The constant unfolding cycle of violence is an affront to our creator

Source: Rabbis for Human Rights

Rabbis For Human Rights offered the following reflection today:

This week marks three years filled with bloodshed, death, and destruction. The blood of our slaughtered Israeli brothers and sisters still cries out from the ground. Over 1,200 killed, hundreds more kidnapped. The response: more bloodshed. Vengeful, brutal bloodshed. Over 74,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza, thousands more in the West Bank.

"And God Said: "what have you done?!" (Genesis 4:10)

The constant unfolding cycle of violence is an affront to our creator, and to the sanctity of all human life. It is our duty to speak in the name of the Jewish tradition, of our holy Torah, and the authority granted to us as Rabbis to pursue peace in the face of war; to pursue love in the face of hate; to extol the holiness of each human in the face of denigration.

"What God requires of you: only to do justice, and to love goodness, and to walk modestly with your God." (Micah 6:8)

"Jews have a right to everything before Arabs in this country," one soldier exclaimed proudly.

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The Torah says otherwise.

The harvest is supposed to start next week, but settlers have been stealing olives all week. Our Palestinian partners requested an emergency harvest in areas vulnerable to theft. We arrived at the olive groves beside Birzeit to find settlers threatening the Palestinian landowners with clubs. Minutes later, the army arrived, and the commander shook hands with one of the settlers and ordered him to arrest the landowner for trying to stab him, a blatant lie.

Soldiers claimed there is a law prohibiting Palestinians from harvesting olives, even on their own land, without coordinating with the army. An assertion contradicting existing law.

One soldier exclaimed that "Jews have a right to everything before Arabs in this country." We questioned the Israeli soldiers about how this twisted reality is legal?! He said he was taught that by those above him: "That's what my commander said."

But Israel's Declaration of Independence promised "complete equality of social and political rights" to all its inhabitants, "irrespective of religion, race or sex." And the Torah set the standard long before 1948: "You shall have one standard for stranger and citizen alike" (Leviticus 24:22).

The army detained the landowner while the settlers roamed freely. Our staff remained on site beside our Palestinian partners until the army declared the area a closed military zone and threatened to arrest us; still, we were not deterred from accomplishing what we came to do: harvest olives.

Our group travelled to another site a couple of kilometres away and harvested into the early afternoon.

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Join us in the Olive Groves.

The harvest has begun.

Palestinian farmers are requesting your presence.

This harvest, communities across the West Bank have asked us to stand with them in the groves, and over 350 international volunteers have already signed up. Volunteers can sign up to accompany farmers any day from Sunday through Friday, from October 16th through the end of November, so the picking can happen safely. Add your name to receive the details as they come together: harvest days, transportation, and logistics.

Sign up to Volunteer: https://preview.mailerlite.io/forms/2534265/195502666756916881/share?