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By Rabbi David Eliezrie
May 27, 2005
Prime Minister Sharon came to the AIPAC Convention last week in Washington to drum up support for this plan to forcibly transfer close to ten thousand Jews from Gush Katif-Gaza and the northern West Bank. Other Israeli official are slated to follow in the quest for enlisting the support of American Jews.
For months Israeli officials and pundits have been telling American Jews "Stay home, its all right to send a few dollars, but don't come to protest, don't tell us what to do". That argument doesn't hold water any more. If Sharon can campaign in the US, then American Jews can march together with their brethren in Israel.
American Jews can make some important contributions to the extremely contentious debate. Americans understand the need for democratic non-violent protest. They recognize the limits of dissent. To Americans Dr. Martin Luther King stands as a model of non-violence. They also know that King faced police forces that abused their power and used intimidation and violence to stifle debate.
Just ask New York State Assembly member Dov Hikind who led a group of New York Jews including two New York Supreme Court judges to the Jewish communities in Gaza before Passover. When they arrived in Lod airport they were subject to an interrogation that lasted nearly an hour. Helen Friedman, who is close to sixty, was wearing an anti disengagement t-shirt and was chastised by police during the questioning. This was far from an isolated incident
Religious Jews with yamulkes where banned from entry to a speech Prime Minster Sharon gave in Eilat a month ago. Some took off their head coverings and went to a second entrance. Following that incident, Yediot Achronot columnist Yarom London wrote a piece that a yamulke on a Jews' head is a warning sign, and it was right to ban them from Sharon's speech.
Reports from demonstrations inside Israel tell a story of intimidation. There have been reports of arrests without cause and the use of administrative detention. An anxious father told me of a visit of a group of Yeshiva students, including his son, to Gush Katif. Standing in the center of town, they were questioned by police and then arrested and held for no reason for hours. They had come more out curiosity then anything else. Demonstrations were not on their agenda. And if they were, what is wrong with peaceful protest; is that not part of the democratic tradition?
Israeli authorities seem to be using the same tactics against the settlers that they did seven and eight years ago against protestors of the Oslo Accords. At the time I appeared on a debate sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles. That day all the leaders of the Zo Artzainu, an anti-Oslo group, had been arrested in Israel. One of the leaders who had been in LA and came to the debate, confided in me: "They came to my house looking for me, and when I return home in a few days, they will lock me up". In the middle of the debate I made the issue public and told the deputy Consul General that if he was arrested, every Orthodox Rabbi in LA would speak about it during services on Rosh Hashanah. He was never arrested.
American Jews need to put the Israeli government on notice that they will strongly protest any stifling of democratic dissent; that any effort to illegally detain non-violent protestors, to use administration detention, will be met with public condemnation.
At the same time, American Jews need to tell their friends in the settler movement that violence of any kind is unacceptable. They have the right to peacefully resist the forced removal from their homes. As Americans, we value the rule of law and understand that the soldier carrying out the orders of the government, as painful as it may be, follows the orders of his commander.
Americans bring an outsiders' perspective at a time where the debate has been so stifled in Israel. Much of the press is one sided. For instance, a Maariv poll showed that support for the expulsion has dropped dramatically in the last few weeks. Sharon got Knesset support after budget allocations to Agudah Shas and Shinui. The party leaders may be voting with Sharon but its clear that the grassroots are not behind the disengagement. As a religiuos Jew from Ashkelon told me in Jerusalem recently, "Most of us are against Sharon's plan, but we need the Gelt, the Yeshivas are suffering".
Israelis are worn down and tired of a hundred years of conflict. It was this kind of desperation that brought them to sign the Oslo Accords. It's clear to all the fiasco that was.
Grass roots efforts have begun around the country. An LA-based group, savegushkatif.org has launched an impressive web site full of information. In New York, a few thousand protested Sharon's visit last week. We will continue, as many of us did ten years ago coming as a friend and brother saying, "Be careful; this may be the next major blunder. Great generals make great mistakes. Napoleon had his Waterloo, both Rabin and Sharon have been great patriots, but neither are infallible."
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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