Israel has Created a Conflict of Rights

Sukkot, the Olive Harvest, and the Separation Barrier

Rabbi Arik Ascherman, Executive Director of Rabbis for Human Rights*

The most difficult moral dilemmas are not those in which there is a choice whether or not to violate a human right. The challenge is when we must choose between one right and another, in deciding which harm to cause. Recent events demonstrate how Israel has shot itself in the foot by creating an unnecessary conflict between two essential rights.

From the first of October many Palestinian families have been under great pressure to conclude the olive harvest before Ramadan begins at the end of the month. To the credit of Israel's security forces it should be said that this year they established contact with Palestinians in order to plan how they would protect harvesters. (Last year, we had to apply pressure in order to create such a plan.) However, I also must point out that Israel’s security forces have tried to prevent Palestinians from harvesting in the areas close to settlements or roads until after the Jewish holidays. (The dates given ranging from October 20-25.)

The 4th Geneva Convention bars an occupying power from moving members of its population into an occupied area, so clearly building Israeli settlements on Palestinian land is a violation of international law. Furthermore, the placement of many settlements in the middle of Palestinian olive groves has also created a conflict between the Israeli right to security and the Palestinian rights of both security and access to their land.

We are after another terrible terror attack in Haifa just before Yom Kippur, and there continue to be a large number of warnings regarding additional planned terrorist attempts. Therefore, orders went out the day after Yom Kippur to enforce a closure on Palestinian areas for at least an additional 10 days. As a result, the gates in the Separation Barrier have continued to be closed. (Every year there is a closure for Yom Kippur, which this year began two days earlier.)

Certainly, Israel has the right and responsibility to defend her citizens. For me, this is personal. My family and friends are daily at risk. However, while we are debating whether or not the Separation Barrier will run east of Ariel [a large Israeli settlement built on Palestinian land in the West Bank], the fact is that the current route of the Barrier runs from meters to 6 kilometers inside Palestinian land. (Even when the Barrier "takes" only a few meters of land, it cuts the economic lifeline of the many Palestinian families whose lands fall within those few meters.)

On October 8th I waited with the Palestinian farmers of Jayyous to see if Israeli security forces would open the Barrier gate. Here the Barrier runs 6 kilometers east of the Green Line [that marks the international recognized border between Israel and the West Bank of Palestine]. Not only were families waiting to harvest their olives, but also there were greenhouse owners who knew that their produce on the other side of the Barrier was dying for lack of water.

When it became clear that the Israeli soldiers had no intention of opening the gate, the tension grew between farmers fearful for their lands and livelihood and soldiers fearful because of the security warnings. After farmers broke through the gate to reach their land, an agreement between Palestinians and the Israeli security forces was reached allowing the gate to be closed again, in return for a guarantee that the farmers on their land could return home safely at the end of the day.

In the afternoon, as the army was searching nearby for a terrorist trying to enter Israel, an angry Israeli army commander showed up at the gate, declaring he would not honor the agreement. Soon the soldiers made arrests and fired teargas at the crowd demonstrating against the gate closure. In the end, however, cooler heads prevailed and everyone was released.

It is beyond the mandate of Rabbis for Human Rights to get into the question of whether or not Israel should build the Separation Barrier. This is for the politicians and defense experts to decide. But the ROUTE of the Barrier is a human rights issue, because of the land confiscated to build the Barrier and the restricted access to the lands between the Barrier and the Green Line.

Were the Barrier to be located on the Green Line (or on the Israeli side of the Green Line), Israel could close the gates in the Barrier in order to protect my family and fellow Israelis without endangering the livelihood of the farmers of Jayyous.

The Midrash teaches us that each of the "Four Species" of the Lulav we shake throughout Sukkot (palm branch, etrog, myrtle, and willow) represent a different part of the populace. We shake all four together to symbolize that each one of these groups is important.

Today Jewish Israelis must ask, "Who, for us, is the populace?" If we believe in the intrinsic worth of every single human being, because each person is created in God's image, there is no justification for creating an unnecessary conflict between the right of Israelis to self defense and the right of Palestinians to work their land and support themselves with dignity.

*Edited slightly by Robert Traer. The original essay by Rabbi Ashcherman entitled "Israel has created a conflict between rights" is available on the Rabbis for Human Rights web site at http://rhr.israel.net/pencraft/israelhascreatedaconflictbetweenrights.shtml.

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