013. When requesting the latest postponement in November, the State
claimed that the army’s Civil Administration was working hard to make changes to the planning system
and needed more time.
16RHR 2013
Quamar Misirqi-Asad, who directs RHR’s OT Legal Department, says that she needs to go the extra
mile on behalf of Abu-Jabar Sleibi because she looks in his eyes and sees her own grandfather. We in
RHR often speak of the need to see God’s image in every human being, and the truth is that Quamar
and the rest of our staff go the extra mile for everybody whom we seek to defend. However, it
would be a great start if we could all look in the eyes of human rights victims, or potential victims,
and see our own grandparents, parents, siblings, partners and children.
Pending Cases
Defending Palestinian village of Susya against Demolition
In October 2011, the army commander in the South Hebron Hills declared sections of land in the area
of Susya “closed to Israelis” in response to an appeal submitted by Palestinian families requesting that
they be able to reach their lands where Israeli settlers have been taking over land. This was just one of a
string of successes returning lands to their rightful owners. We know that the settlers in the region held
emergency meetings regarding our successes. The lands closed in 2011 represented approximately 20
percent of the lands covered in a petition we submitted on army procrastination on many additional
cases of settler land takeovers, denial of access, and lack of protection for Palestinians. Altogether, the
petition deals with some 2,500 dunams of land. We believe that this is the reason the extreme right-wing
Israeli NGO Regavim and the adjacent settlement, also called Susya, submitted a High Court Appeal in
February 2012 challenging the “slow“ pace of demolitions in the area and requesting that Palestinian
Susya be demolished. In June 2012, probably due to pressure from Regavim, demolition notices were
distributed, with 70 structures or 80 percent of the homes in the village targeted for demolition. The
remaining 20 percent of structures already had demolition orders on them. The entire village therefore is
under threat of demolition, and the future of the residents, comprising 120 people (including 25 women
and 70 children), is unclear. In February 2013, the Court heard together both the Regavim petition and
RHR’s petition. The Court accepted the State’s position that it could not demolish the homes before
processing an alternative building plan submitted by RHR, and gave us an additional 90 days to submit
an additional plan for some homes in the adjacent village of Wadi Khesheish, not included in the original
plan because a second organization is representing them. The Court did not accept the State’s excuses for
its procrastination on the cases listed in our petition and requested a progress report within 90 days.
This appeal has finally given us the opportunity to go head-to-head with Regavim, who have submitted
many similar appeals in the past, using misleading statistics to claim reverse discrimination against settlers.
While they lose almost every time, they actually win. The Court has always accepted the State’s position
that its actions are proper since it is executing demolition orders at its own pace. RHR’s goal is not only
to prevent the demolition of Susya and restore Palestinian access, but also to challenge the legitimacy of
demolitions when discriminatory planning makes it almost impossible for Palestinians to build legally.
The case of Susya is particularly poignant because the residents were reduced to living in caves in their
fields after being expelled from their nearby village. The village was declared an archeological site after
the discovery of an ancient synagogue. In 2001, the army expelled the Palestinians from their caves and
destroyed most of them. Israel’s High Court returned them, but the inability to get building permits meant
that anything they built to replace the demolished caves was illegal.
THE GRANDPARENT TEST
17 RHR 2013

RHR’sRightsCenterprovidesJewish
and Arab residents of the Hadera
and Wadi Ara region with advice
and legal help regarding their
socioeconomic rights. In 2012, the
Center served about 200 people,
many of whom had first turned to
RHR because of the subsequently
defeated Wisconsin Plan. In
addition, RHR began going door-
to-door in selected neighborhoods
in Hadera, informing people about
the Rights Center. As a result
of this proactive approach, the
Rights Center received numerous
additional requests for help. We
deal with an average of 24 new
cases per month. During 2012,
Rabbi Sigal Asher joined us at the
Rights Center, as one of the four
young rabbis/rabbinical students
added to on our staff through
a special grant, replacing Nico
Socolovsky, who left to complete
his rabbinical training in the US.
The major focus of the center
is to assist the unemployed and
underemployed with issues
relating to rights available from
the National Insurance Institute.
This includes ensuring access
to unemployment benefits and
ensuring that employees have
access to benefits such as paid
leave, sick days, and assisting low-
wage earners to pull themselves
out of the cycle of poverty.
While helping the unemployed
and underemployed in Hadera
and Wadi Ara to secure their
social and economic rights, RHR
will also identify issues requiring
policy change on the national
level. Helping to improve people’s
lives locally is an essential part of
our strategy to change the face of
Israel nationally.
Currently, RHR is launching a
campaign based on a common
denominator uniting many of the
cases we are dealing with both in
Hadera and elsewhere. Statistics
indicate that at least one family
member is working in 52.9 percent
of families living below the poverty
line. Behind the statistics are real
human tragedies caused by the
combined effect of inadequate
wages, an unresponsive system,
and the growing holes in Israel’s
social security net during our
transition from a welfare state to a
neo-liberal economy.
RHR’s Rights Center found itself in
the spotlight following the tragic
suicide of the late Moshe Silman,
who sought help from our Rights
Center after meeting Rabbi Idit
Lev at the social justice protests
in Haifa (see below for Rabbi Idit
Lev’s moving eulogy for Moshe
Silman). Moshe’s story was a
particularly tragic example of a
much broader reality. With Rabbi
Lev being quoted and interviewed
in the Israeli media after Moshe’s
death, we found ourselves
inundated with calls from people
in similar situations to that of
Moshe Silman.
Composed of 20 Arab and Jewish women from
Hadera and Wadi Ara, the majority of whom are
single mothers, the group is currently addressing the
socioeconomic rights of single parents. This year,
they began working on extending annual subsidy
given at the beginning of each school year to single
parents to include high-school children. RHR hopes
to create additional empowerment groups focused
on other issues in other parts of the country where
we already have a presence.
Dorit explains the influence of RHR’s empowerment
group: "To be able to express yourself is important;
suddenly I see that I can speak without fear and
without hesitating out of worry that I am saying
something wrong.”
Kulthum, an Arab woman fighting for the right of
her daughter Ismi’ye to ride the district school bus
said, "Suddenly, I said that I wanted to be strong
like Ayesha [RHR social economic justice facilitator
and field worker] and to request the right for my
daughter [to bus transportation] in a loud, clear
and confident voice, and to make it clear that I am
requesting a right, not charity".
Rights Center
Jewish-Arab Women’s Empowerment Group
Socioeconomic
Justice Department
Inga, a woman whom we are helping to get disability
benefit, said after the last time her application was
rejected: “In another few months we will reapply. You
will help me, right? If you help me, I won’t give up.”
We promised that we will continue to help her.
When Aaron, a 24 year-old student, entered RHR’s
Rights Center for the first time he was scared, as he
didn’t know how he could cope with a debt of 2,000
shekels that he claimed he didn’t owe. After less than
a week, the debt was reduced to only 181 shekels,
and Aaron (who looked much better) said to us: “I also
don’t owe this. I don’t intend to pay them. I am going to
argue with them!” The change from a person who was
broken when he came to our office a few days earlier to
a person who could stand on his own was amazing.
The past year was a significant one for RHR’s
Socioeconomic Justice Department. The tent protest
movement which began in the summer of 2011
captured the headlines in Israel and thrust social justice
issues into the national spotlight. As a result of the
momentum of the protest movement, our economic
and social justice work was reenergized.
RHR’s Socioeconomic Justice Department, led by Rabbi Idit Lev, administers our Rights Center in Hadera,
which helps around 200 unemployed and under-employed Israelis from Hadera and Wadi Ara to demand their
socioeconomic rights. RHR also operates an empowerment group of Jewish and Arab women from Hadera
and Wadi Ara, who have begun to work on promoting better conditions for single parents, the majority of
whom are women. Rabbi Idit Lev also represents RHR in several coalitions concerning poverty, the state
budget, and the groups that were formed following the social justice protests during the summer of 2011. We
are beginning to focus on a common denominator linking many of the people we work with: the inability of
working people to support their families.
18RHR 2013 19 RHR 2013

Under the direction of Rabbi Arik Ascherman, RHR has developed a number of special projects. These
projects include our work with public housing tenants to ameliorate public housing; to support the African
asylum seekers; and to advocate for the struggle of the unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Negev.
Special Projects
Public Housing
The initiatives described in last
year’s report have blossomed into
a major program area for RHR.
While affordable housing was
one of the main rallying cries of
the 2011 protest movement, most
of the demands have since been
“buried” in committees. The need
is great. Over 40,000 Israelis are
on the official waiting list for public
housing, many waiting for six years
or more. However, the list does not
reflecttheactualneed.Inappropriate
criteria leave many like the late
Moshe Silman ineligible for support.
Many of those in need repeatedly
rent apartments they cannot afford
until they are evicted, while others
sleep in cars, on friends’ sofas or on
park benches. The trauma suffered
by children is particularly tragic.
Nothing is done to replenish the
public housing stock, let alone to
increaseit.Manyexistingapartments
are in need of serious repair and
some suffer from potentially life-
threatening problems. Thousands of
other government owned buildings
are left empty. Money intended
for public housing is diverted to
other uses, while those in need
face an often obtuse and insensitive
bureaucracy.
Last year we described how we
first encountered this issue in Beit
Shean and began to develop our
policy recommendations together
with public housing residents
in the city. At the time, the local
branch of Amidar, one of Israel’s
semi-governmental public housing
companies, seemed utterly
unresponsive and sometimes even
hostile. With the guidance of Rabbi
Arik Ascherman, Rabbi Kobi Weiss
has reversed this situation. Realizing
that the root of the problems in
Beit Shean is the difficulty
that individuals face when
standing alone against a
powerful bureaucracy, Rabbi Weiss
opened lines of communication
with Amidar. Students from RHR’s
Jezreel Valley College Human
Rights Yeshiva, and area volunteers,
including some who live in public
housing, he has helped resolve
debts, avoid eviction, obtain repairs,
find appropriate apartments, etc.
This past June, JezreelValley College
chose the work of human services
student Rivka Yones with RHR’s
public housing advocacy program
in Beit Shean as one of the two
outstanding projects of the year, out
of 130 competing projects. Since
September of 2011, we have helped
85 tenants, successfully resolving 25
cases and assisting in the resolution
of an additional 20 cases. We are
continuing to work on most of the
opencases.Ourchallengeisthatmost
of the tenants with open cases have
problems related to policies decided
at the regional or national level;
we are drawing on the issues these
cases raise as we move forward with
efforts to change national policy (see
below). It is not our goal to remain in
Beit Shean indefinitely: this year we
are focusing on empowering tenants
and local volunteers to support each
other and to resolve problems on
their own.
While in Beit Shean we work mainly
with public housing tenants, RHR
worksinJerusalemwiththosewhoare
not even deemed eligible for public
housing due to unrealistic criteria.
The protest encampment initially
sponsored and sustained by RHR
in 2011 has become a collective of
activists and those in need of public
housing called “the Ma’abarah”
(echoing the name given to transit
camps for new immigrants to Israel
in the 1950’s). Long after the middle
class protestors folded up their tents
in the fall of 2011, the Ma’abarah
was one of a handful of low income
groups that continued the struggle.
With many members literally having
nowhere to live, the collective
broke into abandoned buildings (an
activity not sanctioned by RHR), set
up new encampment sites or lived
in donated office space, until the
Municipality eventually provided
supplementary funds allowing those
in need to rent. However, these
funds have now run out, and some
members of the Ma’abarah are again
in danger of eviction.
The Ma’abarah has been one of
the groups continuing with high
profile protests highlighting the
unresponsiveness of municipal
and national officials. For example,
during the Sukkot holiday the
Ma’abarah built a “Sukkah on
Wheels” representing needed
homes, and paraded from Jerusalem
Mayor Nir Barkat’s public Sukkah
to the home of Prime Minister
Netanyahutoalargepublicgathering
of Kurdish Jewry in Sacher Park.
These protests elicited a defensive
reaction from outgoing Housing
Minister Ariel Atias. While he didn’t
change the problematic way his
Ministry operated, Atias made some
proposals to replenish the supply
of public housing. The proposals
constituted an insufficient step in
the right direction, but they were
not adopted by the government. In
some cases demonstrations were
met with police brutality and arrests.
The Ma’abarah has waged several
campaigns on behalf of individuals
faced with eviction, most notably
waging a successful campaign
against Amidar to prevent the
eviction of Ovadia and Miriam Ben
Avraham. In a very powerful Tisha
B’Av Mincha service and program,
RHR and the Ma’abarah drew links
between the loss of our national
home mourned on Tisha B’Av and
the housing insecurity facing many
Israelis.We also built on the theme of
emerging hope which characterizes
the Tisha B’Av Mincha.
In May 2012, the Ma’abarah entered
a former kindergarten abandoned
for three years in the low income
Katamonim neighborhood, where
the need for public housing
is particularly acute. It
turned out that this property
Portrait of one of our young rabbis/rabbinical students:
Nico Sokolovsky
For the past two years, Nico Sokolovsky managed our Rights Center in Hadera. In June 2012 he left in order
to complete his rabbinical studies in the US. Nico offers the following thoughts on the center and on his
experience in the field:
“The center in Hadera is our opportunity to be present in the place where we are needed – it is no coincidence
that Makom [place, in Hebrew] is one of the names of God. The center is an expression of our support for
a population that does not get a hearing owing to its position and location… Indeed in this place we get an
opportunity to be present! “Being present,” after two years in this position, is in my understanding a mitzvah of
the highest importance – maybe it should be included in the Ten Commandments. “I am the Lord your God” is
interpreted by the Rambam as a command to know God; I interpret it as an invitation to be present.
My job gave me the chance to visit and to accompany the sick; to care for the poor, the widow, the orphan,
the weak, and those beaten by the system; and to try to improve on the experiment of realizing the dream of
a Jewish state; to feel that I am engaged in the Jewish-Zionist enterprise; to raise my voice and shout against
the loss of direction that our country suffers from…To leave (if only for a minute) the small closed reality that I
live in and to meet the “other” (in terms of economic status, social grouping, religion, etc.) and – through this
meeting with him or her – to widen my knowledge of my God. As a result of my work for this organization,
my understanding of justice has deepened. Thank you!”
 
20RHR 2013 21 RHR 2013

22RHR 2013
Moshe, we met last year at the tent
encampment, where we took part in
many late-night discussions. Only after
we had dismantled our tents did I learn
that you needed help in exercising your
rights. At a meeting about the future of
the social protest movement, you told
me, in between cigarettes, that you
were not hopeful about your future.
You added that you would not live on
the street. I do not recall my answer
at that moment, but I remember that
I was optimistic, as I am with every
person who enters through the door of
our Rights Center, with the hope that
this time we will win. I knew that we
had ten months to prevent you from
being thrown out on the street. We
immediately set to work.
As the months passed and doors were
slammed in our faces, your despair
grew. In May, RHR’s Rights Center, with
assistance from other friends in Haifa,
succeeded in reinstating your disability
benefit, but not in obtaining any rental
assistance. Neither letters nor lawyers
nor the appeal of Knesset member Orly
Levy-Abekasis helped. We tried every
approach, and in the last weeks of your
life, we tried to change your fate, but
were unable to.At the beginning of June,
I told friends at RHR’s Rights Center that
your case was our greatest failure in
realizing rights, as you were deserving
of them, but we could not manage to
make the authorities understand this.
On Friday, Moshe, you said to me:
“I shall make my protest alone,” and
you did, carrying us all away in the
whirlpool.
You presented Israeli society with a
mirror, and an ugly image of poverty in
the State of Israel 2012; a poverty that is
shaming and humiliating; a poverty that
cannot navigate an unbelievable maze
of bureaucracy; a poverty that in even
after receiving state assistance forces a
person to collect handouts in order to
survive.
Every day since we established RHR’s
Rights Center in Hadera, where I
encounter daily stories of people like
you, I am reminded of a sentence from
the Jewish prayer after meals:
“May the Lord, our Father, tend and
nourish us, sustain and maintain us,
and speedily grant us relief from
all our troubles. Make the Lord
make us dependent not on the
was owned by Na’amat,
the women’s organization
affiliated with the Histadrut,
Israel’s largest labor organization.
Rather than evict the Ma’abarah,
Na’amat recognized that we had
commongoalsandbegannegotiating
with the Ma’abarah to allow them to
use the building as a neighborhood
community center and a base for
education and advocacy.
Because the Ma’abarah is not a
legal entity, RHR agreed to sign a
contract on its behalf. However,
around Rosh Hashana, Na’amat
broke off negotiations and initiated
court action to evict the Ma’abarah.
We suspect that Mayor Barkat and
others applied financial pressure on
Na’amat. Just as we were waiting
for a court ruling, Na’amat agreed
to mediation. Noting their deep
awareness of campaigns such
as RHR’s request that overseas
supporters contact their local
Na’amat affiliates, Na’amat agreed
to rent the premises to the Ma’abarah
through the end of 2013, giving
us an important base to galvanize
support for public housing policy
change. We ask all those who
contacted Na’amat on this issue to
thank the organization for resisting
financial extortion and staying true
to its own values.
With the help of Attorney Becky
Cohen-Keshet, RHR has successfully
defended several other families
facing eviction around the country.
In the case of Rachel Levy from
Yavneh, who was evicted from
her apartment, we are working to
reestablish her and her daughter’s
right to public housing.
RHR’s initiated the Public Housing
Forum to translate the lessons
learned at the grass roots level into
policy change. The forum unites
veteran policy groups and grass roots
organizations. As part of the Public
Housing Forum, together with the
organizationsCommunityAdvocacy,
the Eastern Democratic Rainbow,
Shatil,Tarabut, the Periphery Forum,
and the Social Welfare Department
of the Jerusalem Municipality, RHR
developed a position paper focusing
on such issues as: Investment in
public housing; Revising criteria to
ensure that all those who are in need
are deemed eligible; Transparency;
Changing the often demeaning
treatment of tenants by public
housing officials; A total freeze on
evictions.
As reported last year, the Forum
created a broad-based Knesset
Public Housing Caucus to
translate the passion of the protest
movement into concrete public
housing gains. In 2012, the
caucus hosted a public hearing in
the Knesset and a Public Housing
Day, including another Knesset
hearing and discussions in several
Knesset committees. The Forum
has prepared proposed legislation
to address each of our policy
demands, and will be introducing
this into the Knesset in 2013.

A Eulogy for Moshe Silman z”l
by Rabbi Idit Lev

The shocking and tragic self-
immolation of the late Moshe Silman
(see Rabbi Idit Lev’s moving eulogy
below) during a demonstration in
June 2012 powerfully highlighted
the closed doors many Israelis face
in dealing with the public housing
bureaucracy. Moshe Silman’s state
of desperation was expressed in a
note he left blaming the government
and welfare authorities for bringing
him to the brink of homelessness.
While Silman’s act reflected a
personal state of severe depression,
it also served as a warning call
regarding the human toll resulting
from Israel’s move from a social
welfare system to a neo-liberal
philosophy. It was also a sobering
reminder of our own limitations.
For almost a year, several RHR staff
members dealt with this case.
Rabbi Idit Lev accompanied him
on a daily basis, while Rabbi Arik
Ascherman also helped when Rabbi
Idit Lev was not available. Attorney
Becky Cohen-Keshet dealt with the
legal aspects of his situation. In
cooperation with RHR, MK Orly
Levy-Abekasis, chairperson of the
Knesset Lobby for Public Housing,
also tried to negotiate with the
Ministry of Housing on Moshe’s
behalf, but all was in vain. The
Amidar official made it clear to
Moshe that he was not entitled to
rental assistance because he did
not meet the strict criteria. Moshe
appealed again and again, and
refused to accept the decision that a
man in his condition was not entitled
to the state assistance he required in
order to live with dignity. In June,
the Housing Ministry rejected his
appeal. With a little more time, we
believe that we had a decent chance
to at least obtain a rent subsidy.
Sadly, in his depressed state, Moshe
had lost all hope.
23 RHR 2013

handouts or loans of others, but
rather on God’s full, open and
generous hand, so that we may
never be humiliated or put to shame.”
Howwiseourrabbisoncewere,because
now, in the State of Israel, matnat basar
vedam (receiving help) involves shame
and humiliation.
TodayinIsraelmorethan20,000families
and individuals live in Kafkaesque
situations similar to that of Moshe
Silman, a step away from living on the
street, hungry, with not enough money
to go to the doctor or to buy medicines,
unable to cover expenses of the
deteriorating educational system, and
without any right to receive sufficient
assistance from the State.
Moshe, the mirror you set before us
says “Enough!” You told us it was time
to demand from the State to solve this
national crisis. Contrary to what the
Prime Minister of Israel said, this is
not a personal tragedy – it is a national
tragedy.
The time has come for the citizens of
the State of Israel to have suitable public
housing, a good public healthcare
system, an excellent public education
system, and a welfare system which
helps those who need assistance.
Rabbi Heschel said: “In a democratic
society, some are guilty, all are
responsible.” We, as longtime social
activists and the multitudes who have
joined the social protest movement
in the last year, have assumed our
democratic responsibility of changing
the State in which we live, of turning
it into a place where the Rambam’s
highest level of justice prevails:
“You shall thou uphold him: he live
with you as a resident alien” (Leviticus,
25:35). That is, strengthen him so that
he does not fall and be in need.
The government of Israel does not take
responsibility for its actions, and it is at
fault that Moshe died in vain.
To the ministers in the Israeli
government– you are happy to be
given the honor of being a minister,
but you flagrantly ignore the grave
responsibility that comes with the post,
the responsibility for all the citizens of
the State of Israel. We will not let you
forget your role, and we will not let you
continue to conduct a greedy economic
policy on our backs. You are guilty of
Moshe’s death. You are responsible for
the plight of the homeless and those
sleeping on sofas in Israel, for the hungry
and the sick and those struggling with
poverty.
We demand that you listen to the words
of the Supreme Court: “Personal dignity
includes… Guaranteeing the minimum
required for human sustenance…A
man living on the street who has no
home, is a man whose dignity has been
compromised; a man who is hungry
is a man whose dignity has been
compromised; a man who has no access
to basic medical care is a man whose
dignity has been compromised; a man
forced to live in humiliating material
conditions is a man whose dignity has
been compromised.”
We demand that Moshe be the last
victim. We demand that you will never
again compromise anybody’s dignity,
and that you will never endanger
anyone’s the life.
I pray that Moshe will be the last
victim.
In these days, bayn hametzarim (the
3 weeks between the fast day of 17
Tammuz, marking the breach of the
walls of Jerusalem, and Tisha’ B’Av, the
fast day commemorating the destruction
of the Second Temple) are difficult days,
I ask all those who are in terrible need,
please look after your souls and bodies.
“Guard your souls well”
(Deuteronomy, 4:15).
Israel’s Unrecognized Bedouin Villages of the Negev
As we write this report, Israel has
intensified its efforts to eliminate
the “unrecognized” Bedouin
villages in the Negev, which either
existed before Israel was founded
or were created in locations to
which the Israeli army itself moved
Bedouin in the early years of the
State. Being unrecognized, they
receive no services, their homes are
automatically “illegal” and subject
to demolition, and their crops are
sprayed and killed. RHR and our
coalition partners are working to
prevent the forceful transfer of some
40,000 additional Bedouin into
artificially created cities, and the
theft of their land.
Throughout 2012, RHR continued
to take action to publicize the
plight of El-Arakib, which has been
demolished over 40 times since the
first and most traumatic demolition
in July 2010. Rabbi Ascherman has
been the driving force in RHR behind
the support of this community. RHR,
along with RHR-NA (now T’ruah)
and the Jewish Alliance for Change,
successfully pressured the JNF-KKL
to agree to freeze the planting of
forests closing in and threatening to
erase the memory of El-Arakib. They
have agreed to do so on four plots
until the court rules on competing
state and Bedouin land ownership
claims. We asked the JNF to focus
on their admirable work in the
fields of forestry and ecology, and
to leave behind that part of their
history which has been complicit in
unjustly creating facts on the ground
and discriminating against Israel’s
Arab citizens. In December, the
High Court ordered that the District
Court hear these claims, despite
state contentions that all Bedouin
proof of ownership is irrelevant
because the state expropriated the
lands in 1953. RHR is now urging
the JNF to freeze the forestation on
all of the El-Arakib lands, which will
be discussed before the Court, and
not just the four plots.
El-Arakib is but one poignant
reminder of the forced evictions
that some 30,000-45,000 Bedouin
in the Negev may face. Ignoring
the government-sponsored
recommendation of the Goldberg
Committee to legalize most of
the “unrecognized” villages, the
government sought to implement the
Prawer recommendations, calling
for additional mass expulsions and
forced relocation into seven artificial
cities, which have become magnets
for crime, poverty, drugs and despair
and threaten the Bedouin way of
life. In January 2013, the outgoing
government adopted Minister Benny
Begin’s report, which combined the
understanding language of Goldberg
with the cruel recommendations
of Prawer. Because right-wing
extremists have expressed that
the planned expulsions and land
theft don’t go far enough, Begin
apparently felt that this is the best
deal the Bedouin could get.
RHR now faces the very difficult
task of ensuring justice for the
Bedouin in light of the Begin report.
As a part of the Coexistence Forum,
and along with the Negev Bedouin
leadership, RHR will continue with
a public campaign and lobbying
strategy to prevent the passage of
legislation implementing the Begin
report. The JNF-KKL also shares
some of the responsibility for the
Prawer/Begin plan. The CEO of
JNF-USA proudly proclaimed in a
meeting with Rabbi Ascherman that
he lobbied the Knesset to adopt the
Negev Development Plan, which
the Prawer/Begin plan serves. The
JNF-KKL will be asked to create a
green belt on much of the land.


24RHR 2013 25 RHR 2013

Education Department
HR’s Education Department, directed by Rabbi Nava Hefetz, teaches
the connection between Judaism and human rights to young people
in 13 pre-military academies. We engage university students at our
Human RightsYeshiva at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and have
opened a new yeshiva at Jezreel Valley College. In addition to study,
the yeshiva students also participate in a human rights project with
RHR or another human rights organization. RHR works with Jewish
and Bedouin women students at Sapir College, who learn about
each other and about our faith traditions regarding human rights
and the status of women. We give the women tools to be activists
and they conduct shared social change projects. In partnership with
the San Francisco Jewish Learning Initiative (formerly the Bureau
of Jewish Education) we have produced an English version of RHR’s
Tractate Independence, and developed a middle school curriculum
for American Jews.
“We’re ending the year not only more aware of our
rights, but also more involved in the whole issue of
the rights of everyone in Israel. You’ve shown us the
meaning of tolerance and pluralism, the importance
of looking deeper into things, conveying criticism and
reinterpretation of things on the spot instead of taking
what’s written as the only correct interpretation.”
Nachshon Junior College, Metzudat Yoav
Rabbi Kobi Weiss
Kobi comes from an ultra-Orthodox background, and was ordained within that world. He later
left religion entirely, but did not find himself in the secular hi-tech world. Judaism was in his
soul, and he began to teach in pre-army academies and to lead worship services for secular
Israelis. Although he would put on a kippah and serve as an army rabbi when called up for
reserve duty, he still had difficulty calling himself a rabbi.
Working with RHR has reconnected Kobi with the purpose of Judaism. He says that it has
helped him define what it truly means to be a rabbi, “The work has sharpened my philosophy of social justice
from a Jewish perspective – what are goals are. Working for human rights is an integral part of the responsibility
of the Jewish people in our generation, each from his/her own place. This realization doesn’t just impact on my
work for RHR, but everything else I teach, how I teach, how I structure my day…It isn’t about politics and it hasn’t
changed how I vote. It is much deeper than that. It is about what it means to be called ‘rabbi.’… My work in Beit
Shean has crystallized my thoughts about poverty and work. I have been teaching for two years in a program for
discharged soldiers. I teach them that the essence of being a leader is not averting one’s eyes and turning away.”
Kobi’s community work in Beit Shean has led him to understand and to teach that you can’t simply talk about issues
such as poverty via theory and statistics. You need to experience them at the grassroots level. He learned that we
must be careful not to patronize those with whom we work. Our goal must be to help people overcome all of the
forces that lead us not to take action to help ourselves or others.
Kobi writes, “This work challenges me. RHR is a reference group. I am not Reform, Conservative or Orthodox. I
come home and my family doesn’t fully understand that I am not in any particular movement. But I never had a
support group. Now I have people around me whom I can speak with.”
African Asylum Seekers in Israel
RHR has been increasingly active
regardingtheplightofAfricanasylum
seekers fleeing from the killing
fields of Sudan and Eritrea. Sadly,
we are ignoring our own history by
closing our borders. A new law now
theoretically makes it a crime to
help the some 60,000 refugees and
asylumseekersinIsrael,andwehave
one of the lowest rates in the world
for granting refugee status. Current
policy pits disadvantaged veteran
residents of South Tel Aviv against
the asylum seekers. Attacks and
other manifestations of hatred and
anger have become more frequent.
In addition to our longstanding
participation in High Court appeals
seeking to allow them to work,
prevent geographical restrictions
on where they are allowed to live,
etc., we did our best to publicize
the plight of the South Sudanese
who were ultimately deported
in 2012 after losing the group
protection still given to Eritreans
and those from North Sudan. Our
Education Department now brings
Israeli young people to South Tel
Aviv, and during the “Aseret Yamei
Teshuvah” between Rosh Hashanah
and Yom Kippur, RHR co-sponsored
a series of vigils outside the homes
of Interior Minister Yishai, Prime
Minister Netanyahu and Defense
Minister Barak. RHR recently asked
our supporters around the world
to write letters to the Ministry of
Interior because refugees were
being told they either face at least
three years of detention or must
“voluntarily” leave. That policy
has been cancelled, but growing
numbers of asylum seekers are
being incarcerated. We have been
working increasingly closely with
the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society
(HIAS), and hope to: 1. Ensure that
Israel implements fair policies for
granting refugee status and accepts
our fair share. 2. Look for creative
solutions such as getting third
countries to allow Israel to act as
a way station, and ask Jewish and
other communities in host countries
to make this easier by sponsoring
refugee families. We need your
help to make this happen. In
December, at the invitation of HIAS,
Education Director Rabbi Nava
Hefetz addressed a U.N interfaith
conference on the plight of refugees
around the world. Her remarks
can be found on RHR’s website.
Since the conference, Rabbi Hefetz
has been working with Rabbis
Ascherman and Yehudai to help
establish international interfaith
standards on this issue.
26RHR 2013 27 RHR 2013

RHR’s Education Department was particularly busy
this past year. In October 2012, we increased the
number of pre-military academies in which we work
from 11 to 13, and we hope to continue to meet
the growing demand for this program in the coming
years. Some 600 young people, the majority of whom
will become army officers, are exposed to our human
rights teachings in these 13 pre-military academies.
The students all use the same text, “Tractate
Independence” – RHR’s rabbinical interpretation of
the Declaration of Independence of the State of Israel.
We encourage the students to engage with the values
in the Declaration and to compare them to Jewish
worldviews found in the Jewish tradition through the
generations.
The goal of this course is to educate the participants
and to encourage them to ask questions and challenge
their views and prejudices, exploring the concept of
“the other” in Israeli society. We examine the roots of
the approach to “the other” in Jewish sources and using
different philosophical approaches. As future soldiers,
commanders and leaders, it is our hope that when
fulfilling their duties at checkpoints or commanding
groupsofsoldiers,theseyoungpeoplewillbeinfluenced
and deeply affected by the rights of the “other.”
Students in RHR’s Human Rights courses in the
pre-military academies are also exposed to human
rights issues outside the classroom. In the 2011-
2012 academic year, all the academies participated
in a tour of the Separation Barrier in Jerusalem, and
several took pilot tours examining the situation of
African refugees and asylum seekers in South Tel Aviv
and the unrecognized Bedouin villages of the Negev.
In the 2012-2013 academic year, our goal is that each
academy will take four tours: the Separation Barrier,
South Tel Aviv, the unrecognized villages, and the
South Hebron Hills.
Last year, several groups of students joined RHR staff
and members at meetings with Sudanese and Eritrean
refugees in South Tel Aviv, hearing firsthand about
Teaching Human Rights in Israel’s Pre-Military Academies
their experiences in Israel. We also met with a Jewish
resident of the Shapira neighborhood, as well as with
the director of the Levinsky Garden Library.
One student who participated in the tour commented:
“The refugee problem is a humanitarian one; the
situation is in flux and it is difficult to deport them back
to their original countries. They feel like citizens of the
land, joining youth groups such as the Scouts, and they
learn Hebrew.” Upon meeting with Margaret, one of
the social activists from the Shapira neighborhood,
the student wrote that, “The situation is insane.
There is a lack of preschools, a lack of space, a lack
of solutions to the distress of the foreign workers’
children. Educationally, the problem is even more
severe – there are not enough schools, and there is no
capacity to absorb such a large population. There is
no investment in infrastructure, in lighting, and there
is no secular elementary school – parents are forced
to send their children farther away. Margaret lives
on a relatively middle-class street. She contends that
the boundary between the building and the street has
blurred, and the situation is chaotic and untenable.
There are alcohol and drugs everywhere, to the point
of public nuisance. The Shapira neighborhood is a
microcosm of the whole migration issue. The place
feels like a garbage dump.”
We also took each pre-military academy on a tour of
the Separation Barrier in Jerusalem, contrasting Israeli
security concerns with the challenge of upholding the
rights of Palestinians residents of East Jerusalem. The
tour includes meetings with local Palestinian residents
who tell the students first-hand about the challenges
that they face; for many young Israelis, this is their first
time meeting Palestinians. Students from the Ami-Chai
Junior College wrote to Rabbi Nava Hefetz, “We the
students at the Ami-Chai Junior College wish to thank
youforthetouralongtheseparationbarrierinJerusalem.
The junior college students were not familiar with the
reality of the fence. The tour enriched our knowledge
and opinions. The way in which the content was given
over was inspiring. Most people are too closed off to
others’ opinions and speak rudely.You conveyed things
pleasantly and calmly, and in a very positive way.”
In addition to the tours, many of the pre-military
academies engage in human rights projects with
marginalized communities within Israel. By working
within these pre-military academies, Rabbis for
Human Rights is helping the next generation of Israeli
leaders to change the face of Israel.
We have high hopes for these young people, many
of whom were involved in the social protests of the
Summer of 2011 and continue to work for social
change within Israel. We see our former students
involved in many organizations and initiatives, and
sometimes in key positions as Knesset aides, in the
prosecutor’s office, etc. We need many more initiatives
like this, because others who do not share our values
also have been investing in education for many years
quietly and out of the spotlight.
RHR’s Human Rights Yeshivas also continued to flourish this past year. In 2011-12, we ran two Human Rights Batei
Midrash: one at Hebrew University, operating since 2003, and the other at the Open University in Ra’anana. At
the end of the academic year, we decided to close the program in Ra’anana, as the university tends to attract older,
more mature students who are returning to study after being in the workforce, while we seek to reach out to Israel’s
young generation. In October 2012, we again launched the Human Rights Yeshiva at Hebrew University for 20
students, with Debbie Shoua-Haim, one of RHR’s four rabbinical students/young rabbis/prospective next generation
rabbis, appointed as coordinator. Our new program at JezreelValley College in the North, run by Rabbi Kobi Weiss
and Rabbi Tlalit Shavit, attracted 80 applicants for just 20 places! Students who participate in the Human Rights
Yeshivas receive a stipend and are expected to intern in a human rights or social change organization. While Jezreel
Valley College has agreed to pay the stipends for the students, RHR covers this cost at the Hebrew University. In
the coming year, we hope that rabbis around the world will help support our Human Rights Yeshivas, including the
sponsorship of students.
Over the past year, RHR also worked on the English version of our Tractate Independence (RHR’s commentary on
Israel’s Declaration of Independence, teaching democracy and human rights as Jewish values in a Talmudic style).
For the past year, Debbie Shoua-Haim and long-standing board member Rabbi Amy Klein have worked toward
completing this task, focusing on creating a middle school curriculum suitable for Jewish day schools, supplementary
schools and youth groups. Several Bay Area Jewish schools have committed to running pilot programs in the 2013-
2014 academic year, and we would be happy to conduct pilots in additional cities.
Human Rights Yeshivas
28RHR 2013 29 RHR 2013

Interfaith
RHR’s Interfaith work is mainly led by Rabbi Yehiel Grenimann, and we work in a variety of interfaith
capacities. We are part of the “Tag Meir” (light tag) coalition of organizations (see below), and we also
have several interfaith projects involving young religious students and leaders.
I was born and raised in Jerusalem. I’m married to Alon and I live in Jerusalem. Prior
to working at RHR, I was trained as a Jewish studies teacher and taught in various
Jerusalem high schools. I’m finishing my MA in Bible Studies and am planning to
study for the rabbinate over the coming years.
My work at RHR (in the Education Department) has opened up my eyes to see more
and more wrongs in our society and has opened my heart to feel the suffering of others. I learn from
RHR’s more experienced rabbis and employees about justice, morality and fighting for worthy causes.
In my work I truly feel that I have a chance to make a difference in the way that young people, high
school and university students perceive the importance of human rights, their connection to the Jewish
tradition, and the duty we all have to fight for them.
Debbie Shoua-Haim
Tag Meir
RHR organized and participated in several
activities of "Tag Meir" (light tag), a coalition
of organizations that respond to so-called “Tag
Mekhir” (price tag) Jewish terror and violence
against Palestinians, refugees and migrants,
and others in Israel and the West Bank. In June
2012, we participated in a Tag Meir event at
Neve Shalom, at which RHR board member
Rabbi Gil Nativ spoke. In September 2012,
in response to the desecration and attempted
arson of Latrun Monastery, we joined in an
interfaith prayer held at the monastery. Earlier,
at the end of 2011, RHR organized solidarity visits to the villages of Asira al-Qibliya and al-Burka. In
Asira al-Qibliya we visited with a family who had been subjected to many violent attacks by settlers from
the nearby outpost of Yitzhar. In addition to words of support and commitment to peace and justice,
we donated a barbed-wire fence to help protect them from the ongoing violence from their neighbors.
In al-Burka we visited the mosque, which had been subject to arson only a week before. We brought
them new books of the Qur’an, replacing those destroyed in the fire and again both sides spoke of their
commitment to peace and coexistence. It was most heartening to see many young people participating
and the warm reception from our Palestinian hosts.
This year marks the third and final year of the first cohort of RHR’s Citizens for Equality program, engaging Jewish
and Bedouin women students at Sapir College. The three-year program has been demanding and difficult. At the
beginning, the participants had difficulties finding common ground, as they came from vastly different social and
religious backgrounds. Students also faced difficulties in continuing the program, with some revolting against the
traditions of their own societies, and standing by their resolve to participate in the program, and to improve their
own lives and those of their communities. Coordinators Amal El-Sanah and Leah Shakdiel worked hard to create
cohesion amongst the participants.
At the beginning of 2012, Citizens for Equality participants held a study day in Jaffa, touring the city in order to
understand the often opposing Jewish and Arab narratives. We met the rabbi of the Torah-centered settlement group
in Jaffa and with Tel Aviv-Jaffa City Councilor Sami Abu Shehadeh. We also toured South Tel Aviv in order to learn
more about the plight of the African refugees and their Jewish neighbors.
In this third and final year, the students are embarking on small, community-based projects devoted to human
rights and social change. The aim of these projects is to encourage leadership skills and create social change in
communities in the Negev area. Projects planned include building a park in the presently neglected area of Tel
Sheva; using music as a tool for communication between different ethnic and religious groups; and running an
advisory center for women who lack the knowledge to apply for social benefits. Although these projects are small
in scale, they enable the students to apply their knowledge gained throughout the past two years, and in doing so,
empower themselves as they help others.
Citizens for Equality
30RHR 2013 31 RHR 2013

The Annual Report 2012-2013 of Rabbis For Human Rights

The Annual Report 2012-2013 of Rabbis For Human Rights

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