Category Archives: Advocacy

Support the 2021 Olive Harvest!

The 2021 Olive Harvest is RHR’s way to move human rights forward! From the virtual world to the actual world, RHR is busy making human rights a reality. Struggling against violence and hate, planting seeds of solidarity with each olive harvested, RHR is Moving Forward for Human Rights!

Today we are changing the future together. We are out in the groves, harvesting in solidarity with Palestinian olive farmers. We stand for THE PALESTINIAN RIGHT TO FARM THEIR OLIVES in peace and in security, free of violence and free of oppression!”

Donate… Make each olive count for justice and for peace!
Thank you for your support and for Moving Human Rights Forward!

In its 19th year of working on the olive harvest, RHR volunteers were out in the occupied West Bank village of Awarta to help with the olive harvest. It was the first day of the season for our volunteers. We are proud to stand with our Palestinian partners who face violent harassment & restrictions under the occupation. You can continue this work from anywhere in the world by being a supporter.

If you would like to donate to BFRHR, you can find more information on the Donations page

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The 2021 Olive Harvest is fast approaching

The 2021 Olive Harvest with RHR and Palestinian Olive Farmers is fast approaching. We look forward to our 19th year leading volunteers into the West Bank to help Palestinian farmers harvest olives and to stand with them in solidarity against settler violence, against interference by the military and against the indifference that allows for their rights to be trampled year after year. Continue reading →

Bringing the Torah of Human Rights to the Field

RHR Begins Its Palestinian Shepard Accompaniment Project in the Jordan Valley with a Fact Finding Tour, led by RHR’s Human Rights in the OPT Department Director, Rabbi Elhanan Miller.

In a new project for RHR we will now regularly bring teams of rabbis to the northern Jordan Valley to work with Palestinian shepherds regularly under threat of harassment and violence by settlers and the security forces as they eke out their traditional livelihood of tending to theirflocks.

In order to engage with our growing membership and to learn more about the increasingly untenable situation for Palestinians in the Jordan Valley we conducted this fact finding tour and look forward to contributing to the protection of Palestinian human rights in Area C via activism in the field and through advocacy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you would like to donate to BFRHR, you can find more information on the Donations page

 

 

Olive Harvest 2020: Support the Harvest

Rabbi Yehiel Grenimann, member of Rabbis for Human Rights Board of Directors, speaks from the olive groves in the West Bank Village of Burin to remind us that the Palestinians’ struggle for human rights is also out struggle as Jews who live by the sacred commandment, “love your neighbour as you love yourself”.

My Dear Friends and Supporters, Continue reading →

Olive Harvest 2020: A Volunteer Report

The Olive Harvest is a unique opportunity for Israeli and overseas volunteers to learn about human rights in the occupied West Bank and stand/act in solidarity with Palestinian farmers who are under constant threats of violence and harassment by nearby settlers. Rabbis for Human Rights is now organizing the annual Olive Harvest for the 18th time. Continue reading →

Letter to the Israeli Ambassador to the UK

Led by Rabbis Sylvia Rothschild and Alexandra Wright, Co-Chairs of the British Friends of Rabbis for Human RIghts, over 30 British Rabbis have sent a letter to the Israeli chargé d’affaires, Sharon Bar-Li, urging the Israeli Government to abandon its plans unilaterally to annex West Bank territory as a “travesty of Jewish teachings”.  Read the full letter here.

Rabbis for Human Rights Newsletter: Be a part of the struggle for Human Rights and Social Justice

Participants with sings that read "A Jewish Voice Against Annexation". Click here for more pictures

Participants with signs that read “A Jewish Voice Against Annexation”. Click here for more pictures

This week:

Rabbis for Human Rights and Oz VeShalom Hold Public Protest Vigil and Prayer for Peace: A Religious Jewish Voice Against Annexation. At the Vigil Rabbis for Human Rights Releases Rabbinic Letter Against the Annexation with 140 Signatures of Israeli Rabbis from a Variety of Denominations. Continue reading →

The Emergency Social Justice Hotline in the Shadow of the Covid-19 Crisis

Many places around the world are in various stages of dealing with horrific consequences of the Covid-19 health crisis. Far too many people got sick and far too many people died. Our hearts go out to those who lost their fight and we mourn with the families.

We are in awe of the people who were and are on the front line of this terrible struggle: Continue reading →

Rabbi Michael Marmur at BFRHR AGM

At the British Friends of Rabbis for Human Rights’ AGM on 9 December 2019, Rabbi Michael Marmur delivered the below speech, reproduced here with his permission.

At this time of year we read the Torah passage relating Jacob’s dream and try to interpret what it means. There are three clues as to what it is about:-

  1. A psychological reason for the wrestling. It takes place at the Ford Yabbok, which is a word play on the consonants in Jacob’s name. It is a struggle with himself as he tries to work out how we are meant to live in this world.
  2. A struggle with God in the guise of an angel. Jacob is trying to work out a theology and a religious response. There is an element of modernity in the struggle of the human with the divine.
  3. Another possibility is that he is wrestling with the spirit of his brother, Esau, of whom he is afraid. It is a drama of not only encountering ourselves and God but what happens in the struggle with the other – our brother.

Continue reading →