Activist rabbi faces trial in Israel

[Resistance]

Christian Science Monitor

JERUSALEM – To Israeli state prosecutors Arik Ascherman is a criminal, but to Palestinian Bassam Kiswani he is "the sweetest rabbi."

Ascherman, an immigrant from Erie, Pa., is the head of Rabbis for Human Rights, an organization of 90 rabbis, almost all of them immigrants from Western countries, who bring alleged human rights abuses, usually against the Palestinians, to the attention of the Israeli public and authorities. It is at times unpopular work in a society that views itself as being in a war for survival and where rabbis are often identified with hawkish, right-wing attitudes.

Ascherman, joined by two other defendants, went on trial Wednesday for interfering with police during demolitions of two Palestinian homes last year. In one case, he blocked a bulldozer and in another, he refused to leave the roof of a house threatened with destruction. The houses were destroyed on grounds they were built without permits.

The trial is the highlight of a decade of activism for Ascherman, who draws on the Bible, Jewish philosopher Abraham Joshua Heschel, and Martin Luther King Jr. as inspirations.

[bluesoul]

1. Wow, another Israeli hero!!!

This deserves a :toast: :bounce:

[Resistance]

2. Don't you love inspirational people like this?

It just gives you hope to hear about them.

:)

[GabysPoppy]

4. Learn from his inspiration

"I don’t think we’ll ever know whether she fell, whether the bulldozer saw her or whether it was a game of chicken that went too far,” Ascherman says. “If it was an accident, it drives home that when you’re in front of a bulldozer knocking down a home, accidents can happen.”

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=124&topic_id=46887

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Bread and Roses]

8. Thank you for the link.

I hadn't seen that.

Quite apt.

[Jackie97]

9. I wanted to believe that the IDF was innocent....

but after so many activists have been killed or injured by IDF (from where IDF was able to keep from hurting them before), how could one possibly think it's all an accident? Maybe Rachel Correy's (the first one) was an accident, but I doubt that the rest of the copycats were.

[Violet_Crumble]

10. That's not inspiration, that's an opinion...

It's an opinion I happen to share, and there's nothing inspirational about it, believe me. And nothing says that because someone finds a stance taken by someone inspirational, that they must agree with every opinion that person has. After all, I doubt very much that Rabbi Ascherman would find insensitive fake emails to the Corrie family inspirational at all, would you? ;)

Violet...

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

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[sushi]

6. Yes, and don't forget

the refuseniks. There are thinking people everywhere.

[Scurrilous]

3. He's getting a lot of support:

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/383637.html

400 rabbis sign letter condemning house demolitions

<snip>

"Some 400 American and European rabbis have signed a letter to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon protesting against Israel's house demolition policies in East Jerusalem and the territories.

Almost all the signers belong to non-Orthodox streams, and some hold top posts in leading Jewish organizations in the U.S. After the letter was submitted this Monday to Israel's embassy in Washington, dozens more rabbis added their signatures to it.

The letter was sparked by the trial of Rabbi Arik Ascherman, director of Rabbis for Human Rights, who has been active in the movement against house demolitions and has been charged with interfering with a police officer when Ascherman tried to prevent the demolition of two homes in East Jerusalem. Ascherman and of two other organization members appeared in a Jerusalem Magistrate Court on Wednesday for the start of the proceedings. The maximum penalty for obstructing a policeman in the line of duty is three years in prison."

[number6]

7. yes

:thumbsup: to Arik Ascherman :)