Respecting human rights means treating everyone equally under the law. Evicting the Sumarin family would displace a family from their home of generations, while also advancing the efforts of extremist organizations to push Palestinians out of Jerusalem in favor of Jewish settlers, and to put facts on the ground that seriously undermine efforts to build a lasting peace. We applaud the letter from Congresswoman Jackie Speier and her colleagues for drawing attention to this important issue. The participation of the Jewish National Fund in this expulsion is an affront to those of us who grew up dropping coins in the Blue Boxes, believing that we were planting trees, not uprooting families.
Our Jewish tradition is full of texts that describe Jerusalem as a place of compassion, love, and peace. Employing legal maneuvering to expel families from their homes violates the character of Jerusalem as the place where the divine presence dwells.