During the war in Gaza one of the threads that we followed here on Mondoweiss was the shameful response from Jewish communal organizations, which ranged from outright support to ambiguous silence. Reader Michael Levin contacted us at that point to share his frustration with Rabbis for Human Rights – North America and their silence in the face of Israeli human rights abuses. He even produced a ready-made poster for them to voice their opposition, which we linked to at the time.
In the wake of Israel's ongoing attacks against nonviolent protests in the West Bank, Levin is continuing his campaign. From Levin:
On a regular basis I drop by the website for Rabbis for Human Rights – North America to see if they have made any new stands/statements regarding current events in Israel-Palestine. Tonight, looking to see if there is any response by RHR-NA to the IDF and Israeli border police firing live rounds against demonstrators in the West Bank – or about the shooting -with-gas-canister of the American, Tristan Anderson, after the protest in Ni’ilin, I again felt a bit like Charlie Brown getting the football pulled away by Lucy – because, as is usually the case, there was no statement from RHR-NA. However, as I scanned the website, my disappointment [both with RHR-NA, and with myself for having any expectation that they would take a leadership role] gained a bit more edge when I realized that — as far as a I can tell from the website – RHR-NA has not even made a public call for an end to the Israeli occupation.
So, in the spirit of the scene near the end of the movie The Wizard of OZ, I have concluded that while they have a great name, what RHR-NA lack is a human rights poster (click to enlarge). This is my effort . . .
