Category Archives: Advocacy

In the Name of Judaism – Thoughts on Parshat “Chayei Sarah”

Rabbi Lana Zilberman Soloway shares testemony from a soldier in the IDF as well as her own observations from a visit to the historic city of Hebron in the West Bank where up to 800 soldiers are stationed to protect settlers.

Many things happened to our mother Sarah during her lifetime, but the the greatest impact she had on the Jewish future was in her death.

“Sarah died at Kiryat Arba, that is Hebron, in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went to mourn for Sarah and to weep over her”. (Genesis 233, 2) Continue reading →

Avi Dabush: Settler Militias are Terror Organizations and those they attack must be recognized as Victims of Terror!

Rabbis for Human Rights Executive Director, Avi Dabush, in a special hearing before the Knesset Law and Constitution Committee (Chaired by MK Rabbi Gilad Kariv), held following attack on our activists this past Friday in the West Bank village of Burin: “This hearing was held following one of the most brutal attacks that we have seen in our many years of activism. Masked men, with no fear of God, attacked with clubs and stones, our volunteers, some of them over 80 years old, thinking that they can impose their vision of Jewish supremacy over the land, from which Palestinian farmers must sustain themselves while living under impossible circumstances.

“I expect that out of this committee, from the Government and from law enforcement to act swiftly to declare these Jewish militias as terror groups and the people harmed by their violence as victims of terror. We demand the mapping and evacuating these illegal outposts. Continue reading →

Avi Dabush: Planting Trees With Palestinians in the West Bank, Because Evil Doesn’t Rest for Shemita

This column was written before the demonstrations by Bedouin and their supporters in the Negev began, and before right-wing Knesset members turned from their parliamentary work in order to, in an unprecedented fashion, “devote themselves” to agricultural work with the aim of setting the Negev on fire. The article was written about our work in the OPT, but the words in it are doubly relevant after seeing how JNF tree planting has become a symbol of violence and hatred in the Negev.

Jewish supremacy and Jewish terrorism are disgusting and shocking, especially when one remembers that Judaism is rooted in standing up to power. The culture of violence found in Jewish rioting gangs is dangerous and requires us to correct it. Continue reading →

Be With Us: From the Harvest, To Planting and Accompanying Palestinian Shepherds

Following a successful harvest season, in which volunteers went out to harvest with Palestinian over 700 individual times in the Northern West Bank. There, on the ground and in the olive trees the truth of solidarity was revealed. Standing together for justice, peace and human rights is the only way that each olive harvested will grow again into another tree that can be harvested in peace and with equality.

Unfortunately, the harvest this year, while it was a success in terms of how many people we brought out, the solidarity and awareness we raised, we cannot help but be profoundly disturbed by the frustration, anger, pain of the farmers. Continue reading →

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

Sign up to the RHR newsletter here

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.