Rabbis for Human Rights

The trees are dripping with olives. Every day they soak up a bit more sunshine, deepening the green-purple hue of their skin. In a month from now, they will be falling off the trees and into the tarps of our Palestinian partners all across the West Bank.

Palestinian farmers are requesting your presence: plant your feet in the fields, provide a protective presence from settlers, and put your hands to work helping harvest every last olive before the short harvest window closes.

The picking begins October 16. Save the date, and join us six days a week from then through November.

Tag someone who can join us in the groves, and sign up at the link in the comments to join us on the ground.

Children as young as ten are being recruited to the hilltops. A Shomrim investigation published this week describes boys out of school, neglected, unsupervised, sent to drive Palestinian shepherds from their grazing land.

Officials put the number between 600 and 1,000. Nobody knows exactly, because nobody in government has been responsible for counting.

וְכָל הַמַּחֲטִיא אֶת הָרַבִּים, אֵין מַסְפִּיקִין בְּיָדוֹ לַעֲשׂוֹת תְּשׁוּבָה. (Avot 5:18) Whoever causes the many to sin is not granted the means to repent.
This government has presided over nearly 200 new outposts. Its ministers celebrate the people who build them.

We say it is a disgrace. We will continue to stand by the communities routinely harassed by these youth and call on the Israeli public to demand accountability for this wayward youth crisis.

ילדים בני עשר כבר מסתובבים במאחזי הגבעות. תחקיר של „שומרים”, שפורסם ב־ynet, מתאר נערים שנשרו ממסגרות החינוך, חיים בהזנחה וללא השגחת מבוגרים — ונשלחים לגרש רועים פלסטינים מאדמות המרעה שלהם.

מספרם מוערך ב־600 עד 1,000, אבל איש אינו יודע כמה מהם חיים בגבעות ובמאחזים.

במשמרתה של הממשלה הזאת הוקמו קרוב ל־200 מאחזים חדשים, ושריה מעודדים ומפארים את מקימיהם. כך הופכים ילדים ובני נוער שננטשו בידי המערכת לכלי במאבק לאומני אלים.

זוהי חרפה.

אנחנו נמשיך לעמוד לצד הקהילות הפלסטיניות הסובלות מהתנכלויות חוזרות ונשנות, ונדרוש מהמדינה לתת דין וחשבון — על הפקרת בני הנוער ועל ניצולם כדי לפגוע בפלסטינים.

How West Bank outposts turn vulnerable Israeli teens into foot soldiers of settler violence Activists and officials say children as young as 10 are appearing at isolated settler farms after dropping out of school, often without adult supervision, as welfare authorities struggle to identify, reach and remove minors considered at risk

Words for the Start of the New Year:
Amichai Lau-Lavie and Lana Zilberman - Soloway
Co-Chairs, Rabbis for Human Rights
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"High above the towers,
The dove spreads a wing,
The dove soars in the open expanse
And her eyes are yearning."

This past year, we also bid farewell to Matti Caspi, one of Israel’s beloved musicians. Caspi composed this song, written by Shimrit Or more than fifty years ago, a song which feels more relevant to us today than ever: a single dove spreading her wings, soaring through space, waiting and searching for a sign of life.

"Further, further, Hovering over the waters, Still she waits… The road is long."

At the threshold of a new Jewish year, we too look around and see vast waters of destruction: War and violence, fear and pain, inequality and daily violations of human dignity. The road to a different and better reality, beyond the flood of enmity, remains long.

But the dove continues to fly.
In the story of the Flood, Noah sends the dove out of the ark. Only on her second attempt does she return, toward evening, with an olive leaf in her beak—a small sign that the waters are receding, that life can begin anew.

Perhaps this is the meaning of hope: not to ignore the waters, but to keep searching for signs that things can be different, that life will carry on, and hope along with it.

This is also our choice at Rabbis for Human Rights.
The Torah commands: "Justice, justice shall you pursue"—not merely to believe in justice, but to pursue it: consistently, courageously, and through concrete action.

In the coming year, we will continue to do so across all our fields of action: promoting social justice and equality throughout Israeli society; educating young people toward human rights, democracy, and shared living; building interfaith partnerships precisely during a period when it is so easy to retreat into isolation; and remaining present in the West Bank alongside those whose rights and dignity are violated—to see, listen, document, and speak out.

In the coming months, we will go out once again to assist during the olive harvest—in solidarity with Palestinian farmers who resolutely face the violence of Jewish terror. Together, we will honor both the land and humanity, respect the ancient tradition of the harvest, and support dignity and livelihood. The vision of the dove bearing an olive leaf in her beak is an inspiration to us all.

We know the work is vast. We know that not every injustice will be swiftly mended, and that not every dove returns immediately with an olive leaf.

Yet as our Sages taught us: "It is not upon you to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it."
We are not required to complete the task, but we are required to continue it.

Rosh Hashanah is an opportunity to choose anew. And in this coming year, we choose not to give up on the longing for peace, on resilience and determination, or on hope—not as a wishful thought, but as a moral stance and a daily practice.
We choose to keep sending out the dove. To keep searching for the olive leaf. To keep working toward a society of justice, equality, freedom, and human dignity.

In Song of Songs Rabbah, our teachers derived our moral roadmap from the story of the dove: "Just as this dove brings light to the world, so too must you bring light to the world."
In the new year coming ahead, with all its challenges, we will continue to choose light, and to choose life, as we are guided in the Book of Deuteronomy: "And you shall choose life."

Shanah Tovah, friends. May this be a year of courage and light, resilience and grace, partnership and hope, repair and positive change. A year in which we continue to walk together—even when the road is still long.

"What is behind the violence and terror carried out by settlers? Behind this terror stands an army, a police force, a justice system, and an entire state. What does that mean? Is this terror, or is it actually a state's war crimes? I want to ask this of ourselves, and not let us pin it on a handful of people.

I'm asking us to recognize that the State of Israel doesn't just look away or allow this. It actively carries out this violence. And IDF soldiers, who are truly our children, mine specifically and many of ours, become, whether against their will or often willingly, along with commanders in the field, partners in these crimes.

It's harder to look at terror this way. It isn't a handful of masked men on pickup trucks whom a commander can simply neutralize with a decision. The commander in the field is part of this thing.

Is this the state we dreamed of? Because we once said, "if you will it, it is no legend," and we built a sovereign state. I still believe that if we will it, it is no legend. I think we're still capable of being a humane, democratic state that doesn't rule over another people, and without the war crimes that necessarily follow from this situation.

So I'm truly calling on everyone here: as citizens of a state that behaves this way, we must act to stop it. It isn't enough to condemn "terror"; that's good, we're already doing that, but please ask yourselves how you're taking part in stopping it. Every pair of helping hands, every voice reporting what's happening on the ground, every public demand to stop it, can help.

So we need to look bravely at reality, act through peace and nonviolence, through respect for others and recognition of them, and change this reality.

May peace yet come upon us. Amen.

Rabbi Ruti Bidatz, part chair and board member, RHR, speaking at the "We Will Not Turn a Blind Eye to Settler Terror" protest organized by English page נשים עושות שלום نساء يعملن السلام Women Wage Peace and Rabbis for Human Rights

הטרור היהודי בגדה הוא חלק ממנגנון מדינתי שמאפשר ומגבה אותו. '
הצבא, המשטרה ומערכת המשפט עדים לאלימות, מגנים על מבצעיה ונמנעים מאכיפה אפקטיבית — ובכך הופכים לשותפים לפשע. קשה לומר זאת, אבל זו המציאות.

האחריות שלנו כבני אדם וכיהודים היא להמשיך להיאבק, לחשוף את האחראים לטרור ואת העוול המתמשך, ולעמוד לצד החלש. היהדות שלנו מחייבת אותנו לבחור בחיים, בצדק ובשלום — ולפעול בהתאם. כך היה וכך יהיה. נמשיך ונעמוד לצד הפלסטינים, לפעול למען זכויות אדם, בתוך שטח ישראל ובגדה המערבית.'

The harvest is on high alert. We’ve received more accompaniment requests from our Palestinian partners than ever before in anticipation of the upcoming olive harvest. We will stand beside them, but to show up for all of them we need your help.

We’re raising $80,000. We already have $40,000 secured in matching funds which means every gift you give will be doubled before the harvest begins.

Donate today at the link in bio.