Human rights groups blamed for conflict in Israel


November 27, 2015
Sarah Benton

Report from +972 plus two statements from Rabbis for Human Rights.


Rabbi Arik Ascherman, head of Rabbis for Human Rights talking to a Palestinian landowner.
Photo from


Settler who attacked leftist rabbi: ‘If I kill one it’ll be over’

The young settler who has been indicted for attacking Rabbi Arik Ascherman blames human rights advocates for causing tension in the West Bank: ‘If I kill one of them it’ll be over. But that isn’t legal.’

By Natasha Roth, +972
November 27, 2015

The Jewish extremist who last month allegedly attacked Rabbi Arik Ascherman, head of Rabbis for Human Rights, was indicted two weeks ago, charged with causing grievous bodily harm and possession of a knife and ammunition. The youth, 17 years old, is suspected of assaulting Ascherman near the settlement of Itamar as the rabbi was assisting Palestinians with their olive harvest.

Israel’s Channel 10 news conducted an interview with the suspect, himself from Itamar, after he was released to house arrest last Friday. His back turned to the camera to protect his identity, he accused human rights activists of being the source of tension his area, saying there needs to be “deterrence.”

“If I kill one of them it’ll be over. But that isn’t legal,” he said. “We need to deter them. They need to be made fearful. They need to receive a blow.”

Even the Channel 10 report, which did not appear to have sought a comment from Rabbi Ascherman, notes that given the severity of the charges against the youth, it is surprising that he was released to house arrest. His comments during the interview do little to assuage concerns over his release.

So why was he allowed to proceed under house arrest? According to Channel 10, one of the reasons is the fact that he knew members of the Fogel family, Itamar residents who were murdered by Palestinians four years ago.

The massacre of the Fogel family was likely a terrible experience for the suspect, yet it seems like a bizarre — and frankly irrelevant — reason for him to have been released to house arrest when he is being charged with assault and possession of illegal weapons.


Right-wing Israeli extremist Itamar Ben-Gvir has a long history of provocative aggression. Here he leads a rally on March 24, 2009 in Umm al-Fahm, the Israeli city with the largest Arab population in the Haifa district.  Violent clashes broke out between police and residents during the rally, for which the far-rightists had received High Court approval. Photo by David Silverman/Getty Images

Yet this decision has its own internal logic, granted by the fact that the youth’s lawyer is a Honenu member and far-right activist Itamar Ben Gvir. Appealing to emotion and seeking diminished responsibility are trademark Ben Gvir and Honenu tactics that are wheeled out time and again when they defend Jewish extremists who are charged with assault, vandalism and even murder.

Ben Gvir was also interviewed by Channel 10, portraying Rabbi Ascherman as an agitator and instigator who encourages Palestinians to take part in violent rioting, which is filmed and then doctored. He also attacked the Judea and Samaria Police Unit for allowing Ascherman to act “with impunity.”

There was no follow-up question to Ben Gvir about the impunity for settlers that allows them to shoot, throw stones at and even burn alive Palestinians without any charges being filed against them.


Israeli LGBT activists confront far-right lawyer Itamar Ben Gvir in south Tel Aviv. August 19, 2015. Photo by Activestills

Ben Gvir is also a direct link between the activities of human rights organizations and murders such as those of the Fogel family. Ben Gvir said: “We need to remember…that the killings which took place in Itamar started with working the land during the day and ended with a massacre at night.” The suspect also sang a similar tune, saying that it is human rights activists and not Palestinians who are the problem.

Railing against left-wing Jews as being the true threat to Israel is one of the key calling-cards left behind by Rabbi Meir Kahane, a virulently anti-Arab activist and member of Knesset (his Kach party was banned in the late 1980s for inciting to racism and violence).

In a 1984 newspaper article, Kahane wrote: “It takes great strength to love Jews so much…that one fights Jews who would destroy them…we are in need of the strong Jews. Those strong enough to love and hate and wise enough to know when to do what.”

Ben Gvir, himself a Kahanist, was a youth activist with Kach before it was outlawed. Attacks such as the one against Rabbi Ascherman, and Ben Gvir’s defence of them, are the ongoing manifestation of Kahane’s original call to arms. And as we have seen before, incitement against the Left does not always end with just a few bruises.



Taunting the Palestinian farmers appears to be an adolescent rite of passage in the settlement of Itamar. Here on October 9, 2011, as farmers and families pick olives on land owned by a Palestinian Family. Photo by Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP

Minor from the settlement of Itamar arrested on suspicion of assaulting Rabbi Ascherman

Rabbis for Human Rights
November 09, 2015

Reports indicate a minor from the settlement of Itamar has been arrested in connection with assaulting Rabbi Ascherman while armed with a knife on October 23 2015. According to police reports, he confessed and a knife, face mask like the one used in the assault, a military stun grenade, bullets and a slingshot were found in the youth’s home.

Rabbi Ascherman expressed his thoughts on learning that the suspect is a minor:

He’s a minor. I almost cried. The hate that is eating this boy could influence him for the rest of his life, when he still has the whole thing in front of him. What was the role of the parents and the community in encouraging this hatred and violence? What has all of our society done to demonstrate zero tolerance for Jewish violence, as it does for Palestinian violence? There must be more understanding and dialogue between us, and a lot less tolerance for civilian and state violence.


Suspect arrested in connection to assaault of Rabbi Ascherman

PRESS RELEASE, Rabbis for Human Rights
November 08 2015

Response from Rabbi Arik Ascherman, president and senior rabbi of Rabbis for Rabbis for Human Rights, to the arrest of a suspect in his assault, announced today by the police.

We are grateful to the dedicated work of the police in this case. The arrest proves that when the desire is there, it is possible to locate suspects in violent crimes motivated by nationalistic ideology – even when the victims are Palestinian. According to Yesh Din (Israeli human rights group), even when suspects are arrested in attacks on Palestinians, there are very few convictions; we hope the truth will come to light, while preserving the rights of the suspect. If he is guilty, we hope that he will be convicted.

Links
* See also Who wants to kill a rabbi for human rights?, October 30, 2015

from RHR website

“Beloved are human beings, for they are created in the image of God”-Pirkei Avot 3:18

About Rabbis for Human Rights:

Founded in 1988, Rabbis for Human Rights is the only rabbinic voice in Israel that is explicitly dedicated to human rights. Representing over 100 Israeli rabbis and rabbinical students from different streams of Judaism, we derive our authority from our Jewish tradition and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Our mission is to inform the Israeli public about human rights violations, and to pressure the State institutions to redress these injustices. In a time in which a nationalist and isolationist understanding of Jewish tradition is heard frequently and loudly, Rabbis for Human Rights give expression to the traditional Jewish responsibility for the safety and welfare of the stranger, the different and the weak, the convert, the widow and the orphan.

RHR works primarily in the following 4 fields, where we think our rabbinic voice will be most effective:

1. Human Rights Work in the Occupied Territories:

Olive Tree Campaign: RHR works year round with Palestinian farmers from several dozen villages in the Occupied Territories, to ensure that they can regularly access their agricultural lands, often denied to them because of their proximity to Israeli settlements. We negotiate and coordinate with the army to ensure the High Court mandate military protection during the olive harvest, and to ensure access to lands when denied. We also bring hundreds of Israeli and international volunteers to work side by side and in solidarity with Palestinians during the olive harvest, who help provide protection against possible settler intimidation. We also track Israeli settler acts of damage of Palestinian trees and property, and monitor the state response. During Tu B’shvat, we purchase and bring hundreds of Israeli and international volunteers together with Palestinians to plant some 2,500 olive trees in areas where settlers have cut, uprooted and/or burned trees in acts of vandalism and arson.

Advocating for the Rights of the Jahalin Bedouin: Since the early 1990s, RHR has worked to challenge government plans to demolish structures and forcibly transfer the Jahalin Bedouin community elsewhere. More recently, we have focused on rights to education of this community. We work with several local Bedouin women community activists, and we have helped them create an educational center for girls, slowly expanding to include boys, and a library. With the help of volunteers, we provide English and Hebrew lessons for Jahalin children throughout the school year, and we regularly organize and run summer camps; this past year, 146 children attended 2 different camps, which included taking them to the sea.

2. Challenging Land Confiscation in the Occupied Territories:

RHR works to legally prevent or reverse the takeover of Palestinian lands in Area C, and ensure that Palestinian farmers can safely access those lands. We started working in villages in the South Hebron Hills, and we have recently expanded to the villages around Bethlehem as well as to a few villages in the Northern West Bank. We continually monitor the implementation of previous rulings on land access issues, and currently are working on 200 open cases relating to land confiscation and criminal charges and complaints lodged by Palestinian farmers against settlement security personnel.

3. Socioeconomic Justice Work in Israel:

Rights of the Poor: RHR focuses on raising awareness and lobbying the Knesset for better economic rights for impoverished Israelis at the national level. At the local level, our Rights Center in Hadera helps hundreds of Jews and Arab citizens obtain socioeconomic rights that have been denied to them, such as unemployment benefits, etc. We also run a empowerment and advocacy groups of local Arab and Jewish citizens from the Hadera area who focus and advocate for policy changes of their choosing.

Rights to Public Housing: RHR provides legal representation for public housing tenants in Beit Shean, Beersheva, and Hadera whose housing does not meet their needs or who are facing eviction. In Jerusalem, we work with those who are not even deemed eligible for public housing due to criteria that do not reflect true need. In coalition with other organizations, we wrote proposed legislation to save Israel’s public housing, and helped to create an officially-recognized Knesset lobby to promote public housing.

Defending Israel’s Unrecognized Bedouin Villages of the Negev: RHR engages in both raising public awareness and advocacy to challenge the government’s plan to remove 30-40,000 Bedouins from their homes and resettle them in 7 existing towns, plagued with poverty.

4. Promoting Human Rights Education in Israel:

Teaching Human Rights in Israel’s Pre-Military Academies: RHR works in 12 pre-military academies, exposing every year some 600 young Israelis to our human rights teachings based on our rabbinic interpretation of Israel’s Declaration of Independence. Tours to witness firsthand the human rights challenges created in Jerusalem by the Separation Wall and facing African refugees and asylum seekers in South Tel Aviv are a highlight of this programme. We believe that teaching human rights to young people who then continue onto their army service better equips them to deal humanely with the realities on the ground.

Human Rights Yeshivas: For more than a decade, RHR has been teaching about human rights and Judaism to Israeli university students. We currently run 2 human rights yeshivas, with a total of 40 participants. Students who participate in the programme receive a stipend, and intern in a human rights or social change organization in order to understand more deeply the challenges facing Israeli society.

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