NEW YORK — The Israeli government has scheduled bidding on 2,167 additional housing units in the E1 settlement project to open Oct. 25, just two days before Israel’s national elections.
In response, Rabbi Jill Jacobs, CEO of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, which represents more than 2,300 rabbis and cantors in North America, released the following statement:
“We condemn the Israeli government’s decision to push forward with thousands of settlement units in E1. Construction would fragment Palestinian territory, separate East Jerusalem from the West Bank and cause irreparable damage to the possibility of a viable Palestinian state alongside Israel.
“For decades, Israeli governments have stopped short of construction in this especially sensitive area. Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government is now choosing to cross that line, advancing a vision of permanent Israeli control over the West Bank at the expense of Palestinian rights and self-determination.
“For American Jews, silence in the face of this expansion is unacceptable. Palestinian families and communities already living under occupation face restrictions on their freedom of movement and access to land. We must speak out and press for international intervention when the Israeli government takes steps that deepen those injustices and pushes a just and peaceful future further out of reach.
“A midrash describes the mentality of the builders of the Tower of Babel: ‘If a man fell and died they paid no heed to him, but if a brick fell they sat down and wept, and said: “Woe is us! When will another one come in its stead?”’ (Pirkei D’Rabbi Eliezer 24:6) To value construction in the name of an ideological project over the lives and dignity of human beings is a sacrilege. Israelis and Palestinians both deserve freedom, and a future in which they can live in safety.”
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About T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights brings the Torah’s ideals of human dignity, equality, and justice to life by empowering our network of over 2,300 rabbis and cantors to be moral voices and to lead Jewish communities in advancing democracy and human rights for all people in the United States, Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territories.