NEW YORK — In response to escalating tensions in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, a rabbinic human rights group praised the decision to delay a High Court decision on the eviction of Palestinian residents, condemned Israeli police violence against Palestinian and Israeli protesters, and called for the government to quiet tensions during the overlap of Jerusalem Day and the final days of Ramadan. The statement was released by T’ruah, representing over 2,000 rabbis and cantors and their communities in North America.
Rabbi Jill Jacobs, executive director of T’ruah, released the following statement:
“We welcome the decision by Israel’s High Court to delay deliberations on the eviction of longtime Palestinian residents from Sheikh Jarrah for approximately 30 days. This decision, in response to a request from the Attorney General, is a sign of the success of ongoing protests by Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem; Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel; and Jewish, Palestinian and other activists around the world.
“At the same time, we are deeply disturbed by Israeli police violence in Jerusalem, including stun grenades and rubber bullets used against worshippers in the Al-Aqsa mosque, and against Jewish and Palestinian Israelis and East Jerusalem residents protesting the pending evictions. Over the past week, hundreds of protesters and worshippers, the vast majority Palestinian citizens or East Jerusalem residents, have been injured by police.
“We also condemn the decision to permit the ‘Flag Parade’ planned for this afternoon, but applaud the last-minute decision to stop the march from entering the Muslim Quarter of the Old City. On this annual Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day) event, extremist youth habitually march through East Jerusalem, terrorizing Palestinians. Two weeks ago, the extremist group Lehava organized a similar march that resulted in violence and inflamed tensions.
“We continue to oppose the eviction of Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem — with the goal of ‘judaizing’ those neighborhoods — as a violation of international law. The Israeli government’s cynical attempt to classify the situation as a ‘real estate dispute’ covers up the fact that imbalanced laws allow Jewish settler organizations to reclaim property that belonged to Jews in the nineteenth century, while offering no recourse for Palestinians who lost their own property in the twentieth century. It appears that the reason for the evictions is to reduce the presence of Palestinians in East Jerusalem, and to create facts on the ground that will prevent the creation of a Palestinian state with a capital in East Jerusalem.
“The eviction efforts call to mind the infamous Biblical story of Naboth’s vineyard, where Ahab, the wicked king of Israel who lived in Samaria (today the northern West Bank), wanted to expand his palace into a neighboring vineyard owned by Naboth. Naboth refused to sell his ancestral land to the king, and so Queen Jezebel acquired it by false witness and murder. (I Kings 21) Efforts to acquire Palestinian land for Jewish settlement expansion, even by purchase, are tantamount to dispossession and risk leading to even more immoral deeds.
“The ancient rabbis, ruminating on the decision to locate Jerusalem in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin, offer this comment:
Why did Benjamin merit having the Divine Presence dwell in his territory? Because nearly all of the tribes were complicit in the sale of Joseph, while Benjamin had nothing to do with it. So the Holy One said: Am I to tell these to build the house I choose to dwell in, so that they may pray to Me in it and I may be filled with compassion for them? No. They were not compassionate to their brother, so I shall not have My compassionate Presence dwell in their territory. (Yalkut Shimoni, VeZot HaBracha 949)
“Benjamin, the youngest son of Jacob and the only brother not involved in selling Joseph into slavery in Egypt, is the only one who merits the Divine presence dwelling in his realm. Jerusalem is more than a physical city — it is a place meant to manifest God’s compassion, and therefore must not be the site of violence or the expulsion of families.
“T’ruah rabbis and cantors will continue to be moral voices committed to defending human rights for both Israelis and Palestinians. We continue to stand with our Israeli partners, including human rights and civil society organizations, as well as with Palestinian residents of Jerusalem, in their efforts to protest and bring legal challenges to these immoral eviction efforts. We call on the Israeli government and the High Court to stop all eviction proceedings, and on the Israeli police to respect peaceful protests and refrain from violence.”
T’ruah has consistently opposed expulsions from Sheikh Jarrah and from Silwan, another East Jerusalem neighborhood, for more than a decade, including fighting attempts by Jewish National Fund-Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael (JNF-KKL) to evict families, and attempts by settler organizations to displace Palestinians for archaeological projects. T’ruah has also worked to stop U.S. funding of extremist groups, such as the ones expelling Palestinians from East Jerusalem, which have been responsible for recent anti-Arab violence in Jerusalem.
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights mobilizes a network of more than 2,000 rabbis and cantors from all streams of Judaism that, together with the Jewish community, act on the Jewish imperative to respect and advance the human rights of all people. Grounded in Torah and our Jewish historical experience and guided by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we call upon Jews to assert Jewish values by raising our voices and taking concrete steps to protect and expand human rights in North America, Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territories.