We Need A Nonviolent Lincoln (Torah) Brigade: Shavuot
I hope that I will be able to send this before the advent of the Shavuot holiday. I and six other human rights defenders are here in Mukhmas to prevent a repeat of this past Friday’s horrors in this village. The settlers are making it clear that Mukhmas is the next in line after they succeeded in setting up an outpost on the edge of Mgheyer al Dir that caused this shepherding community of 25 families to flee despite our 24/7 presence. Neither security forces nor our courts nor the international community did anything to protect the unprotected. The grand finale was Shabbat a week ago as settlers hordes attacked residents dismantling there homes and trying to save their meager possessions. They put one Israeli human rights defenders and 12 Palestinians in hospitals. I was still in the US, having not been able to cut short my trip and return early. But the Palestinians report that if the army and police had not finally arrived the armed settlers would have murdered the mukhtar and his son.
Unfortunately this was not sufficient to convince Israel’s High Court judges on Monday that they are living in a parallel universe if they expect Israeli security forces to protect Palestinians. What we saw on Shabbat and see so often is that even when there is willingness by the security forces to protect Palestinians, the closer the settlers are living to Palestinian communities, the less chance that forces can arrive in time. Yes, they thank God prevented murder, but only after many were injured before they arrived. To the best of my knowledge and as reported in Haaretz, no settlers were arrested.
The judges said that they would only consider ordering the removal of the outpost responsible for the violent expulsion of the remaining Wadi A Seeq community that had not already fled in the preceding months before the final expulsion at gunpoint on October 12th 2023 if the shepherds proved that the police and army who didn’t protect them on the day of the expulsion or ever can’t or won’t protect them. The judges said that they must prove this by taking the risk of trying to return, potentially putting themselves at the mercy of the same settlers, and seeing what happens. I didn’t think there was any chance that the community would agree to put their lives and wellbeing in the hands of the same forces that have up until now failed them. But currently living in desperate circumstances, we were authorized to reply to the court that they will try to return if there is 24/7 protection either by the army or by a private security firm. The State does fund private security firms to protect settlers.
And below you can find more about how settlers prayed, danced, blew the shofar, and then wrought destruction in Mukhmas while threatening the residents that they would murder whoever remained and burn their homes.
All this further reinforces what I wrote last Shavuot. We have been counting the omer since the day after seder night, counting the days towards Sinai. If I have said for many years that we are in the Land but still on the way to Sinai, we are now getting further and further from Sinai. I have no optimistic or inspiring Shavuot message as we ought to be preparing tonight to be present as the Torah descends from the heavens.
RATHER, I AM ISSUING A CALL FOR A NON VIOLENT LINCOLN BRIGADE.
While our brigade must be as inclusive as possible, on the anniversary of Revelation at Sinai, I would like to think of it as a Torah Brigade.
We will not take up arms, as did those who joined the fight against Franco’s fascist forces. It is not an option to only band together with those who think exactly like you. We must have hundreds, be you Zionist, non-Zionist anti-Zionist, religious or secular who are willing to leave your current and perhaps comfortable lives to come here to non-violently resist the settlers and their supporters. We will not be affiliated with any political party or movement as was the Lincoln Brigade. We need rabbis from as many of the streams of Judaism as possible who by their putting their bodies on the line will make it clear that the way of the settlers is idolatrous and a desecration of God’s Name.
It is not longer sufficient to support from afar. Not from London. Not from New York. Not from Tel Aviv We have seen so clearly that, while we will continue to try everything, we cannot rely on Israeli courts, international courts or foreign governments. Only you can stop the evil and in some small way redeem Judaism (or whatever tradition you come from).
On the eve of the day that our tradition says the Revelation at Sinai took place, we must each ask what is the meaning of that revelation when so many burn, injure, destroy, dispossess, and expel, saying that this is Torah.
Who will prove them wrong by joining a non violent Torah Brigade?
On Friday some 10 settlers, some of them armed, entered Mukhmas. They prayed and blew the shofar and wandered around the village. They entered a home and destroyed a kitchen, ripped apart a tent. and slashed three tires of the car of one of our volunteers. They threatened residents that they would kill them and burn their homes. THEY MADE IT VERY CLEAR THAT THEY WILL CONTINUE UNTIL THE FAMILIES FLEE. The shepherds have moved women, children and flocks further into the actual village, as they try to save their neighborhood. Last summer they just moved flocks after Torat Tzedek funded animal pens. They had been slowly moving them back.
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