Some are guilty, all are responsible…

[Jefferson23]

From Rabbis For Human Rights

By Rabbi Arik W. Ascherman on March 20, 2009 - כ"ד אדר תשס"ט

“Nafal D’Var B’Yisrael” I remember once being in a car that went off the road and rolled over. For the rest of the day I simply couldn’t believe that everybody that hadn’t been involved were continuing with life as if nothing had happened. Rabbi Ben Hollandar z”l said the same of his experience returning to Jerusalem after witnessing his first home demolition. In both of these cases, people went on with life because for them it was true that nothing had happened. The difference regarding yesterday’s revelations of stories being told by soldiers who fought in Gaza is that we all know. (If you don’t, the full transcript can be read in Hebrew at http://www.news1.co.il/uploadFiles/384121119976044.pdf. Links to press coverage appear in the section “From other organizations and the press.”) We have all read that soldiers told that they and their comrades shot an elderly woman in the street from afar, shot a mother and her children because they turned left into a “sterile zone” instead of right. We have all read that, whether or not it was truly in the orders (In the inquiries we made yesterday many maintain that there were strict orders to maintain purity of arms), many soldiers felt that they had total freedom to kill anything that moved. This is all in the context of the military rabbinate distributing literature supporting “akhzariut” (cruelty), and the allegations that the army’s military department and “house ethicist” Asa Kasher did everything to find a way of justifying whatever the army wished to do – which was basically to reduce the threat to soldiers by lowering the army’s restrictions protecting civilians.

When I was first told about the revelations I didn’t fully internalize what I was hearing. When I read for myself I cried, began to fast and ripped my shirt. Maybe there are some out there who are feeling vindicated and are happy that this is now coming out. I am not one of them. This is a national tragedy – a moral tsunami. My most fervent hope is that, if we succeed in organizing a national day for kheshbon nefesh and conversation on Wednesday (The consensus action agreed upon at the emergency meeting we held last night. It is a big undertaking that will only happen if enough people call by Sunday to say that they will help make it happen.) that we will do it with partners spanning almost the full range of political opinions and ideologies in this country. If the response will be condemnation from the “left,” while the “right” justifies, acts defensively or simply ignores, the tragedy will be even greater.

In surprising places I have heard people unexpectedly share with me how terrible they feel. On the other hand, I must confess that I am astounded by the thundering silence. Cry aloud. Do not hold back. Raise your voice like a shofar. “Declare to My people their transgression, and to the House of Jacob their sins.” (Isaiah 58:1)

Reactions come in several categories: 1. RHR and other human rights organizations have been calling for an impartial investigation because you admit that you don’t know all the facts. Now you seem to have passed judgment. These may have been isolated incidents or fabrications or taken out of context. We need to wait. 2. This is news? We already knew what happened in this war and past wars and every day the Occupied Territories. 3. War is Hell. We had to defend ourselves and this is what happens in war.

I would very much like to be proved wrong.

remainder here: http://rhr.israel.net/some-are-guilty-all-are-responsible%E2%80%A6