House demolitions are wrong

Letters

This letter was delivered to the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 12. It is reprinted with permission. Rabbi Arik Ascherman, executive director of Rabbis for Human Rights, Shai Eliezer and Omer Ori appeared in Jerusalem Magistate's Court Jan. 14. They are being tried for standing in front of bulldozers about to demolish Palestinian homes. The next court hearing has been set for March 24.

Dear Prime Minister Sharon,

We rabbis, leaders of our communities, longtime Zionists and supporters of Israel, are writing to express our concern and our support for our colleague, Rabbi Arik Ascherman, who is facing trial on Jan. 14 in Jerusalem for trying to prevent the demolition of two Palestinian homes.

We have two concerns. Our first concern is about the decision to prosecute our colleague who has devoted his life to Israel and to the Zionist vision of building and sustaining a Jewish state that exemplifies the values of compassion and justice. Rabbi Ascherman has dedicated his career to protecting the human rights of both Israelis and Palestinians and his Zionist and Jewish commitments inspire thousands of Jews in Israel and abroad. We fear that the decision to prosecute him is an attempt to silence his voice. For us and for many Jews in our communities, the work of Rabbis for Human Rights represents the Jewish moral conscience. We express our love and commitment for Israel by supporting that work. To silence it is to push us away from the Israel we love.

Our second concern is about the home demolition policy itself. The homes that were demolished were not demolished for any security reason. None of the people in these homes engaged in violence or harboring terrorists. They were demolished because of a violation of zoning regulations in the context where it is almost impossible for Palestinian families in those parts of the West Bank under Israeli civilian control or in Jerusalem to legally obtain building permits. B'tselem, the Israeli human rights organization, reports that since 1987, literally thousands of homes have been built for Jews in these same areas, many receiving permits retroactively. Since 1987, 2,500 Palestinian houses on the West Bank and in East Jerusalem have been demolished, leaving more than 16,000 Palestinians homeless.

Home demolitions constitute an especially disturbing human rights issue. A sense of home is an essential part of our humanity; homelessness has always been considered a human tragedy. Jews, because of our own history, are especially conscious of the issue of home, and Zionism can be said to be the movement to find a home for a people so often deprived of our homes.

The destruction of a home can only be experienced as a violation by its inhabitants. Something fundamental to one's identity has been removed. To be deprived of one's home is to be naked in the world. More, it can mean that one is unable to locate oneself in the world, to feel that one has a place. Without a home, wherever one walks in the world, a sense of tragedy and pain, of emptiness and shame accompanies you.

Any society must proceed with absolute caution before it destroys a home. That is a basic claim of justice. It is why Rabbis for Human Rights has been so involved with issues of home demolition since 1997. It is why Rabbi Ascherman stood with the Maswadeh family in Beit Hanina when the bulldozers came, leaving Sufian and Sana Maswadeh, their children, Mr. Maswadeh's sick mother, as well as his brother's entire family, homeless, within a matter of minutes. It is why he stood with the family of Ahmed Mousa Dari in Issawiyah, when the bulldozers came to demolish their home. It is why he is currently standing trial.
These prosecutions will never lead to the kind of Israel we want and desire: a Jewish state that celebrates the prophetic voice which has animated our people for centuries and which has given such vitality to the Zionist movement. True democracies protect minority rights and cherish and listen to their critics, those who stand with the poor and powerless.

We urge the government to exercise wisdom in this matter: to drop the case against Rabbi Ascherman and to rescind its policy of home demolitions. We believe that the word of the prophets still speaks to us: Ultimately, Zion will only be redeemed through justice and those who return to her through acts of righteousness.

Rabbis Gerry Serotta and Sharon Kleinbaum
Co-chairs, Rabbis for Human Rights North America
(Signed by more than 300 rabbis from the United States and 18 from Europe.)

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