Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on July 28, 2022

An Israeli poll in 2017 found that politicians are the most widely seen culprits for Israeli societys deep rifts, according to fully 75% of Israeli Jewish respondents, and 67% said Ultra-orthodox rabbis and their religious establishment were also to blame. Now, after 5 years and 4 elections, the rifts have gotten worse.

In the State of Israel, where millions of Jews live together in one small geographic area, there are, and have always been, a dozen (sometimes 15+) Jewish political parties.

Is a community as divided and fragmented as Israel currently is, not in danger of disintegrating or being destroyed by its enemies? According to Talmud Yerushalmi (Sanhedrin 29c,) Rabbi Yohanan said that Israel did not go into exile until there were twenty-four (divisive) sects.

This means that some divisions (less than two dozen) are normal and necessary; but too much division (more than two dozen) is destructive.

Just as every human body is a total unity divided into many different parts (organs, bones, personality types etc.), social, political and religious bodies are also made up of many different religious, social and political parties.

Thus, while Judaism and the Jewish People have always been one religion and one nation; their one wholeness has always been the sum of many different parts.

In Biblical days, the People of Israel were divided into three or four distinct groups based on the number of Mitsvot (religious duties) they were expected to do.

First, the twelve tribes of Israel were divided into Levites, who were responsible for running the Temple in Jerusalem, and the remaining eleven tribes; with more Mitsvot applying to the Levites than the rest of Israel.

Second, the tribe of Levy was divided into the clan of Kohanim, who were responsible for the Temple service ritual offerings; and the other clans who were just regular Temple Levites, with the Kohanim being responsible to do many more Mitsvot than even the Levites.

Third, all Israelites were divided by gender; with many more Mitsvot applying to men than to women.

Although the Jerusalem Temple has not existed for more than nineteen centuries, remnants of these distinctions still do exist in Orthodox Synagogues, where there is a fixed order of four distinct hereditary categories in which Jews are called up to read Torah

First Kohanim, second Levites, third Jewish men in general and fourth; Jewish woman, who are not called up to read Torah at all.

In Conservative Synagogues there are only the first three categories, and in Reform Temples where tribal and gender equality is stressed there is only one category: Jews.

The new groups, parties and sects within the Jewish People in the post Biblical period were no longer tribal and inherited. They were geographical and cultural i.e. Hellenistic Jews and Israeli Jews; religious i.e. Scribes Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, and political; Herodians, Zealot and Sicari anti-Roman revolutionaries and disciples of the sages/rabbis.

In Medieval times diversity among new groups was reduced and constricted primarily to geography; Sephardim and Ashkenazim and to some extant to philosophy; Karaites, Kabbalists and Talmudists.

However, the Ashkenazim in the modern age are divided into several religious sects: Hassidim, Anti-hasidim, modern Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Renewal and other smaller groups.

So, is the warning of Rabbi Yohanan that Israel did not go into exile until there were twenty-four devisive sects still valid today? Yes and no.

Some divisions are normal and necessary, especially in the realm of religion. As Thomas Jefferson said: The maxim of civil government being opposite that of religion, where its true form is: Divided we stand, united we fall.' But when religions get political then extreme and intolerant division is destructive.

As we have seen, from the time of Jacobs descendants Israel has been divide into twelve tribes. From the time of Aaron descendants, the tribe of Levy has been separated from the other tribes.

From some time after the Maccabbees the Essenes and the Pharisees separated (Pharisee means separatist) from the Sadduces and by the first century there were over a dozen separate religious and political parties in Israel.

But even so there did not have to be fragmentation and destruction. The sin that caused the destruction of Jerusalem was that political and religious extremism led to unrestricted, unlimited hate.

As Eichah Rabbah 1:33 teaches: Why was the First Temple destroyed? Because of three things which existed in it: idolatry, immorality, and bloodshed. But why was the Second Temple destroyed, since at that time people were involved in study, mitzvot, and deeds of kindness? Because at that time there was senseless hatred among the Jewish people. This teaches that senseless hatred is as powerful an evil as idolatry, immorality, and bloodshed combined!

What kind of hatred and intolerance was there? After the disaster our sages said (note that all of these things were done only by some Jews): Jerusalem was destroyed only because of:

her laws were based on the strict letter of the Torah and not interpreted by ways of mercy and kindness,the morning and evening prayers were abolished.the school age children who remained untaught.the people who did not feel shame (at their hatred) toward one another.no distinction was drawn between the young and the old.one did not warn or admonish (against hating each) other.much of scholarship and learning was despised.there were no longer men of hope and faith in her midst.(Vilnay, Legends of Jerusalem, citing Shabbat 119b, Yoma 9b, Tosefta Menahot 13:22, Yalkut Shimoni Isaiah 394, Seder Eliyahu Zuta 15:11)

Or as Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai (who was there) remarked in the account of Kamza and Bar Kamza,Through the strict scrupulousness of Rabbi Zechariah ben Abkulas our homeland was destroyed, ourTemple burnt, and we ourselves were exiled from our land. (Gittin 55b-56a)

The Talmud (Shabbat 119b) relates that Rabbi Hanina said, Jerusalem was destroyed only because its inhabitants did not reprove one another. Israel in that generation kept their faces looking down to the ground and did not reprove one another. Rabbi Hanina doesnt mention any one specific action that was so reprehensible that it doomed the city.

Perhaps it was something like the decision of some ultra-Orthodox Rabbis to declare null and void the conversions of thousands of Jews, by proclaiming the radical innovation of retroactive annulment of thousand of orthodox conversions that took place in Israel in previous years. The sad fact is that most other Rabbis in Israel failed to publicly reprove these zealots for violating the Torahs commandments to both love converts and not in any way oppress them.

Thus, it was not just the variety of parties and sects that doomed Jerusalem in the first century. It was the unrestrained hatred resulting from the strict, uncompromising, overly self-righteous, intolerance of many of the parties that doomed Jerusalem.

That is why our sages decreed a special blessing to be said when we see a very large population of Jews, who because of their great numbers must include more sects of Jews than we ourselves usually associate with: Blessed is the Sage of Esoterica, for the opinion of each (Jew) is different from the other, just as the face of each (Jew) is different from the other. (Berakhot 58a)

The problem was not that they differed with each other. The problem was that some of them hated each other with a hatred that was unrestrained by their teachers, and unfettered by the leaders who were close to them. Although teaching this blessing was to late to save Jerusalem and its Holy Temple, our sages learned a very important lesson from that bitter experience.

This lesson and this blessing needs to be relearned by all Jewish political and religious leaders today, so that Jerusalem will not again be destroyed.

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The 9th Of Av: Divided, The Jewish People Stands OpEd - Eurasia Review

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Posted By admin on July 28, 2022

Judaism prescribes tremendous respect for our teachers. Yet even though we know that, the reverence of your teacher must be like the reverence of Heaven (Avot 4:12), there is one important difference. Heaven (God) doesnt make mistakes.

So what should we do when convinced that a master teacher is wrong? I am not talking about the quasi-democratic setting of the beit midrash which allows anyone regardless of age, rank or IQ to challenge anyone else. However once the teacher has made a decision, the student must generally accept the teachers position, whether he agrees with it or not. But that doesnt mean that he cannot subtly try to change the teachers mind. The main question is how.

The biggest difficulty in convincing a master teacher he is wrong is that his positions are generally not taken in isolation. They are part of a larger complex of ideas, many of which touch upon a structured vision of how to look at the world. Not only does that mean that more is at stake; it also means that a masters position is buttressed by a great deal of thought.

The Talmud (Sanhedrin 101) recounts two stories about Rabbi Akivas visit to his sick teacher, Rabbi Eliezer, which may be helpful in this regard. Though subject to debate, it would make sense to locate this visit at some point between the two key stories about their relationship, Rabbi Eliezers excommunication by the other rabbis (Bava Metzia 59) and the scene played out before his death (Sanhedrin 67-68).

From Rabbi Akivas perspective, his teachers excommunication had been justified. Knowing with certainty that he was right about a certain case (Akhnais oven), Rabbi Eliezer had refused to concede to the majority, thereby defying the Torahs clearly articulated rules. True, he had received some heavenly encouragement to stake out such a position. Nevertheless, his colleagues understood that if left unchecked he would be creating an impossible precedent. And yet it would appear that Rabbi Eliezer never gave in. As far as his colleagues were concerned, not only was this wrong, it was sinful.

This is the background to Rabbi Akivas visit. In the second story about this visit, he engages the attention of his teacher by telling him that afflictions are beloved. Prodded to continue, Rabbi Akiva tells him how afflictions were what brought the Kingdom of Yehudahs most notorious king, Menashe, to repent. Rabbi Akivas rebuke here follows proper protocol and is only indirect he does not tell his teacher that he needs to repent; he only tells him that it worked for Menashe. Regardless, it was also the height of audacity. Presumably to shake up Rabbi Eliezer, Rabbi Akiva compares him to one of the greatest villains in all of Tanakh!

This audacity is perhaps only understood when read in tandem with the first story. There, Rabbi Akiva implies that Rabbi Eliezers afflictions were a punishment for his sins. Rabbi Eliezer takes umbrage at this. Though Rabbi Akiva does not back down, there is also no indication that Rabbi Eliezer accepts the possibility that his approach may have been sinful. That is presumably why Rabbi Akiva tries a harsher tactic and compares him to King Menashe:

Menashes rebellion against the Torah was so pervasive that it must have been rooted in a complex and systematic approach to the world. He presumably had many arguments with which he rebuffed the prophets and scholars of his time. Perhaps this is what Rabbi Akiva meant when he says that though Menashe had the benefit of a father known for Torah scholarship (Hizkiyahu), the only thing that impacted upon him were afflictions. What Rabbi Akiva seems to be suggesting then is that like Menashe Rabbi Eliezer had created a complex worldview that no one could dissuade him from. In that sense, the only thing that could possibly make him rethink that worldview was a message from God himself. So, says Rabbi Akiva, should Rabbi Eliezer understand his afflictions.

It is far from clear that Rabbi Akivas words were accepted. But Rabbi Eliezer did listen. If the story reinforces how difficult it is for a thought-out individual to change his mind, it also shows us the only way someone else can try to facilitate that. On the one hand, we must respect the effort put into constructing a worldview that is more than a collection of reactions to current events. On the other hand, we must also help this type of individual question his worldview, when it or at least some of its ramifications are destructive.

Perhaps this then is what Rabbi Chanina meant when he said, I have learned much from my teachers and even more from my friends, but from my students I have learned most of all (Taanit 7a).

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When a Student must Teach the Teacher - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com

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Posted By admin on July 28, 2022

Jewish kids with big smiles are baking matzah and learning about kosher chocolate, making Havdalah candles and performing Jewish-themed science experiments. Under the slogan Ancient Traditions for Young Hands, Rabbi Levi Raskins new JCrafts center in southern Maryland is home to a unique blend of family fun and Jewish educational activities.

Its been a decade since Rabbi Raskin moved to Maryland with his wife Fraida to open a Chabad House. They began to bring hands-on activities to local Jewish schools, and learned that 71% of local Jewish children were not receiving any formal Jewish education. Rabbi Raskin knew it was time to think bigger. It was a no-brainer, he says. We needed a building to open up programming to the wider community and reach kids who get no Jewish exposure.

In 2020, Rabbi Sholom Raichik and Chabad of Upper Montgomery County happily supplied space for JCrafts pilot program. The pilot center boomed, and Rabbi Raskin knew the time was right for a permanent home. JCrafts purchased a 2,500-square-foot center in Rockville, Maryland, and after a bit of marketing, they welcomed the first eager crowds of children and adults last September.

When they arrive at JCrafts, children and their families dive into a variety of exciting, hands-on workshops with different themes Jewish holidays, science, and chocolate, to name a few and all are interwoven with core Jewish knowledge. Its an immersive experience, utilizing giant screens and cutting edge technology to transport the families into the world of the workshop. By all reports, its buckets of fun. For a lot of kids, this is their first exposure to Judaism, Rabbi Raskin says. The programs are educationally rich, and its such good fun; the hope is, in the years to come, whenever they hear the word Jewish theyll think of these positive memories.

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Kids Roll Up Their Sleeves and Learn Judaism at New JCrafts Center - Lubavitch.com

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Posted By admin on July 28, 2022

Mike stood for the Barchu, a prayer offering blessings to God for eternity.

You have to put your faith in God, he said. God must come first.

Behind him two men laid on bare mattresses, one with a blanket over his head. City buses wheezed to a stop on Mission Street; pigeons attacking discarded food scraps jump-flew to avoid foot traffic. At the corner, born-again Christians spoke into a public address system: Those who do not follow Jesus are on the road to destruction!

Moments later, Mike would bow his head during the Amidah, a silent meditation. He prayed for clarity in the face of an important decision. The 53-year-old resident of the Mission District said he had a couple of job opportunities in the works but was unemployed and struggling to make ends meet.

I needed a little prayer, he said.

It was, in some ways, a characteristic evening in San Franciscos Mission District, a neighborhood accustomed to fervent expressions of religious feeling. The area gets its name from an 18th-century Catholic mission whose purpose was to evangelize to Native peoples; to this day, pedestrians entering or exiting the 16th Street Mission BART station are often confronted with devout expressions of faith in English and Spanish.

And yet, this night was a bit different. About a dozen folding chairs sat outside the stations southwest exit, facing a long table covered by a royal blue tablecloth on which rested two freshly baked challahs.

It was the second occurrence of Open Shabbat, a new al fresco service held on the fourth Friday of every month outside the station. Led by Rabbi Jeremy Sher, a hospital chaplain ordained through the Renewal movement, Open Shabbat is affiliated with San Francisco Night Ministry, an interfaith nonprofit that lends spiritual care to the citys unhoused, poor, and people with HIV/AIDS.

Night Ministry dates to the 1960s and already hosts a weekly outdoor Open Cathedral service that concludes with a hot meal. But Sher saw a demand for a Shabbat offering. Since becoming involved with Night Ministry last summer, hes led two Open Shabbats, including one in the Tenderloin, and one Open Hanukkah; they were well attended, and well received.

We thought they were so good. So Ive joined them as a staff rabbi, he said.

Open Shabbat is an opportunity to celebrate with a mixed multitude of folks, he said, using a phrase from Exodus. At Open Shabbat, we meet people where they are, and respect their space, their feelings and their belongings, Sher wrote on the front page of the service siddur.

Rob, a 58-year-old musician who busks each morning at the Civic Center BART station, arrived early for the service. A city fixture, he wore a San Francisco Giants jacket and Giants hat, and had a Giants blanket covering his belongings. Though he is not Jewish, he said he came to see his friend.

Im just here to support him, he said of Sher, who has been doing pastoral work with the poor since 2017.

Rob, who said he has AIDS, used to have a lot of Jewish friends, he told J. But Im homeless now, so it makes things complicated. He once worked as a music therapist, but today sleeps outside near a local Boys & Girls Club. He keeps his belongings at a nearby storage facility.

I used to be a normal person before I was homeless, he said.

For some, the service presented a learning opportunity. A man named Anthony, who wore a dark, puffy jacket with a hood pulled over his head on a windy San Francisco evening, asked Sher what was going on, and whether there would be food. Sher said there would be, but first there would be a service. A Jewish service, he added.

Jewish, huh? Anthony replied. I never heard of that.

Nevertheless, Anthony sat down for the full hour and, during the Mishebeirach prayer, said the name of someone he knew in need of healing.

Every Open Shabbat concludes with a meal provided by a local synagogue; on July 22 it was sponsored by Congregation Ner Tamid, a Conservative shul in the Sunset District. Shaar Zahav, a historically LGBTQ+ synagogue located across the street from Mission Dolores, also participates. On this night, S.F. Night Ministry staff served kosher hot dogs and potato salad, which dozens of nearby unhoused and poor people came to eat.

The service lasted about an hour it was a Kabbalat Shabbat service welcoming the Sabbath. Sher described Shabbat to those who had never heard of it: a day so joyous, the sages say, it should be treated like a wedding.

He was assisted by Emma and Molly, Jewish clinical pastoral students with S.F. Night Ministry. They read prayers in English and sang in Hebrew, including Hinei Ma Tov, How good this is and how pleasant, all of us sitting together. And Shalom Aleichem.

Throughout much of the service, Sher had to compete with the loud, Christian proselytizers on the corner. They had strung a large banner from a street lamp to a palm tree, reading Only One Way To God: Jesus.

The Shabbat service was interactive and peppered with brief textual interpretations, Bible stories and a sermon. Sher explained that the Mishebeirach prayer asked God for healing for the sick a few people chimed in with names of loved ones in need of healing. My grandmother, one man said. After the Vahavta, a prayer about loving God, Sher asked people to share a story of being afraid; a time when they persevered through faith. Mike told a story about nearly escaping death in a fire.

For his sermon, Sher spoke in support of wealth redistribution, tied to the Book of Numbers. He described what he called blasphemous wealth disparities in the city.

There is so much food here in the Mission, he said. And yet people go hungry.

Only a few chairs at the service were filled by people not associated with the Night Ministry, but others lingered nearby, listening. Sher said the chairs were full the previous month; but this time, because of a miscommunication, there was no microphone, which prevented more passersby from being drawn into the service.

At times the scene felt chaotic. Occasionally, people who were mentally ill or under the influence of drugs or alcohol happened by, partially clothed and clearly in dire straits. Muni buses and other traffic came and went on Mission Street as commuters traversed the trash-littered plaza.

Still, it felt to Trent Thornley, the executive director of S.F. Night Ministry, as if the service had created a spiritual field in the midst of surrounding chaos. To him, it was easy to focus on Sher, Emma and Molly. I only heard every third word of what the neighboring Christian group was saying, he said.

The born-agains carried on mercilessly during the service, and at times they appeared to target the Jewish worshippers with their messages.

Salvation is found in a man, not from works, a proselytizer proclaimed through the PA system. That man is Jesus.

Around the middle of the service, Sher was fed up. It was time to say the Shema. He shouted at the top of his lungs, his face red with exertion, lingering on each word:

Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad! (Listen, Israel: Adonai is our God; Adonai is One!)

This is our statement of faith. This is our statement that were here, Sher said afterward. A lot of people would prefer that we be dead.

Mike, who was raised Baptist but said he has an uncle in the East Bay who converted to Judaism, connected with the service. He had been through a painful divorce, he said, and was recovering from gambling losses. He nodded his head often while Sher spoke.

I like the way the pastor put it out there, he said of Sher. You could feel it was from his heart. You could see where he was trying to go with it.

Another man, his face ruddy from the effects of exposure to weather, asked Sher a question before the service. He wanted to know the Jewish take on the story of Adam and Eve, and the meaning of the devil.

The rabbi spoke to the man for a while, saying that in Judaism, rabbis dont consider the devil to oppose God. The devil is someone or something who tempts us to do wrong. The word Satan, he said, means adversary.

The man said he agreed with what the rabbi was saying. I got the chills, he said.

Sher estimated the cost of food to be around $200. Open Shabbat is seeking additional sponsors for its events, and welcomes local synagogues that want to join the service, serve food and mingle with attendees.

Sher hopes Open Shabbat will become an ongoing tradition attracting both housed and unhoused congregants. People looking for a different kind of synagogue experience.

The Jewish community can, at times, feel insular, he said, naming expensive synagogue memberships, among other things.

There are a lot of people who just dont fit in with the Jewish community as its constructed, he said. Poverty is one reason, but there are also other reasons.

I would love to grow this into a little group, he added. It doesnt have to be a million people. But Id be happy if the chairs were full.

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Welcoming Shabbat with unhoused San Franciscans J. - The Jewish News of Northern California

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Posted By admin on July 28, 2022

Shia Islam and Judaism share a yearly day of mourning and fasting for a very tragic, sad, historical religious event that happened more than 13 centuries ago.

For Shia Muslims it was the slaughter and the tragic martyrdom of Prophet Muhammads grandson Husayn and most members of his family, who were massacred by their enemies in a battle in 680 CE. on Ashura, the tenth day of Muharram, the first month in the Islamic lunar calendar

For Jews it was the destruction of the holy Jerusalem Temple; first in 586 BCE by the Babylonians, and then again by the Romans in 70 CE. Both Temples were destroyed on the 9th day of the Jewish month of Av.

As Jews approach Tisha bAv (the 9th of AvAugust 7 this year on the same day as Shia Muslims observe Ashura) it is important to remember that destruction need not lead to despair, negativity, skepticism and surrender. Each day should be a day of optimism, hope and faith in our future.

At a 9th of Av service Jews lament the destruction of Jerusalem and its holy Temple by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.E. by reading the Biblical Book of Lamentations.

As an emotional composition, the Book of Lamentations is not that different from the Sumerian lament at the destruction c.2004 B.C.E. of the city of Ur and its temple:

For the gods have abandoned us, like migrating birds they have gone. Ur is destroyed, bitter is its lament. Bodies dissolve like fat in the sun. Our temple is destroyed. Smoke lies on our city like a shroud, blood flows like a river lamenting men and women. sadness abounds. Ur is no more.

Then 2-3 generations later, both Ur and Jerusalem with their temples were rebuilt and everything was normal again.

But with the second destruction of Jerusalem and its holy Temple by the Romans in 70 C.E. the rabbis wisely added the aspect of critical self evaluation to our feelings of lament.

Eicha, the Hebrew name of the book, means how. How did this destruction come about? How come it happened again? How come God made it, or let it happen? How should we respond to what happened?

Multiple answers to all these questions are found in various places in the Talmud and especially in an rabbinic anthology named Midrash Eicha Rabbah.

A major cause of the second destruction was unrestrained hatred and intolerance of those who differed in politics or religion. Jews can easily understand how unrestrained hatred and intolerance of those who differed in politics or religion can occur as we look at Israel and the US today.

So how do we react to our enemies destructive fury. Our sages knew it is natural and easy to blame our suffering on those who have defeated us and hope someday in the future to get revenge.

The Rabbis wanted Jews to live in peace with the non-Jews around them, so in later generations they portrayed some of the enemys top generals in positive terms,

They taught that Sennacherib, the Assyrian king who exiled the ten northern tribes, and Nebuzaradan, the Babylonian general who destroyed the First Temple, converted to Judaism in their later years.

Seeking to avoid the vendetta mind set that keeps hostilities alive for centuries, the sages even taught that some descendants of Haman converted to Judaism and that their descendants ended up teaching Torah in the orthodox town of Bnei Berak.

And they were not the only ones. According to the Talmud (Gitten 57b) Descendants of Sisera (a Canaanite general) taught children in Jerusalem, and descendants of Sennacherib gave public lectures on Torah. Who were they? Shemaya and Avtalyon. These two sages were the predecessors of the great teachers; Hillel and Shammai.

Not only may our present enemies provide converts who will be supporters of Torah in the future, but spurning any potential converts now may provide us with future anti-Semites.

A midrash in the Talmud (Sanhedrin 99b) teaches that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob each in turn refused to accept Timna the sister of Lotan as a convert. Because the patriarchs pushed away a potential convert, their descendants suffered greatly at the hands of her descendants; the Amalekites.

One midrash (Eicha Rabbah I, 5, 31-2) relates that the Western Wall was saved by an Arab.

When Vespasian had subdued the city, he assigned the destruction of the four ramparts to four generals. The western gate was allotted to Pangar, the Arab. Now it had been decreed by Heaven that this should never be destroyed because the Shechinah (the feminine presence of God) dwelled in the west. The others demolished their sections but Pangar the Arab did not demolish his.

Vespasian sent for him and asked, Why did you not destroy your section? Pangar replied, I acted so for the honor of the Roman Empire. If I had demolished the last wall, no one (in the future) would know what you overcame. Now people will look at it and say: See the might of Vespasian from what he overcame.

Vespasian said, Enough, you have spoken well, but since you disobeyed my orders you shall ascend to the roof and throw yourself down. If you live, you will live. If you die, you will die.

Pangar, the Arab, ascended, threw himself down and died. He must have known what the consequences of disobeying his orders would be.

Some versions of this midrash conclude with a remark that Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai thought Pangar died because he was insincere, Otherwise God would have miraculously saved him. But many Jews were not saved by miracles at that time, and no one doubted their sincerity, so it is not surprising that another version does not have this statement.

It is always difficult to judge the intentions of another person, especially an outsider. All we can be sure of is that Pangar paid with his life for disobeying his orders to demolish the Western Wall.

Also, an anonymous Roman officer saved Rabbi Gamaliels life when Gamaliel had been condemned to death, and this Roman officer died in the same way. (Talmud Taanith 29a) It seems reasonable that both of these righteous Gentiles lost their lives because of their righteous actions.

How could people who occupied themselves with Torah study, Mitsvot and Tsadakah engage freely in unrestricted hate? The Talmud records this amazing statement: Rabbi Yohanan said: Jerusalem was only destroyed, because they judged by Din Torah (rigorous/strict Law). Should they have judged by the brutal (Roman) laws? (no) but they judged by strict law, and did not stretch the limits of the law Lifnim miShurat haDin. (Bava Mezia 30b).

Strict halakah and narrow minded zeal easily lead to free floating anger and hate, which, unfettered and unrestrained, lead to disaster. It is not surprising that Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai openly blames the failure to judge people with understanding, flexibility and loving tolerance as the crucial sin that led to the destruction of Jerusalem.

Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai himself openly ended a Torah commandment due to greatly changed circumstances. (Sotah 9:9) He thus freed Jewish wives from the threat of the Sotah water ordeal.

Other Rabbis accomplished similar things by legal reinterpretation, as in the case of a rebellious son, rather than an explicit end it ruling.

Suffering a tragic loss is one of the greatest challenges to our sense of purpose, meaning and direction. The catastrophic defeat of one of more of our values or ideals is an ultimate test of our character.

Our generation knows that a democratic election in Germany put the Nazis in power, and a democratic election in Gaza put Hamas in power. Shall we abandon our trust in democracy and free speech?

Our generation knows that advanced technology and genetic engineering often has toxic side effects. Shall we give up our optimistic faith in scientific progress and humanitys ability to solve the problems of poverty and illness?

A Midrash relates that an Arab declared that the Messiah was born on the very day the second Temple was destroyed. (Midrash Eicha Rabbah I, 16, 51) The Rabbis preached again and again that out of darkness and despair, hope and trust could be reborn.

Even the emotional book of Lamentations says I call to mind this, and so have hope, the kindness of the Lord has not ended, His mercies are not spent. (Lamentations 3:21-2)

Finally, the Talmud records this amazingly pro-pluralism and tolerance blessing for seeing a multitude of Jews: Blessed are You, God, our Lord, ruler of the universe, the sage of secrets for their minds are not similar to each other, just as their faces are not similar to each other. (Talmud Brachot58a).

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Lamentations Or Self Evaluations On The 9th Of Av OpEd - Eurasia Review

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Posted By admin on July 28, 2022

(July 22, 2022, JNS Wire) England might not be the first destination Americans think of for the 4th of July, but that is exactly where a delegation from All Daf, the popular Daf Yomi app (alldaf.org) and a project of the Orthodox Union, found themselves.

Their reason for crossing the Atlantic? Two unforgettable daf yomi siyumim of maseches Yevamos. The siyumim, held on consecutive nights in London and Manchester, drew hundreds of local community members and were organized by All Daf, with the help of U.K. supporters and partners.

Joining the All Daf team in the United Kingdom were Rabbi Moshe Hauer, EVP of the Orthodox Union and Rabbi Moshe Elefant, COO of OU Kosher, who also holds the distinction as one of All Dafs most popular maggidei shiur.

OU Kosher COO Rabbi Mosher Elefant with Dayan Menachem Gelley

Throughout the trip, Rabbi Elefant was greeted by the many students who listen to his daily shiur from afar. One student, Ashley Cohen, had been listening to Rabbi Elefants daf yomi shiur for 17 years, before getting to meet his virtual Rebbe in person.

At the siyumim, Rabbi Elefant reflected on the gemara at the end of Yevamos, which tells the story of a shipwreck that Rabbi Akiva miraculously survived. When asked how he survived, Rabbi Akiva answered that a daf shel sefinah appeared for me. His literal reference was to a plank of wood from the ship but, as Rabbi Elefant explained homiletically, he was referring to his constant dedication to learning the Talmud he clung to the daf of Gemara.

In that same way, Rabbi Elefant explained, those who learn the daf yomi each day are sustained by the Torah they learn on each page.

Rabbi Hauer noted the incredibly warm reception the All Daf team had received in the UK and underscored the fact that those gathered at the siyum were realizing the vison of the founder of daf yomi. Said Rabbi Hauer: Rabbi Meir Shapiro, ztl had a vision of a daf yomi that would unite klal Yisroel as a path to geulah.

Other distinguished speakers from the local UK communities included Dayan Menachem Gelley, rosh beth din of the London Beth Din and Rav Shraga Feivel Zimmerman, av beth din of the Federation of Synagogues in London.

All Daf Director Rabbi Moshe Schwed with Dayan Shraga Feivel Zimmerman

Meeting and greeting the people at our first-ever international All Daf siyumim, who shared their affinity toward our platforms and how its changed their lives, was an incredible chizuk for our whole team said All Daf Director Rabbi Moshe Schwed. Both our events in London and Manchester were beautiful, inspiring and uplifting beyond my expectations.

Learn more about All Daf at alldaf.org.

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All Daf celebrates siyumim in the UK, drawing hundreds to London and Manchester - JNS.org

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Posted By admin on July 27, 2022

Mounting tensions in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and continued settlement activity and settler-related violence continue.

Immediate steps to reverse negative trends and support the Palestinian people are essential, said Lynn Hastings, UNSCOs deputy chief, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, speaking on behalf of Special Coordinator Tor Wennesland.

The violence must stop.

For years, illegal settlement expansions in the occupied West Bank have been steadily shrinking Palestinian land and eroding the prospects for a viable Palestinian State as violence against civilians exacerbate mistrust and trigger a growing sense of hopelessness that Statehood, sovereignty and a peaceful future is slipping away.

Three hundred and ninety-nine demolitions and seizures of Palestinian-owned structures and evictions this year have left over 400 Palestinians displaced, the UN official said.

Meanwhile, a crumbling Palestinian economy, lack of intra-Palestinian unity, and the urgent need to renew national institutions have also raised Israeli awareness of the perils of continuing along the current path.

Against the worrying backdrop of endless cycles of violence and a constant risk of escalation with no end in sight US President Joe Bidens visit earlier this month signalled renewed consensus for a two-State solution based on the 1967 lines, said Ms. Hastings.

For the first time in years, Israeli, Palestinian and American leaders reiterated their support for a two-State solution as being essential for Palestinians and Israelis alike.

We must build on these reaffirmed commitments and work collectively to encourage steps that allow for a return to a meaningful political process, she added.

From clashes to shootings and stabbings throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the Resident Coordinator outlined examples of violence that killed close to 300 Palestinians and some Israelis.

She recounted that the bullet used to kill Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh underwent forensic testing overseen by a senior US security official. However, examiners could not reach a definitive conclusion due to its damaged condition.

After viewing the results of both Israeli and Palestinian investigations into Ms. Aqlehs death, it appeared that gunfire from Israel Defence Forces (IDF) positions was likely responsible but it found no reason to believe that this was intentional, said Ms. Hastings.

Citing a lack of Israeli-issued building permits, demolitions recently displaced 61 Palestinians, including 31 children, with Ms. Hastings pointing out that the permits are nearly impossible for Palestinians to obtain.

And in the wake of a ruling by the Israeli High Court of Justice allowing evictions in the southern West Bank hamlets of Masafer Yatta to proceed, Israeli forces continued to adopt restrictive measures affecting Palestinian communities and humanitarian actors.

I remain deeply concerned by the potential implications of the High Courts ruling and the humanitarian toll on the communities in question if eviction orders are carried out, she stated.

There is no substitute for a legitimate political process that will resolve the core issues driving the conflict -- UN Resident Coordinator

Turning to the fragile situation in Gaza, UN and humanitarian partners continue to deliver vital assistance and further ease movement restrictions on people and goods into and out of the Strip.

However, on 16 July, militants in the enclave launched four rockets towards Israel. The IDF retaliated with airstrikes against what it said were Hamas targets. No injuries were reported on either side.

For the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, Israel announced that 400 permits would be issued for men over 55 and women over 50, to visit Jerusalem from Gaza for the first time since 2017.

In closing, the Deputy UNSCO chief warned that if left unaddressed, the corrosive situation will only deteriorate further and advocated for the ultimate goal of two States, living side-by-side in peace.

There is no substitute for a legitimate political process that will resolve the core issues driving the conflict, she said assuring that the UN remains committed to a just and lasting peace and will continue to work with all concerned to achieve that objective.

Click here to watch the meeting in its entirety.

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Israel-Palestine: Reversing 'negative trends' essential, Security Council hears - UN News

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Posted By admin on July 27, 2022

Last night, I watched a fascinating PBS documentary,Manzanar, Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust. We all know, or think we know aboutManzanar. It was the flagship incarceration camp for interned Japanese Americans during World War II (there were others in Arizona and Idaho). The World War II iInternment decreed by Pres. Rooselvelt, was the third worst human rights travesty in the history of the Republic (slavery and Native American genocide being the others). Manzanar was such a blight that it has become enshrined in our nations history as a supreme symbol of injustice.

This documentary expands our view of the camp and its place in a broader history of ethnic cleansing and genocide. While Japanese citizens were rounded up from their homes throughout California and forcibly removed to what were, in effect benign concentration camps, there was a much longer and equally troubling injustice surrounding Manzanar.

Namely, Native American Paiute and Shoshone tribes lived in the Owens Valley, and around its signature geographic feature,Owens Lake. The Lake was a huge saline sea, which captured all the water flowing down the eastern Sierras to the valley below. For 3,000 years, the tribes fished, hunted, and grew crops in the fertile soil and plentiful water resources available.

But in the 1860sconflict and trouble arosebetween the natives and white settlers:

[The] discovery of gold and silver in the Sierra Nevada and Inyo Mountains attracted a flood of prospectors. Ranchers and farmers followed, often utilizing Paiute irrigation systems and grasslands. A harsh winter and scarce food in 1861-1862 forced the Paiute and settlers into open conflict. The military intervened and, in 1863, forcibly removed 1,000 Paiute to Fort Tejon in the mountains south of Bakersfield.

The entire national history of relations between indigenous people and whites has entailed conflict over the land and its bounty. Whether the land had gold, silver, water, or other resources, once the white men came, they took it. If the native inhabitants resented or resisted, they were removed either by violence, trickery or outright theft. As but one example, nearly 1,000 tribal members met with US army officers and agreed to end hostilities in 1863. The army then forced them to march 200 miles south to Ft Tejon. Some died on the way and others escaped and returned to their ancestral home. Once they were dumped there they were provided little to sustain themselves. The food offered was little more than starvation rations.

In both the cases of the Paiute tribe and Japanese Americans, they were deemed a danger and menace to white people. In the case of the Paiute, the army response to raids by the Native Americans against settlers was either to kill or expel them. The Japanese Americans, on the other hand, put up no such resistance. Thus, they were treated somewhat better. Their internment lasted only three years. While the Paiute continue their battles with the government to this day.

In 1913, a new calamity befell the tribes. Los Angeles to the south, had become a burgeoning metropolis. With its mild climate and fertile agricultural lands, it became a beacon to Americans from the east and midwest. The population grew by leaps and bounds. The city fathers/power brokers determined that the one resource lacking for the growth they envisioned was water. There simply wasnt enough.

For that, they looked north to the Owens Valley and its Lake, which encompassed over 100 square miles of pure mountain runoff. The water engineers in Los Angeles, led by the infamous, William Mulholland immortalized in Roman PolanskisChinatown, coveted the resource and devised a method to divert it to Los Angeles, 200 miles south. The city water engineer led the effort to build the California aqueduct, which stole the water from the Valley and shipped it to the City of Angels.

Mulholland handled the engineering and left the issue of securing water rights to the citys power brokers, land agents, and lawyers. By legal means, if possible and by subterfuge if necessary, they secretly bought up the water rights held by all the farmers in the Valley. Most of them left after they no longer had access to the water needed for their farming operations.

But the tribes posed a more difficult obstacle. As indigenous inhabitants, they not only lived in the Valley for thousands of years, they had a primary right to the water that had nourished them over that whole period. Eventually, some of the tribal members agreed to a population transfer, which offered them land to resettle within the Los Angeles city limits. In return for the land, the tribes gave up most of their water rights in the Valley. Thus, the infamous Department of Water and Power assumed control of the Owens Valley water, enabling the creation of the sprawling urban monster Los Angeles eventually became.

By linking the Japanese internment in Manzanar to the Native American displacement, the PBS documentary offered a completely new perspective on these phenomena. California and the US trampled the rights of both the interneesandthe indigenous peoples. For the former, the injustice lasted three years. For the latter, it stretched all the way back to the 1860s, when the Native Americans were first ethnically-cleansed from the Valley.

The two groups have united over the past decade, both to preserve the Manzanar national monument which the federal government dedicated; and to defend the rights of the remaining indigenous residents of the Valley. Together, theyve lobbied the DWP to restore some of the diverted water back to the Lake, though the amounts are limited (the dry lakebed remains the greatest source of dust pollution in the country). Its moving to see the 2019 Manzanar ceremony in which scores of survivors returned, joined by the Native Americans and even hijab-wearing Muslim Americans. It is a dramatic example of the power of intersectionality.

The state-sponsored crimes committed in the Owens Valley are not one-off events. One could even say, with H. Rap Brown, that ethnic cleansing is as American as apple pie. American plantation owners were instrumental in the African slave trade, in which victims were kidnapped from their homes and forcibly transported across the sea to work as slaves. Later, when the abolition movement began, many liberal white Americans believed the best way of dealing with the race problem was byshipping the freed slavesbackto Africa, since they couldnt possibly be integrated into civilized society. This would have entailed yet another displacement from America. Ironically, the main driver of this project was theAmericanColonizationSociety. By its very name, it declared that the freed slaves would themsevles be part of a new colonization effort to bring enlightenment and civiliazation to the African natives via this new state, Liberia.

Over the course of human history, tribes have slaughtered, expelled, or in less traumatic instances intermingled with rivals. There have been huge migrations of populations around the globe based on economic or climate-related dislocations. Many of these disruptions also resulted from invasions, conquest, and pillage. We are a (human) race prone to mass violence and genocide.

In the 19th century, Europeans excelled at such rape and pillage of the resources and human capital of their colonies. In the Congo alone, Belgiums King Leopold was responsible for the death by disease and murder of 4-million indigenous inhabitants. In Latin America, Spain devastated the Natives with European diseases and worked the rest to death mining gold and silver, which was shipped back to the motherland.

Which brings us to Israel-Palestine: Herzl and the early Zionists saw their enterprise very much in a similar light. They saw themselves as Europeans bringing the values of western civilization to the natives, the indigenous Arabs in Palestine. They adopted the colonial attitude of uplift which persuaded them of the righteousness of their cause. But when push came to shove, when the Arabs stood in the way of Progress, they would later be tossed aside in much the same way the California tribes were.

From 1937, if not earlier, Ben Gurionwrotein a letter to his son, that the Palestinians would be swept away by the Zionist enterprise. Yes, there were other passages in which he slightly softened his rhetoric. But the message remained clear: Zionism demanded a Jewish state with a Jewish majority. To obtain this there was a two-pronged strategy: bringing Jewish immigrants as pioneers to the Zionist state to populate it with Jews; and suppressing the Arab population.

In 1948, Ben Gurion took advantage of the War he provoked, to implement a massive campaign of ethnic cleansing, the Nakba. As a result, nearly 1-million indigenous Arabs were forcibly expelled from their homeland. Only 250,000 remained after the 1948 War. Those who were expelled were prohibited from return, on pain of death. This was how he implemented his earlier vision of maintaining a Jewish majority. To this day, the Palestinian refugees and their descendants languish in camps spread throughout the Middle East. Nor have they assimilated into their host countries. They remain stateless after their homeland deprived them of their identity.

Like the Paiute in the 1880s, the Palestinians fled and resettled in many neighboring Arab states (primarily Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon). The camps are not unlike the reservations to which Native Americans were confined during westward expansion. and white settlement. But unlike the experience of indigenous American Natives, who enjoy special status, rights, and obligations from the federal government, Israel has adamantly refused any obligation to those it expelled. It refuses to even recognize that they are refugees. Nor has it attempted to normalize relations with the remaining Palestinians. Thus Nakba remains, like slavery for America, the Original Sin of the State of Israel. A blot and a stain on its nationhood. One which cannot be redeemed without Israeli recognition and repentance for the great affront it committed against the dignity of the indigenous Palestinian inhabitants of this land.

This article was published at Tikun Olam

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Manzanar To Palestine: Legacy Of Internment And Ethnic-Cleansing OpEd - Eurasia Review

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Posted By admin on July 27, 2022

Ali, an 11-month-old cancer patient, at the Qalandiya military checkpoint. (Photo: Tamar Fleishman, The Palestine Chronicle)

By Alice Rothchild

There is a growing consensus that the behaviors of the Israeli government fulfill the definition of an apartheid regime. There is also a growing consensus that Palestinians who are Israeli citizens or stateless in the occupied Palestinian territories or refugee camps lack civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights as a manifestation of the settler colonialism that characterizes the Israeli state. These structural issues, grounded in the colonialism and racism of the early 20th century British Empire and Zionist ideology, are distinctly threatening to Palestinian human rights and their right to health.

This right to health is endangered when the dominant power is able to weaponize unsubstantiated security risks and labels of terrorism to shut down civil society organizations, especially when this framing is accepted and unchallenged by external actors. The false October 2021 designation of six prominent Palestinian human rights and civil society groups as terrorist organizations with militant links to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, using secret evidence collected by the Israeli Ministry of Defense, is a manifestation of that settler colonial violence on a national scale.

This designation has both direct and indirect consequences for physical and mental health, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic, with Israel tightening its already restrictive closure policies. More than 60% of the households in the occupied Palestinian territories reported a decrease in income, and both gender-based violence and settler attacks, the latter committed with almost total impunity, sometimes encouraged by the Israeli military, have increased dramatically.

The six Palestinian organizations worked in the occupied territories to document violations of basic rights, provide assistance and advocacy, and build resilience in the population. The suppression of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights decreases the ability of the population to cope with the apartheid behaviors of the Israeli government and military, and hastens the elimination and erasure of Palestinian society, a key goal of Israeli settler colonialism.

The destruction of human rights organizations is an assault on everything they were designed to protect: the right to personal health and a healthy environment, freedom of movement, and rights to education and employment. Al-Haq, Addameer, Bisan Center for Research and Development, Defense of Children International-Palestine, Union of Agricultural Work Committees,and Union of Palestinian Womens Committees, face a debilitating loss of funding, further attacks by Israeli security forces on staff and offices, and a decreasing ability to survive and provide services. A loss of services has grave implications, including more women, children, and prisoners with lasting physical and mental health trauma, and more threats to agricultural workers and their ability to produce food in a nutritionally insecure region.

The Israeli case demonstrates a decades-long strategy to constrict the ability of Palestinians to live and flourish through repeated military and political attacks, fragmenting and controlling daily life and institutions that are essential to the functioning of Palestinian society. This also represents an example of epistemicide, the erasure of knowledge about the realities of Palestinian life, because the fact of their lives is seen as a threat to Jewish Israeli existence.

Additionally, the misuse of security justifications is seen in the denial of access to health care that has been well documented by numerous organizations. Patients from the territories in need of high-level care need to travel to East Jerusalem and Israeli hospitals due to Israeli policies preventing the expansion and development of medical institutions and the denial staff training internationally, (de-development). The medical permits to travel are frequently delayed or denied according to age limits and irrational, punitive assessments of the patients or the family of the patients security risk.

The branding of an entire population as a security threat and the withholding of desperately needed medical care is a form of racism that results in a larger disease burden and unnecessary deaths in the restricted population, and also collectively punishes entire families and threatens the basic rights, health, and dignity of individuals.

It is particularly ironic that the institutional and individual designations by Israeli authorities of terrorism follows years of Israeli attacks on human rights organizations, harassment and imprisonment of their staff, and denials of medical permits, all in the name of protecting Israeli society. The impact on Palestinians has been to redefine violence and subversion as endemic to Palestinian culture and society, rather than as central to Israel and its dominance over a colonized people, and to reinforce Israeli stereotypes about Arabs.

When Israeli military forces storm and destroy offices, arrest and detain human rights defenders, and implicate NGO workers supporting Palestinian children in Israeli military courts, it is clear who the aggressor is and who is the unarmed target. When children with cancer die alone on a medical ward at Al Makassed Hospital in East Jerusalem because their parents were not given permits to leave Gaza to support their own children, this is a form of psychological torture and a profound human tragedy. Mental health workers might call this a form of societal reaction formation where the behavior of the accusers is projected onto their victims.

The world of surveillance is another area where the impact of Israeli apartheid policies designed to intimidate and subjugate an entire population are clearly apparent. The NSO Group, an Israeli cyber-surveillance firm licensed, regulated and supported by the Israeli government, is considered a key element of national security and foreign policy. Its Pegasus spyware, a zero-click technology, enables the Israeli government to hack iPhones and collect vast troves of data, making Palestinians one of the worlds most surveilled populations.

This is just one example of Israeli military, intelligence, and security systems developed and battle-tested on occupied Palestinians. Internationally, the NSOs association with reactionary governments and the use of the software to violate civil rights has created such an uproar that it has been blacklisted by the US government. Israeli settlers and soldiers additionally collect and record the photos of Palestinians through the Blue Wolf and White Wolf Initiatives, an extensive network of technology that feeds information into a massive facial recognition database. All phones that are imported into Gaza also contain an implanted Israeli military software bug; at this point, the Israeli security can listen to every phone call Palestinians make in the West Bank and Gaza. Palestinians are surveilled not only by tech companies but by the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority monitoring social media.

The physical and technological apparatus of occupation, which is the manifestation and driving force of Israeli apartheid, produces a process of othering that extends to social policies such as the Israeli governments opposition to family reunification. The laws explicitly prohibit the spouses of Palestinians living in Israel or East Jerusalem from obtaining citizenship or legal residency in Israel and affirms that the laws purpose is to ensure a Jewish demographic majority. The Israeli state is attempting to control who and how Palestinians marry and create a family, all in the name of Jewish demographic domination of the state, a clearly racist policy.

Similarly, Israel severely restricts building permits for Palestinians living under occupation and demolishes homes that are built illegally or in retribution for alleged crimes by family members, especially in East Jerusalem and in Bedouin communities in the Naqab. This represents another example of othering, of perceiving every Palestinian as a threat to be controlled and potentially dispossessed. The goal is ultimately active or passive transfer, again to protect Jewish demography.

These kinds of attitudes can also extend to the practice of psychiatry. The process of othering affects not only the physical reality, but may also be implicated in the ability of Jewish Israeli psychiatrists, who are part of the security apparatus of the state, to evaluate Palestinian prisoners who present with symptoms of mental illness. Psychiatrist, Dr. Ruchama Marton, founder of Physicians for Human Rights Israel, asked:

What is the psychiatrists position when the patient is a Palestiniannot only a foreigner, but the enemy? Is the psychiatrist aware of his subjective position, which perceives his patient as a terrorist, i.e., as a real threat to societys security? Such a view might be so encompassing as to conceal all other parts of the patients humanity. The specific role ascribed to Israeli psychiatry, to protect public security, can obscure the boundaries between the psychiatrists professional judgment and his political beliefs, and this may occur without sufficient self-awareness.

Zionist psychiatrists are likely unaware of their need to see the Palestinian as enemy, a terrorist, an Arab criminal, and thus deny the prisoner of even the right to madness. Mentally ill Palestinian prisoners have repeatedly been diagnosed as imposters or manipulators. This accusation of faking symptoms is also seen in medical reports. This unconscious colonization of attitudes is a threat to Palestinian physical and mental health evaluation and treatment within the Israeli context.

The implications of integrating a framework that encompasses an awareness of apartheid, settler colonialism, and structural racism with a human rights-based approach to Palestinian health and wellbeing are profound. Such an integration would not only require that Palestinians be treated as full human beings with rights equal to their Jewish neighbors, but that Israel be held accountable for the decades-long degradation of the Palestinian health care system and the subsequent high rates of morbidity and mortality. These changes are not going to come from within the apartheid system.

It is the responsibility of nations, international organizations, donors, activists, and academics to clearly identify and document the societal and political policies that create the oppressive system of apartness. It is also the responsibility of these groups to pressure the Israeli settler colonial state to honor the Palestinian right to health in its broadest definition to include access to quality health care, a safe environment, adequate food, jobs, and housing, and a life with the opportunity for hope and possibility.

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Constricting Palestinian Human Rights and the Right to Health: Israeli Apartheid Policies - Palestine Chronicle

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Posted By admin on July 27, 2022

Mister President,

Members of the Security Council,

I am pleased to deliver this briefing on behalf of Special Coordinator Tor Wennesland, covering the reporting period of 27 June 21 July.

While the specific developments of the conflict fluctuate, the structural reality has not changed.

We continue to witness concerning levels of violence against civilians, which exacerbates mistrust and undermines a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

For years, illegal settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, has been steadily shrinking the land available to Palestinians for development and livelihoods, limiting their movement and access, and eroding the prospects for establishing a viable Palestinian State.

Three hundred and ninety-nine demolitions and seizures of Palestinian-owned structures and evictions this year in Area C have left over 400 Palestinians displaced.

There is a growing sense of hopelessness among many Palestinians who see their prospects for statehood, sovereignty and a peaceful future slipping away.

Internally, they also see a crumbling and constrained Palestinian economy, lack of progress in advancing intra-Palestinian unity and governance reform, and the urgent need for renewed legitimacy to national institutions, including through a democratically elected Parliament and Government in Palestine.

Many Israelis also understand the perils of continuing along the current path. They see endless cycles of violence, the constant risk of escalation and the absence of prospects to end the conflict.

Against this worrying backdrop, U.S. President Bidens visit to the region earlier this month signaled renewed consensus for a two-State solution based on the 1967 lines. During the visit, for the first time in years, Israeli, Palestinian and American leaders also reiterated their support for a two-State solution as essential for the future of Palestinians and Israelis alike. In addition to meeting with Prime Minister Lapid and President Abbas, President Biden made a noteworthy visit to Augusta Victoria Hospital in East Jerusalem. We must build on these reaffirmed commitments and work collectively to encourage steps that allow for a return to a meaningful political process.

Mister President,

Daily violence continued throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory during the reporting period.

Three Palestinians were killed in the occupied West Bank during search and arrest operations and 287 Palestinians, including 28 children, were injured by Israeli security forces (ISF) during demonstrations, clashes, search-and-arrest operations, attacks and alleged attacks against Israelis, and other incidents in the West Bank. Israeli settlers or other civilians perpetrated 27 attacks against Palestinians resulting in 12 injuries and/or damage to Palestinian property, including 1000 olive trees.

In all, eighteen Israeli civilians, including two women, and seven Israeli security personnel were injured by Palestinians in shooting and stabbing attacks, clashes, and the throwing of stones and Molotov cocktails, and other incidents. In total, Palestinians perpetrated 50 attacks against Israeli civilians, 39 of which were stone-throwing incidents, resulting in injuries and/or damage to Israeli property.

On 29 June, ISF shot and killed a 25-year-old Palestinian in the context of clashes following an arrest operation conducted in Jenin in the West Bank. According to ISF, the man had thrown explosive devices towards Israeli soldiers. Palestinian Islamic Jihad later claimed the man as a member.

On 2 and 6 July, ISF fatally shot two Palestinians in the village of Jab'a, near Jenin. On 2 July, according to video and eyewitnesses, a 17-year-old was shot from some 30 meters as he was turning away after having thrown stones towards the soldiers. ISF said they fired after the boy had thrown a Molotov cocktail. On 6 July, a Palestinian man was shot and killed as he left his house during a nearby ISF arrest operation. ISF said the man had been shot after trying to run away.

On 5 July, an Israeli man was seriously injured after being stabbed on a pedestrian bridge in Bnei Brak in central Israel. On 6 July, ISF announced they had arrested a Palestinian man suspected of carrying out the attack.

On 19 July, an Israeli was stabbed and moderately injured by a Palestinian on a bus in Jerusalem. The assailant was subsequently shot and injured by an Israeli civilian.

On 2 July, the Palestinian Authority transferred the bullet that killed Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh to U.S. authorities to undergo forensic testing. On 4 July, following an analysis overseen by the U.S. Security Coordinator, the U.S. announced that the examiners could not reach a definitive conclusion regarding the origin of the bullet due to its damaged condition. The U.S. also said that, after viewing the results of both Israeli and Palestinian investigations into Aqlehs death, it had concluded that gunfire from Israel Defence Forces positions was likely responsible, and that it found no reason to believe that this was intentional.

Mister President,

Settler-related violence continued during the reporting period, with particularly concerning incidents in the West Bank community of Ras al-Tin.

On the night of 6 July, individuals believed to be Israeli settlers set fire to four points around the community, damaging several structures, including tents. The attack comes on the heels of additional settler attacks against the community in recent weeks, during which two residents were injured.

I reiterate that perpetrators of all acts of violence must be held accountable and brought swiftly to justice.

I also reiterate that security forces must exercise maximum restraint and use lethal force only when strictly unavoidable in order to protect life.

Mister President,

On 20 and 21 July, thousands of Israelis participated in a widely publicized campaign by a settler organization to establish settlement outposts across the West Bank. In advance of the campaign, Israeli Defense Minister Gantz issued a statement that such efforts are illegal activities that the security services are preparing to thwart. The Israel Defense Forces and Israeli police also issued similar statements. On 21 July, ISF removed the seven makeshift encampments that had been set up and evacuated the Israeli civilians from the area.

I welcome the statements and actions by the Government of Israel to prevent the establishment of new outposts. I reiterate that all settlements are illegal under international law and remain a substantial obstacle to peace.

Mister President,

During the reporting period, Israeli authorities demolished, seized or forced owners to demolish 77 Palestinian-owned structures in Area C and five in East Jerusalem, displacing 61 Palestinians, including 31 children. The demolitions were carried out due to the lack of Israeli-issued building permits, which are nearly impossible for Palestinians to obtain.

In the wake of the 4 May ruling by the Israeli High Court of Justice allowing the eviction of the communities in Masafer Yatta in the southern West Bank to proceed due to their presence in an Israeli-declared firing zone, Israeli forces continued to adopt restrictive measures negatively affecting Palestinian communities and humanitarian actors providing support. Such measures include ongoing military training, related movement restrictions, arrests, including those involving use of force, as well as restrictions on the access of staff of international organizations and Palestinian NGOs to the area.

I remain deeply concerned by the potential implications of the High Courts ruling and the humanitarian toll on the communities in question if the eviction orders are carried out.

In a positive development, on 12 July, Israeli authorities announced that they would advance six plans for Palestinian construction in Area C. I urge Israel to further advance such plans and to issue building permits for all previously approved plans for Palestinians in Area C and in East Jerusalem.

On 21 July, Israels Supreme Court partially accepted the appeal of a Palestinian family under threat of eviction in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, freezing the eviction order until proceedings are completed in a lower court.

I call on Israeli authorities to end the displacement and eviction of Palestinians in line with its obligations under international humanitarian law and to approve additional plans that would enable Palestinians to build legally and address their development needs.

Mister President,

On 30 June, the Israeli Knesset voted to dissolve itself and call for new parliamentary elections, scheduled now for 1 November. Due to the coalition agreements, on 1 July, Yair Lapid became Israels Prime Minister and will head the interim Government through the upcoming elections and government formation process. I congratulate Prime Minister Lapid, and the Special Coordinator looks forward to continuing to work with him to advance steps towards a two-State solution and a lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

Between 13-15 July, U.S. President Biden visited Israel and the OPT, meeting with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. During the visit, the President announced a series of initiatives to support the Palestinian people. These include: a new multi-year contribution of USD 100 million to the East Jerusalem Hospital Network (EJHN), subject to congressional approval; USD 201 million in funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA); an additional USD 15 million in humanitarian assistance for Palestinians aimed at addressing food insecurity; and two new grants under the Middle East Partnership for Peace Act (MEPPA).

On 16 July, in the context of President Bidens meeting with regional leaders in Saudi Arabia, the United States announced that Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates also each pledged an additional USD 25 million to the East Jerusalem Hospital Network.

The Biden Administrations announcement that Israel has agreed to allow the Allenby Bridge between the West Bank and Jordan to operate 24-hours a day, 7 days a week by the end of September will go some way to reduce the long wait thousands undergo at the crossing. The U.S. also said Israel had agreed to accelerate the transition to 4G technology in the West Bank, and then in Gaza, and to convene the long-dormant Joint Economic Committee with the Palestinian Authority.

I welcome the crucial U.S. and regional support pledged to East Jerusalem hospitals, vital Palestinian institutions that provide health care to patients from across the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). Support for structural reform of the health sector is still needed for sustainable operations of the heavily indebted hospital Network. I also welcome and look forward to the implementation of the important commitments made by Israel to improve movement and access for Palestinians at Allenby Bridge and the transition to 4G technology to support economic growth.

In advance of President Bidens visit, on 7 July, President Abbas and Defense Minister Gantz met in Ramallah, and on 8 July Israeli President Herzog and Prime Minister Lapid spoke with President Abbas by phone. The continuing high-level contacts between Israeli and Palestinian officials are encouraging, and I urge leaders on all sides to expand this engagement to encompass underlying political issues.

In addition, on 12 July, Israeli authorities announced the approval of registration of 5,500 previously unregistered Palestinians, and the expansion of a crossing in the northern West Bank to include vehicular traffic between Israel and Jenin for the use of Israeli Arabs.

On 21 July, President Abbas visited France and met with President Emmanuel Macron. At a joint press conference following the meeting, President Macron affirmed his willingness to help mobilize the international community in efforts to support the resumption of a political dialogue towards a just and lasting peace.

Mr. President,

Statements issued by ten European Foreign Ministries announced their governments had reviewed the 21 October designation of six Palestinian NGOs as terrorist organizations. The statements highlighted that no substantial information had been received that would justify a review of the Member States policies and in the absence of such evidence, the Member States confirmed that they will continue their cooperation and strong support for civil society in the OPT. Going forward, the Ministry of Defence has requested the three lawyers representing the six NGOs to seek approval before continuing to do so.

On several occasions in July, Palestinian legal associations organized demonstrations in Ramallah, attended by hundreds of participants, to protest the Palestinian Authoritys practice of issuing and amending laws by presidential decree. Protestors called for the election of a new Legislative Council and the resumption of regular legislative procedures.

Mister President,

Turning to Gaza, the situation remains fragile, as efforts by the UN and other partners continue to deliver vital humanitarian and development assistance, as well as further ease restrictions on the movement of people and goods into and out of the Strip.

On 16 July, following a period of relative calm, militants in Gaza launched four rockets towards Israel. According to Israeli authorities, one rocket was intercepted by the Iron Dome system, while the others landed in open areas in Israel. No injuries were reported. In retaliation, IDF conducted airstrikes against what it said were Hamas targets in the Strip, with no injuries reported.

On 19 July, Israeli authorities announced that they had found a bullet in Netiv HaAsara, in southern Israel, which they determined had been fired earlier that day from the Gaza Strip, damaging an industrial building. Subsequently, the IDF launched missiles at what it said were Hamas targets in the Strip, again with no injuries reported.

Reconstruction and repair of damages incurred during the 2021 escalation continues to require additional funding and the timely disbursement of pledged funding. A funding gap remains of at least USD 45 million for the reconstruction of totally damaged housing units and USD 9 million for repairs of damaged housing.

On 3 July, on the occasion of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, Israeli authorities announced that 400 permits would be issued for men above the age of 55 and women above the age of 50 to visit Jerusalem from Gaza. These are the first such permits to be issued since 2017. In addition, Israeli authorities announced that some 500 permits would be issued for Gaza residents to visit first-degree relatives in the West Bank and Israel over the holiday.

In June, some 72,000 crossings of people holding Israeli-issued permits through the Israeli-controlled Erez crossing were recorded. This is the highest number of crossings in one month since the tightening of the Israeli closures following Hamass takeover of the Strip in 2007.

June also witnessed an increase of imports into Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza, with a 12 per cent increase in the number of trucks compared to May. The number of trucks entering Gaza through the informal Salah ad-Din crossing between Gaza and Egypt, increased by 45 per cent compared to May 2022.

Across the OPT, soaring commodity prices continue to negatively impact Palestinian lives. The UNRWA Gaza Emergency Food Programme requires an additional USD 72 million by September to meet food assistance needs for 1.1 million Palestine refugees in the fourth quarter. World Food Programme needs an additional USD 24 million to continue providing assistance until the end of the year, to compensate for the decrease in purchasing power. In this context, I welcome recent announcements by the U.S. and the EU confirming their 2022 contributions to UNRWA, which will allow the Agency to maintain education, primary health care and other critical services to Palestine refugees during the summer months. I encourage additional contributions from Member States to ensure that needs on the ground can be met.

Mister President,

Turning to the region, while the ceasefire between Israel and Syria continues to be generally maintained, the situation remains volatile with continued violations of the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement by the parties.

The latest reported incident was brought to this Council and the Secretary-General through identical letters of the 22nd July from the Permanent Representative of Syria concerning the situation between Israel and Syria. It is important that the parties respect their obligations under the terms of the Agreement and prevent an escalation of the situation between them.

In Lebanon, following the parliamentary elections of 15 May, efforts to form a new government continue. It is of the utmost importance that a new government be formed as soon as possible and that progress is made on reforms needed to address the countrys multiple crises.

I also underscore the risks to stability posed by incidents such as the launching of three unarmed drones from Lebanon towards the Karish offshore natural gas field by Hezbollah on 2 July. I urge all parties to exercise restraint and avoid provocative actions that could lead to escalation.

On 15 and 16 July, President Biden visited Saudi Arabia, where he met with leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Egypt, Iraq and Jordan. Following the summit, the U.S. and the GCC issued a joint statement reaffirming their joint commitment to preserve regional security and stability, [and] support diplomacy with the aim of regional de-escalation.

Mister President,

Immediate steps to reverse negative trends and to support the Palestinian people are essential. The violence must stop. The tensions that have been mounting, particularly in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, amidst continued settlement activity and settler-related violence, must be addressed.

However, there is no substitute for a legitimate political process that will resolve the core issues driving the conflict.

As the history of this conflict has so painfully demonstrated, if left unaddressed, the factors contributing to this corrosive situation will only deteriorate further. We must focus on reaching the ultimate goal: two States, living side-by-side in peace and security, in line with UN resolutions, previous agreements and international law.

The United Nations remains committed to supporting Israelis and Palestinians to move towards a just and lasting peace and we will continue to work with the parties and with regional and international partners to achieve this objective.

Thank you.

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Security Council briefing on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question (as delivered by Deputy Special Coordinator Lynn...

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