T’ruah calls on the Israeli government to reverse the decision to approve 2200 new settlement housing units, including legalizing two outposts established against the laws of the state. This move violates the human rights of Palestinians, endangers the lives of Israelis, and threatens the future of a peace solution. Announcing this new construction just as Prime Minister Netanyahu lands in Washington for a meeting with President Obama insults Israel’s closest ally and seeks to drive a wedge between American Jews and our government.

Expanding the settlements in the West Bank violates Jewish commitments to creating a just society in which each person is treated with the dignity and respect due to a creation in the divine image. Settlements steal land from Palestinians; block Palestinians from traveling easily between their homes and their work, school, and family; and create facts on the ground which endanger a long-term peace solution and establishes a secure state of Israel alongside a Palestinian state.

Settlements also endanger Israelis, including the young soldiers who must defend undefined borders; contribute to the anger that has led some Palestinians to carry out acts of terrorism against innocent Israeli citizens; and further isolate Israel within a world that no longer believes its government’s claim to remain committed to a two-state solution.

The insistence by the current Israeli government and the settlement movement on prioritizing land over human life violates Jewish law and values. In 1967, Rabbi Joseph Dov Soloveitchik, the preeminent American Orthodox rabbi of the twentieth century, wrote:

One does not have to be a rabbi or a posek to know that the Land of Israel was granted to us in its entirety. . . However, there is another halakhah klalit –that preservation of a single life pushes aside the entire Torah, and this is certainly true regarding the preservation of two and a half million Jews, may they multiply. . .Historical sentiments, without accounting for reasons and considerations of defense, are not binding with regards to the question of the safety of the state and its inhabitants. . .It is prohibited for Rabbis or anyone else to declare in the name of the Torah that it is forbidden to return any part of the land, when stable peace can save the lives of thousands and ten thousands of our brethren who dwell in Zion.

We are in the midst of a period of horrific violence that has already claimed the lives of at least ten Israelis and seventy-seven Palestinians. T’ruah categorically condemns all acts of violence especially those against innocent civilians, and we mourn for all victims of terror attacks.

At a time when the Israeli and Palestinian people most need their leaders to work to restore trust in order to move towards real diplomacy, it is painful to see Israeli leaders instead further damaging these already-broken relationships, and putting lives at risk for the sake of building. We call on Prime Minister Netanyahu to act with integrity and work to rebuild a healthy relationship with leaders in the United States and elsewhere rather than continuing to build more stumbling blocks to a peaceful future.

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