Lefties and Righties

Today was the first of three in my week of tiyulim, or trips. (Tomorrow is some historical rabbinic period stuff plus hiking and hanging out with Israelis and Thursday is the Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem). We went to see the separation barrier that serves as a temporary divider between Israel and Palestinian areas. It was first time seeing it up close in its various incarnations (as a large cement wall and as a chain link type fence). It was a pretty interesting couple of hours.

We started at an amazing viewpoint where we could see the barrier winding its way around the city and Arab villages. I took a lot of pictures that should be up soon. We went down to the wall itself and got close enough to touch it. We saw Gilo, a Jerusalem neighborhood that has been a target for Palestinians in a nearby village. Finally, we ended the day by looking at memorials erected for those who died in terrorist attacks at the hands of Palestinians.

Our guide was a rabbi from Rabbis for Human Rights. He began by saying that he would attempt to be objective, meaning that he would try to present the Israeli perspective as well as the Palestinian. It was a valiant effort that pretty much got lost, and I think he would have been better off had he not made that claim. As expected, he focused much of his discussion on the feelings of Palestinians and how the barrier has adversely affected their lives. I was particularly moved by the issue of limited access to nearby health care and I wonder why it's not higher on the list of priorities for aid organizations or advocacy groups like Rabbis for Human Rights. In any case, when he presented the Israeli perspective, he talked about how the barrier has significantly reduced the number of terrorist attacks, how the fence includes Jewish settlements within it rather than aligning itself with the 1967 borders, how Israelis have died including people he personally knew, but it wasn't surprising that his presentation focused more on the Palestinians.

I believe that his presentation to us was no different than a presentation he would generally give to RHR groups, and it did not go over very well with our group. It really made me take a step back and ask myself how to more effectively utilize texts from the Jewish tradition to make connections and inspire actions and moral imperatives. There were times where it was simply patronizing to offer third year rab students Torah texts in translation and blatantly say, "this text teaches X" when it was obviously a stretch and the connections weren't appropriate. For example, he said that it is our obligation to help the stranger in our midst as it is one of the most often repeated commandments in the Torah. Yet, the contextual meaning of the texts he was citing do not seem to include a foreigner who actually lives here in this country, sharing the land, many of whom do not acknowledge our right to be here, want to harm us and do not accept any responsibility for the current situation. It was troubling to say the least because the text and his conclusions were a bit false in my opinion. And he crossed the line by trying to connect it to the ghettoizing of Jews in Europe.

One thing I think I would do would be to offer various texts in Hebrew and English and have us think through them for a short while and offer our own views on how to apply the messages of the text or not.

There was a time toward the start of the outing where he referred to Ezekiel and how God told him to have someone patrol the walls of the city on a lookout for the enemy in order to alert the people. I liked how he made a connection to us serving as lookouts for our society to find where people are needy, hungry and suffering in order to take action. I found that to be an inspiring way to connect to the message of the prophets and to attempt to live out their words in our day.

Another issue from the day: I am uncomfortable with issues that seem to turn people into lefties and righties, liberals and conservatives. I felt today that I was being lumped into a right leaning category when I don't view myself that way at all. In light of my social justice work and beliefs in our obligations as Jews and human beings, I cannot believe that challenging the views and the actions of a group like Rabbis for Human Rights makes me less of a liberal thinking person. On the other side, I also disagree that my views opposing home demolitions in Palestinian areas mean that I am against something like a separation barrier.

Finally, our rabbi guide tried to get us to reinterpret the adage: good fences make good neighbors in a way that felt forced. On that topic, however, I believe that Jews need to be involved in helping Palestinians on the grassroots level in areas of basic human needs since we are neighbors and many people rely on Israel for their livelihood. I hope that the fence as it currently stands is indeed only temporary. Lastly, while it is often challenging, I would like more than anything to find a good neighbor on the opposite side of the fence.