- Yesterday (Thursday) I made one of the most awful (and
frightnening) trips of my life - to Jenin. I had heard from Palestinian
friends about the hatred there - towards Israelis, Americans, Arab
countries
and Europeans, and how the only word spoken there (unlike other Palestinian
towns) was "revenge." Like everybody else I had seen the
pictures.
Nevertheless, it was something else to be there.
-
- The destroyed area is not that big, but it is simply
incredible. The area was not merely reduced to rubble - it was reduced
to dust. With all that I saw, two conversations affected meV most. I spoke
with one elderly women siting in the dirt next to the mangled wheelchair
of her son. They had just dug it out and now she was waiting for them to
find her son as well. She explained how she had begged the soldiers to
give her handicapped son, who she had washed, fed and clothed for so many
years, a chance to get out. She says that they didn't listen. A crowd of
onlookers stood around the excavation - the deathwatch.
-
- The other conversation was with a man lying in a
makeshift
sukkah (tabernacle) over what had once been part of his home. He had
assumed
that his two sons were dead, but found out the previous day that they were
"only" imprisoned. One he had already managed to speak with or
get some concrete information.. I spoke with HaMoked(Sister human rights
organization which is trying to keep track of prisoners) today to confirm
the location of the second and pass that info back to him. Of course, I
had to explain to the worker from HaMoked, that I had only been known
yesterday
as somebody acompanying the French televison crew who had wanted to go
in with me. It is not a good idea to let anybody know that you are Israeli
if you want to leave in one piece. (Our Palestinian driver was getting
really nervous at some points - such as when one resident was sure that
he had seen me on TV. Everyboy was suspicious, sometimes asking our driver
if we were Jews, why we were asking questions, etc.)
-
- I could write about all the stories of people being used
as human shields, shot at, walking into homes which soldiers had lived
in and trashed,etc. However, most of you will have either already heard
these things or don't want to hear.
-
- What Happened? I don't pretend to be a military expert.
I can't look at a piece of concrete and tell you how it fell. However,
what I was told and which rings true is that the IDF called on everybody
to leave their homes. Many did so. However, others were afraid of the
soldiers
(Nobody said this, but I won't discount the possibility that the fighters
holed up didn't let people leave)Afterwards, the IDF launched a massive
bombardment from the air, brought in bulldozers,etc.
-
- This was not a massacre, in the sense that the IDF did
not come in and intentionally target civilians. However, at a certain
point,
the preservation of civillian life was no longer a big concern. Clearly
the IDF knew that they were bringing buildings down on civillians. There
was a decision to make - Do you kill civillians along with the armed
resistance
or do you either let them go or surround the area as was done in Ramallah
and Bethlehem or go in from house to house and risk soldiers?
-
- Tractate Sanhedrin teaches us that we can not harm
innocent
people, even in the name of our own defense. However, how did we get to
the point that we are debating this? What turned fervent Palestinian
supporters
of the peace process to supporters of terrorism? Sadly, we have been
manuvered
as a society (with a fair amount of help from Palestinian extremists) into
a situation where we do have real defense needs (140 Israelis killed in
the month of March culminating in the mass murder which took place on
Passover
eve) and the question has become "What is moral when we have no choice
to defend ourselves," as opposed to "What can we do to create
a win - win situation?"
-
- I saw the terrorist infrastructure yesterday - the hatred
in the eyes of an entire people who want to be free from occupation, even
as we want to be free of fear. I was present as a truckload from USAID
arrived and was being downloaded. An hour later I was told that camp
residents
had come with missle parts in their hands saying, "This is the real
Amercian gift," and demanded that the aid be returned. Clearly, for
the people in Jenin camp, we in the human rights community and the
government
are two hands of the same body - good cop/bad cop. We come and wring our
hands and send aid afterwards, but did not/were not able to do anything
to stop what happened. We can point fingers at the other side and comfort
oursleves by saying that we must respond to this hatred, as sorry as we
may be. However, I hope that we as a society will also have the abillity
to ask the more difficult question of our contribution to creating the
hatred. As a human rights community we must figure out what we do in the
impossible situation when nobody is listening, channels of influence are
closed, the facts aren't clear and some of us ourselves are
confused.
-
- Shabbat is approaching and perhaps I will add something
when I translate this to Hebrew on Sunday. I don't feel that I have even
scratched the surface. I can understand the dilemnas about sending soldiers
into booby trapped houses, the need to protect ourselves from being blown
up, etc. Some of our members had loved ones fighting there who are good,
moral people. On the other hand, all attempts to describe, explain, debate
fade away when you are standing in Jenin. It is clear that something
happened
there that was terribly wrong. Nobody can stand amidst the destruction
and with any shred of honesty say "This was justified." All that
fills one's mind is, "WHAT HAVE WE WROUGHT?"
-
- Shabbat Shalom, Arik
-
- Postscript: Over Shabbat
I reflected on how Abraham argued with God on behalf of Sodom and Gemorrah.
Terribly evil people lived there, but Abraham challenged God - "Will
the innocent be destroyed along with the guilty?" (Genesis 18:13)
We know that God was willing to spare the entire cities if 10 righteous
people were found. When ten were not found, Lot's family was led to safety.
The army apparently did call residents to safety, but was not willing to
spare the civillians who remained (Israelis say seven have been found so
far. Palestinians say more. It is reasonable to assume that the number
will reach 10.) Some argue that all Palestinians are guilty by association,
and therefore civilians can not be considered innocent. Others no doubt
will argue that the army fulfilled its obligation after calling on people
to leave. I believe that the lesson of Genesis, Tractate Sanhedrin, and
the IDF's vaunted "Purity of Arms" is that, even with the price
to be paid should terrorists have been allowed to escape, the moral act
would have been not to rain down fire and brimstone on civillians. I
wonder,
"Where was Abraham when the decision was made?" Was there even
one person along the chain of command who argued, "Will the innocent
be destroyed along with the guilty?" We may never know. If there was,
nobody listened.. "Abraham's" are hard to come by these
days.
-
- Rabbis For Human Rights
Tel. 972 2 563-7731
Fax. 972 2 566-2815 Mobile
- 972 50607034
- info@rhr.israel.net
- Website: rhr.israel.net
-
- Arik Ascherman is a Conservative Rabbi and chair of
Rabbis
for Human
- Rights . He lives in Jerusalem
-
- http://www.tikkun.org/index.cfm/action/current/article/96.html
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