Text and Action from Rabbis for Human Rights

Rabbis for Human Rights

Text and Action from Rabbis for Human Rights

Thank you for all of you who have already pledged to our Olive Trees for Peace campaign. We request that pledges for the Olive Trees campaign should be in addition to, not instead of, annual contributions for general support of RHR.

What follows is the teaching from Jewish texts that is guiding our action, together with our over-all plan for action during the next year. (Of course this might change in the light of experience.)

Text:

"When in your war against a city you have to besiege it a long time in order to capture it, you must not destroy its trees" (Deuteronomy, 20:19)

On Tu B'Shvat and afterward, Rabbis for Human Rights will act in response to cutting down and uprooting of tens of thousands of Palestinian olive trees by Israeli security forces and Israeli citizens:

1. "We support non-Jews (planting trees in the land of Israel) during the Sabbatical year." (Tractate Gittin p.62A).

RHR will support Palestinians by financially and emotionally helping them plant trees on Tu B'Shvat on Thursday February 8, 2001.

2. "When a person lets his/her livestock loose to graze in another's land, and so allows a field or vineyard to be grazed bare, s/he must make restitution for the impairment of that field or vineyard" (Exodus, 22:4).

RHR is requesting donations for general support for Palestinian families whose trees have been uprooted. The cost is $150 per tree per year.

3. "There are eight rungs of Tzedakah; the highest of these, of which there is no higher is... to aid a person in a way that they will no longer need to depend on others."
(Maimonides, Laws of Gifts to the Poor 10:7).

RHR is selling the olive oil of families that can't sell olive oil themselves due to the closure.

Donations, in addition to and not instead of annual general donations to RHR, can be sent directly to RHR, Yitzhak Elhanan 2 Jerusalem 92141 Israel, Bank HaPoalim branch 782, acct. #153380, or as donor advised tax deductible donations to The Shefa Fund or the New Israel Fund.

Please inform us directly of all bank transfers and donations, so that the money will be allocated properly. For further details: Rabbi Arik Ascherman, Executive Director of Rabbis for Human Rights, 011 972 2-563-7731, 011 972 50 607034, info@rhr.israel.net

On Tu B'Shvat, we will begin a year-long campaign to protest and address the terrible effects of the siege being laid to Palestinian communities, particularly the uprooting and cutting down of trees. We will

1. Assist Palestinians in replanting trees.

2. Provide assistance to families whose trees will take 6-10 years to regenerate ($150 per tree per year.)

3. Engage in Maimonides' highest rung of Tzedakah by helping to market Palestinian olive oil.

If all goes well, we hope to have supporters from around the world join us for the culmination of this campaign next Tu B'Shvat.

1. On Tu B'Shvat, together with B'Tselem, RHR will assist Palestinians in the planting of olive trees in various locations. (While a halakhic argument can be made that Jews can plant trees during the Sabbatical Year even in the Land of Israel, we will respect religious sensibilities by assisting financially and spiritually, but will not physically plant in the location which RHR will be in charge of.)

As we have said in the past, the activity will only proceed if our Palestinian contact people advise us that there is no undue risk, but this is not a risk free activity. Rabbi Simkha Weintraub in New York and Rabbi Arthur Waskow in Philadelphia and hopefully others will be assisting in this campaign from North America.

2. At the moment, we do not have a way of marketing olive oil abroad. Locally, a 17 liter jerrycan is NIS 325. One liter is NIS 25.

We are in part organizing this campaign because a number of you have sought us out and asked about helping Palestinians replant. Locally and abroad contributions for both trees and sustaining families can be sent to us directly (Yitzhak Elhanan 2, Jerusalem 92141, Bank HaPoalim branch 782, act. #153380) or as tax deductible contributions via The Shefa Fund or the New Israel Fund earmarked for RHR.

(Please let us know that you have sent a contribution or are pledging so that we can authorize expenditures before actually receiving your contribution and so that your pledge will not be confused with general funds.)

B'Vrakha,
Rabbi Arik Ascherman
Rabbis For Human Right
info@rhr.israel.net
Tel. 972 2 563-7731
Fax: 972 2 566-2815
Mobile: 972 50 607034
Website: http://www.rhr.israel.net