Testimony of Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster
Director of North American Programs
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights
Mr. Chairman, Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for this opportunity to submit testimony on behalf of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights concerning the moral imperative to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, and transfer or hold trials for the prisoners who remain there. As a human rights activist, I believe it is critical that the United States immediately address the situation.
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights is an organization of more than 1800 rabbis from all streams of Judaism that acts on the Jewish imperative to respect and protect the human rights of all people. Grounded in Torah and our Jewish historical experience and guided by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we advocate for human rights in Israel and North America. We were founding members of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture and continue to be its most active Jewish voice. Our rabbis, together with their Jewish communities, believe that core American values such as the prohibition against torture, the right to a fair trial, and humane conditions of imprisonment are the moral bedrock on which our country succeeds or fails. Upholding these values is an extension of our Jewish values: our ancestors came to the United States because of its commitment to justice and liberty.
President Obama’s first day in office in 2009 was one of my proudest as an activist. I watched online as the President signed Executive Orders that appeared to reverse the moral quagmire in which America had found itself since the beginning of the War on Terror. One of those Executive Orders authorized the closing of the prison at Guantanamo within the year. Like most Americans, I trusted that it would happen. But it has not, both because of roadblocks set up by Congress and because of presidential inaction. It has been easy for most of America to forget the men languishing at Guantanamo. Early in his first term, President Obama urged us all to look forward on issues like torture and indefinite detention. Most of us did.
It is especially upsetting that the men held in Guantanamo have so despaired of ever leaving that many of them have been engaged in a hunger strike for months. The leaders of this strike are many of the 86 men cleared for release—men whom the United States has admitted it should no longer be holding captive—who are still held at Guantanamo. In response to their abstention from food, the military has been force-feeding them, restraining them in chairs while thrusting feeding tubes down their noses and throats. It is only religious sensitivity in the most superficial sense that has prompted the military not to forcibly feed the prisoners during daylight hours for the duration of Ramadan. It is cruel that the military reclassified being on hunger strike as grounds for being held in isolation, thereby forcing prisoners to choose between the Ramadan prayers that must be done communally and their act of protest.
As an anti-torture activist, I am frequently exposed to information about the gruesome nature of inhumane treatment, but reading the descriptions of force-feeding has tested my limits. Even though I applaud actor and hip hop artist Yasiin Bey (Mos Def) for his willingness to submit to force-feeding on video to demonstrate just how brutal this practice is, I can’t watch. The consensus of both medical and human rights officials is that force-feeding hunger strikers is torture. Is this where we as a nation find ourselves again?
No human being, created b’tzelem elohim (in the image of God), should have to submit to this inhumanity in order for the world to see his or her suffering. One of the first laws that God gives humanity, according to the Torah, is the obligation to set up fair courts of justice. Jewish law—like American law—guarantees every person accused of a crime the right to stand trial, and to be judged fairly.
In the Book of Lamentations, which the Jewish community read last week on the fast day of Tisha B’Av, the desolate people ask why God has forsaken them. But in the case of the hunger strikers at Guantanamo, it is we the people who have done the forsaking. These men have been waiting as our attention went elsewhere.
In December 2008, right after President Obama was elected, two attorneys representing Guantanamo detainees spoke at a T’ruah conference, and their words have come back to haunt me with each day of the hunger strike, with each day that the prison remains open. Attorney Thomas Wilner said that to the detainees, the worst abuse was not the physical abuse, but being stuck in Guantanamo without a hearing, without a chance to defend themselves. And Gita Gutierrez of the Center for Constitutional Rights called out all Americans, herself included, on our complacency, first in the face of the torture we knew was going on and now in light of the ongoing legal quagmire. She challenged us: “We did not do enough eight years ago, we did not do enough six years ago, or four years ago, or even two years ago, and the men are still imprisoned there.” She reminded us that even being released did not restore to former prisoners the years that were lost or heal the physical and emotional trauma. And she asked us to commit to getting those men released.
That was more than 1,600 days ago. The men are still there and now they are dying to remind us they are there.
After the Israelites receive the Torah, they famously declare Na’aseh v’nishmah, “We will do and we will hear” (Exodus 24:7). The odd choice of order of the commitment is understood to mean that a commitment to action must precede a full comprehension of the terms. The moral imperative to act, to receive God’s word, is so great that it ends discussion.
We’ve heard enough about and from men dying at Guantanamo. It’s all been talk. The balance of this dynamic must change to action. Recently, Thomas Wilner told me, “What is happening at Guantanamo is simply no longer tolerable. It is a terrible human tragedy, and it is also a continuing outrage to our values as Americans. These few Arab men, many of whom have long been cleared, are stranded at an island prison and ignored because they have no domestic constituency to speak on their behalf—except for us. We must do so.”
It is time for the United States to act. On May 23, President Obama once again reiterated his commitment to close the prison and transfer to their home countries the detainees who have been cleared for release. At the time, he emphasized the troubling moral legacy that both the hunger strike itself and the bigger problem of indefinite detention without trial will leave to the next generation: “Is that who we are? Is that something our founders foresaw?…Our sense of justice is stronger than this.”
While the president continues to state his commitment to closing Guantanamo, his actions tell a different story, as he continues to sign legislation that restricts his ability to transfer detainees and fails to robustly pursue other options. T’ruah’s leadership are among 38 faith leaders who signed a recent letter to President Obama from the National Religious Campaign Against Torture reiterating that both torture and indefinite detention without trial—especially for the significant number of detainees cleared for release—violate the inherent dignity of the human being. The letter states: “As the nation’s most visible and painful symbol of torture and indefinite detention, Guantanamo Bay is a constant reminder of a deep moral wound that will heal only when it is permanently closed.”
Mr. Chairman, Members of the Subcommittee, T’ruah believes closing Guantanamo not just a legal but also a moral obligation. While there is much the President could do on his own, it has not aided these efforts that Congress continues to set up roadblocks to closing Guantanamo and either trying or releasing its prisoners. To that end, we urge you to take immediate steps to end Congressional restrictions on closing Guantanamo and on trying its prisoners in American courts. Today’s hearing represents the first step in Congress restoring its legacy on this issue. We thank you for your leadership and for the opportunity to contribute.