Rabbis For Human Rights: The Annual Report 2012-2013

Some memories from RHR’s work this year by Yonatan Shefa
Rabbinical Student Assistant in the Department of Human Rights in the Occupied Territories
My favorite RHR moment this
year was early one morning in
the South Hebron Hills, just after
sunrise. We brought a group out
to dig a reservoir for a Palestinian
farmer. Earlier, RHR had helped
him confirm ownership of his land
in the courts. The spot where we
were working is surrounded by
Israeli settlements on the nearby
hilltops. As I was getting ready to
pray Shacharit beside a nearby
well, a Palestinian shepherd
arrived to water his flock. There I
stood, kippah on my head, tzitzit
swaying with my movements. I
could have been anyone from
the nearby settlements. He eyed
me nervously. When he opened
the well to discover that the rope
had been cut and there was no
bucket to draw water, he turned to
leave. “Wait,” I said in a mixture
of Hebrew and broken Arabic,
“we’ve got a rope and bucket.” I
ran back to our worksite, got what
we needed, and ran back to him.
Then together we drew water and
poured it out for the sheep. We
talked about his home, how long
his family had been living in the
area and relations with the nearby
settlements. Just that simple act, of
being openly Jewish and helping
a Palestinian who didn’t know
me from Adam to water his flock,
helping him to be economically
viable in his own homeland, felt
like the essence of our work to
me.
So many of my cherished moments
involve being openly Jewish in a
context where the association
with Jews is fearful, hateful, or
both. Sitting in a room of about
forty Arab men visiting their father
and relative who had been beaten
up by Jews… Going to assess the
damage to a Palestinian farmer’s
Just that simple act,
of being openly
Jewish and helping
a Palestinian who
didn’t know me from
Adam to water his
flock, helping him
to be economically
viable in his own
homeland, felt like
the essence of our
work to me.
trees after nearly a hundred and
fifty had been cut down. So many
instances of this…
Taking a group of Israeli and
Palestinian religious leaders on
an expedition into the wilderness
to break down barriers and build
mutual understanding. Getting
caught in the rain, finding shelter,
and ending up wearing one another’s
clothes. Then, after sunset, davening
Aravit in a tiny room surrounded by
Palestinians, followed by bearing
intimate witness to their own
evening prayers.
Countless visits to the Jahalin
Bedouin, countless cups of tea
and coffee, even though I don’t
drink coffee. Having a heart-toheart
talk with a Palestinian pastor
about the possibility for peace and
co-existence, discovering how
much we see things the same, and
how much we feel differently. One
of the most difficult and rewarding
conversations I’ve had this year.
Yonatan’s position with RHR is one
of four in various RHR departments
made possible by a generous grant
from the Asia Tan Foundation to
introduce rabbinic students and
young rabbis to the possibility of
human rights work as a part of
their rabbinical functions.
OT Legal Department
RHR’s OT legal department, led by Adv. Quamar Mishirqi-Assad, comprises four full-time attorneys, two field
workers and a legal advisor. The primary focus of our work is preventing or reversing the takeover of Palestinian
lands and ensuring that Palestinian farmers can safely access those lands, Currently, two dormant or simmering
issues are coming to a head and the coming year will largely determine whether the cave dwellers of the South
Hebron Hills hold on to their lands. The first is a renewed attempt to expel the residents of eight Palestinian villages
to create “Live Firing Zone 918,“ and the renewed attempt to wipe Susya off the map. Stemming from our longstanding
goal to end administrative home demolitions, we have a twice postponed High Court appeal to return
planning for Palestinian communities in Area C to Palestinian hands. Much of RHR’s work centers on the South
Hebron Hills and Shilo Valley, and we have had several important successes this year returning land, winning
compensation, and renewing long-denied access. Our growth plan is to find the resources allowing us to build
on our experience and apply it throughout the Occupied Territories. In the past year we have begun to expand,
particularly into the Bethlehem region. We work closely with Kerem Navot, which employs aerial photographs
to understand the history of land takeovers. In the South Hebron Hills we enjoy a strategic partnership with
Ta’ayush, whose activists accompany Palestinians accessing their lands, and with Breaking the Silence, which
engages in advocacy, media work and alternative tourism. We work also with additional Israeli, Palestinian and
international organizations, including Comet, JLAC, Bimkom and B’Tselem.
Over the past year, RHR has
steadily increased its resources
and capacity to take on an
unprecedented number of legal
cases and to raise awareness
of the plight of Palestinian land
owners in the South Hebron
Hills, both among Israelis and the
international community. Together
with our partner organizations
Ta’ayush and Breaking the Silence,
RHR has been able to elevate our
work in the South Hebron Hills to
new levels. There and elsewhere
in the Occupied Territories, we
have achieved important and
sometimes extraordinary reversals
of the ongoing Israeli annexation
of land.
In this past year, RHR has had
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