I am not comfortable with the amount of attention around my arrest. Many Silwan residents have been arrested and I am not even the first Israeli to be arrested there. However, I am grateful for all of the support and if the fact that people know me helps to uncover the injustice and discrimination taking place in Silwan, than so be it. As advocate Gabi Laski said in court today, it is “eifa v’eifa.”

Rabbis for Human Rights’ Executive Director, Rabbi Arik Ascherman, was released from prison on Friday upon signing a restraining order agreeing not to organize demonstrations in Silwan in the next fifteen days. His lawyers said the restraining order will be appealed.

Rabbi Arik Ascherman was arrested Thursday evening while he was being investigated regarding events that occurred in Silwan on Wednesday morning We have been reporting the work of Rabbis for Human Rights in attempting to protect the Arab residents of Silwan, the neighborhood just south of the Temple mount, from being displaced.

The State of Israel has given the full responsibility and control over the archaeological sites in Silwan to Elad, an Association dedicated to the Judaization of Silwan. Elad has created a method of expelling citizens from their properties, appropriating public areas, enclosing these lands with fences and guards, and banning the entrance of the local residents.

Rabbis for Human Rights North America joins our collegues in Israel in extending our condolences to the families of the victims of the tragic shooting at the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva on March 6th. In a letter to the families of the victims, our Israeli colleagues wrote: "Together with the entire Jewish people and human rights supporters everywhere, we share your grief and pain and pray that God will comfort you. It is hard to comprehend the fact that the cycle of violence continues without end, and we can only hope that soon enough the day will come when all people will understand that we are all created in God's image and the most basic right – the right to live – will not be brutally taken away. We pray that the memory of your loved one will be a source of comfort and strength at this sorrowful time."

On March 8, as expected, President Bush vetoed the Intelligence Authorization Act, which would have restricted the CIA to interrogation methods found in the Military Field Manual and outlawed without exception the use of waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques. In his weekly radio address, the President defended his decision as a matter of national security, saying “We have no higher responsibility than stopping terrorist attacks. And this is no time for Congress to abandon practices that have a proven track record of keeping America safe.”

Just south of the Temple Mount is the mixed neighborhood of Silwan. Arab residents have long complained that they are gradually being pushed out of the area. Governmental and quasi-governmental agencies have expropriated lands as for archaeological sites.
RHR Israel reports:

The State of Israel has given the full responsibility and control over the archaeological sites in Silwan to Elad, an Association dedicated to the Judaization of Silwan. Elad has created a method of expelling citizens from their properties, appropriating public areas, enclosing these lands with fences and guards, and banning the entrance of the local residents.

» read more 

Israel could well make allies of the Bedouin and indeed in varous times in its history it has done so. Now though, human rights issues relating to the Beduoin keep on arising. Here, for instance is the latest RHR-Israel report of activities against the Bedouin:

It is sometimes hard to figure out who are allies and who are opponents of efforts to stop torture. The United States Senate which has found it difficult to get any controversial legislation passed the filibuster blockade has finally passed an amendment to the intelligence authorization bill requiring all governmental agencies, including the CIA, to comply with the directives on interrogation in the army field manual.

We invite all those who knew Ben to add their own memorials and comments. You can register at this site in order to post a comment. RHR-Israel also has a tribute to Ben.

There is a Hebrew idiom, “Sever panim yafot,” that describes the perfect attitude to strike on meeting another person. Like any idiom, it’s a phrase that is almost untranslatable. It means something like “a face that wishes good.” Pirke Avot, The Ethics of the Fathers, tells us to greet everyone “b’sever panim yafot” that is, with an expression that is inviting, with a face that communicates cheeriness that I have met you.

I always knew that when I would see Ben Hollander he would greet me with that look. He was always so happy to see me, inviting me to his home, asking after family and classmates, and it might be well into the conversation before he would share that he or a member of his family were suffering some difficulty.

Most news reports from Israel don’t cover peaceful demonstrations or joint Israeli-Palestinian activism; the media believes that what sells is conflict and bloodshed. So it falls to sites like this one to bring to people’s attention the joint activities and peaceful protests of many Jewish and Arab organizations.

The traditional Arab villages which are part of and in proximity to the Jerusalem municipality have had an especially difficult time as the new wall separating the West Bank and Israel has been constructed. Some villages have been literally cut in half with the separation wall running down their main roadway.

After having danced around the issue for years, the White House has finally admitted that it did use torture. In an astonishing statement, the White House Press officer, Tony Fratto, asserted that that the CIA had used waterboarding in the past and may use the technique again in the future.

As far as can be traced, waterboarding is a technique first employed by the Inquisition in Spain to force confessions from converted Jews and others who were suspected of not being true Christians. The prisoner’s face is pushed down into water and he or she begins to choke as the victim gasps for air. Those who have experienced the technique have no doubt that it constitutes torture.

Yesterday, in a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Mukasey once again refused to call the practice of waterboarding illegal, and did not rule out its future use. Under questioning from Senator Joseph Biden, Mukasey stated that the cruelty of torture must be balanced against the potential benefits of the information to be obtained. He is willing to engage in this balancing act even though he admitted that if he were waterboarded, he would consider that to be torture!

Anti-torture legislation is once again reaching the Senate floor. In the next few days, the Senate will be taking up the Intelligence Authorization Bill (H.R. 2082) which contains a provision (section 327) that would require all interrogations of detainees to conform to the guidelines set out in the Army Field Manual (those are the ones that Senator McCain fought for). You will recall that the CIA has been exempted from following these guidelines. This legislation is the product of a joint Congressional committee and is therefore in the very last stage of final passage.

Somehow they always blame the little guy. The Generals, the Defense Secretaries, the higher-ups see no evil and do no evil. It’s the few bad apples at the bottom that cause all the problems. At least that is what they keep telling us.The latest example is a new report by the British military that no commander was responsible for the crimes of British troops; it was just the fault of the common foot soldier. The report follows the investigation of abuses that took place during the British occupation of Basra including six deaths of detainees.

In one case Baha Mousa, a hotel receptionist, died of asphyxiation 36 hours after being detained by British soldiers. According to the New York Times, six of the seven British soldiers charged in Mr. Mousa’s death were found innocent and one received a sentence of a year in prison. The report concluded that the problem was entirely that of a individual soldiers.

As the 2008 election heats up, you have an opportunity to take action and help stop the use of torture by the CIA. As the candidates court your vote, you can ask them about their stand on torture.

As you may know, anti-torture legislation has come before the House and Senate and President Bush has threatened to veto such legislation, so our opportunity to turn the tide on the issue of torture may have to wait for the next administration to act. It is therefore important that each of the candidates who would be President be queried about their stand on torture and whether they would sign such legislation.