Rabbis For Human Rights

July 8, 2002

This afternoon I and a few other members of RHR held a discussion with rabbis attending the annual rabbinic seminar at the Shalom Hartman Institute. Every year we take the rabbis on a field tour or run some program for them. This year was different in so far as, while there were still many rabbis in attendance who are active and long time supporters of RHR, we clearly felt the effects of the intifada and the feeling among members of the North American Jewish community that they are under siege. There were rabbis in attendance who knew us only through the attacks on RHR during the past year and even one former supporter who had ceased his support. The core of our support among North American rabbis remains quite strong and we could have simply dismissed the concerns. However, the group in many ways reflected some of the same questions we ask among ourselves and we chose to discuss the issues in depth. I don't believe that anybody denied that Israel was responsible for some terrible actions. However, we were asked whether there was any alternative, given the attacks we Israelis are under. We discussed whether it is right to be airing our dirty laundry in public or even being self-critical "in-house" when Israelis are being blown up. I quoted from a letter we received from a rabbi the group will speak with tomorrow - one of the small group of Conservative rabbis who unsuccessfully petitioned the Israeli Masorti movement to repudiate RHR and the international Conservative rabbinic body(RA) to rescind their endorsement of us. Disinformation aside, his core accusation was that we are holding to "An abstract Kantian definition of ethics divorced from the real world." We discussed whether this was the case or whether there is a place in the real world for Torah's teaching that even in times of war there are red lines which we must not cross.

The entire discussion was honest, open and polite. Despite the majority of RHR supporters in the room, I came away wondering what kind of impression we made on those who came in more suspicious. Did we succeed in convincing anybody that we are not the demons those who spread lies about us make us out to be? Did we spend so much time trying to convince people that we don't have horns that we failed our responsibility to convey the realities in the Occupied Territories? (Two Palestinians were supposed to join us. One was told last night that we would not be given a permit to come and meet with the group. This morning he was told that he could get a permit, but it was too late. The second has Jerusalem residency, but was nevertheless stopped at a roadblock and his ID confiscated.)

About 23:00 this evening, I received a call from one of the two people who was supposed to attend. He asked my help because a baby had been born at home in the village of Zawiah with life threatening defects in his head and back. His mother had no permission to go to a hospital to give birth and the Red Crescent told the frantic family that there was no way an ambulance could get past IDF roadblocks to take the baby to a hospital. In passing he told me that another desperately ill one and a half year old baby girl from Salfit had just died, even as they had made contact with Physicians For Human Rights (PHR) in order to get her to a hospital. We knew that this baby would also die in a few hours if he did not receive treatment.

I called up one of the field workers from PHR, and he contacted the Defense Ministry. They promised to get back to him. In the meantime I tried a number I had for the regional commander, but it turned out Zawiah was in another region. I asked for the correct phone number, but the commander requested that I not compromise him by getting him entangled in the matter. I was thinking about what contacts I could utilize to get the correct number at 23:30 at night, but we decided to give the Defense Ministry until midnight to get back to the PHR fieldworker. After waiting on pins and needles until just after midnight I heard from the PHR fieldworker that the permit had been granted for the ambulance to pick up the child. To give credit where credit is due, the IDF apparently was taking this very seriously. However, our Palestinian contact told us that the ambulance driver had still been hesitant, because so many times Palestinian ambulances are given permits but hassled, detained or worse at any one of the IDF checkpoints that they must cross, or have problems settlers. In passing he told me that it had taken hours of negotiations to get permission for the parents to bury the dead baby girl in Salfit.

This is our reality

As I write I am still waiting for confirmation that the baby has been picked up and hope that this will go quickly enough to save him. In our last conversation our Palestinian contact pleaded with me to tell this story, "I know there are people of conscience in Israel - if they only knew our reality. This is our reality here. All talk of making life easier for Palestinian civilians is smoke and mirrors." He and I have discussed this many times in the past. As somebody committed to non-violence as much as I am he knows as well as I how the cycle of violence is feeding on itself. Each dead Palestinian child creates more blind hatred. Approximately 28% of Palestinians supported suicide bombings at the beginning of this intifada. The number is now somewhere around 90%. With each explosion in Netanya or Jerusalem or Tel Aviv a higher and higher percentage of Israelis support military measures which they acknowledge to be immoral in the hope of even temporarily stopping the carnage. I didn't have the heart to remind him of this tonight. I simply said "Tomorrow we can write. Tonight we have a life to save." So, why I am I writing now? I guess it is because I am not sure how I am going to sleep tonight until I hear what the outcome is.

There are plenty of Israelis and Palestinians spending sleepless nights worrying about or mourning loved ones. It is certainly true that no Israeli intentionally sought to harm these children in the same way that a suicide bomber straps on an explosives belt hoping that s/he will kill as many children as possible. However, Israeli policy led to the death of one Palestinian girl tonight and the life of another baby hangs in the balance. Others will argue that, as tragic as these situations are, the Palestinian leadership is to blame for creating the situation. This is only partially true. Without justifying Palestinian violence for a minute, we must realize that ongoing Israeli land confiscations, tree uprootings, home demolitions, unfair water allocation, etc. caused average Palestinians to cease believing in the peace process. Those of us working with average Palestinians were warning about the intifada at least a year and a half before it happened. However, the bottom line is that when our self defense requires us to endanger the lives of Palestinian babies, something is very, very wrong. When a Palestinian whose job with the official Palestinian liaison unit is to interact with the IDF needs to appeal to Israeli human rights workers to convince the IDF to save a Palestinian baby, something is very, very wrong. This is occupation. Nobody should forget that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict began way before the occupation or have any illusions that ending the occupation will usher in an era of peace and harmony. However, as long as the occupation continues, Israeli policy will prevent Palestinian babies from getting to hospitals in an attempt to prevent Palestinian suicide bombers from getting to Israeli cities.

B''asher hu sham

For all those who are so filled with pain and anger as to say that there is no room for concern for even an innocent Palestinian newborn in the current situation, the Midrash teaches us that the angels pleaded with God not to save the young Ishmael as he and Hagar were about to die of thirst in the desert. They argued that Ishmael's descendants would cause untold suffering to the Jewish people. God replied, perhaps because God had created a world in which not all is determined and where change is possible, that God would judge Ishmael

"B''asher hu sham (Where he is)."

(Genesis 21 :17)

Where he was at that moment was a pure and innocent child.

One cannot harm the innocent even to protect ourselves

There are those who would say that the angels were right and that God was following "an abstract definition of Kantian ethics." They can point to history and make a convincing argument. However, this would be a selective look at history, not to mention that it ignores what may yet be or what might have been (for better or worse) had God acted otherwise. They can say that in this Midrash there is no immediate threat to Abraham, Sarah and Isaac, but Palestinian babies are not threatening Israelis. Furthermore, we learn in Tractate Sanhedrin 74a that one cannot harm the innocent even to protect ourselves. Ultimately, as easy as it is for anger, pain and despair disguised as pragmatism to carry the day when we are under fire, the fact is that the anger, pain and despair generated among Palestinians by our actions this evening endanger our security. If we feel that the current situation leaves us with no option other than to kill or be killed we must understand the reality that killing also causes us to be killed. We must acknowledge as axiomatic both that that no country would or should stand idly by while its citizens are being bombed and that no people would or should accept 35 years of occupation. We can rightfully argue that there are other ways to protect Israeli citizens and other ways to resist occupation, but we must look honestly at the reality around us. There is much that Palestinians could and ought to do to make it easier for us Israelis to do what we must do to achieve peace. I try to convey to Palestinians we are in contact with not only that this intifada is morally problematic, but the extent to which it makes it difficult for many Israelis to accept what I am writing here. I have no interest in giving Palestinians a prize for violence, but ask, "What prize?" At best we would be returning to where we were before the intifada, not to mention the human, property and economic losses which the Palestinians have suffered. Furthermore, we must not cut off our nose to spite our face. We must also recognize that Palestinians ultimately have no independent ability to end the occupation. We Israelis do. I often am reminded of the Talmudic image of a man holding a dead lizard trying to purify himself in the mikvah, not realizing that he first must let go of the lizard. (Ta'anit 17a)

Choose Life!

The maps and details about how to end the occupation are beyond our mandate as a human rights organization. We must do what we can to protect human rights in the context of the reality we live in. Is "B'Asher hu sham" abstract Kantian ethics? I believe that it is Torah, bidding us, "Choose Life." (Deuteronomy 30:19).

July 9, 2002

On checking this morning, we found out that the baby arrived safely at the hospital. We will continue to check on his progress. The baby girl was buried late at night yesterday. This morning the Palestinian contact person did not have time to think much about yesterday, as he was trying to organize matriculation exams for youth in Salfit who were not able to do take the exams on schedule due to the recent reoccupation of the city. The Palestinian Jerusalemite got back his identity document after two hours and returned home.

July 15, 2002

The baby was operated on and returned home still in a very serious condition. On Thursday we will need to get another permit to send her back to the hospital. The family has asked us to try to get her to where she can receive better care.