Education Min. now seeking to adopt Leviev Jewish identity program

Haaretz Last update - 13:43 20/07/2008
By Or Kashti

In a stark turnaround, the Education Ministry is in advanced negotiations with the Lev Leviev Foundation to approve its Zman Masa (Journey Time) program for bolstering Jewish identity. For the past two years the ministry steadfastly objected to using the program in state elementary schools, but it has approved it for the upcoming school year under two key conditions: The course booklets must undergo major revisions, and the program must be taught by faculty members or student teachers, not Orthodox teachers from outside. Sources at the Leviev Foundation said the curriculum material is being rewritten, and that they hope to secure the necessary permits by mid-August. However, it remains unclear whether the program will indeed be taught exclusively by secular teachers.

This past school year, Zman Masa was taught at 66 elementary schools in Rishon Letzion, Netanya, Petah Tikva and Beit Shemesh. The Leviev Foundation covers the cost of instruction hours (two hours a week) and course materials. The foundation previously submitted two versions of the program for Education Ministry approval, and both were rejected, partly on the grounds that they take an Orthodox approach. When ministry officials met in late April to discuss the matter, pedagogic secretariat head Prof. Anat Zohar said that "the essential concept was not amended," and "the program is written from the viewpoint of faith, observing the commandments, and accepting God's sovereignty." Another official at the meeting said there had been "'patchwork' revisions, not a change of concept." For the past two school years the program operated without the authorization of the Education Ministry pedagogic secretariat, which is responsible for vetting outside programs. Zman Masa directors say the program was approved by the ministry's previous director general, Shmuel Abuav. After the discussion in April, it was decided that the program's course pamphlets would be brought in line with the Shenhar report, which stipulated that Judaism studies at state schools must take a pluralistic approach. In recent weeks, Dr. Ron Margolin of Tel Aviv University, who was a member of the committee that drafted the principles for studying cultural Judaism, has begun serving as a secular academic adviser for Zman Masa. Margolin says the program's directors realize they cannot take an Orthodox approach in state schools. "If they indeed make the changes, there is no reason not to cooperate with them," he added. Zman Masa officials say they are changing some units and deleting others, such as those on ritual hand washing, identifying kosher and non-kosher animals, and a supplemental chapter on the Temple and its vessels. Faith-based statements are being toned down. For example, the goal of "strengthening belief in the Almighty who created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day" has been changed to "learning about the creation story described in the Bible." In addition, reference to the Leviev Foundation will be deleted from title pages. The biggest stumbling block remains who will teach the program, if approved. Last year the program was taught by 160 adjunct teachers, all Orthodox. The Education Ministry insists that Jewish education must be the province of its teachers. But Zman Masa director Shai Rinsky says it is tough to find secular teachers for the program. "We are investing tremendous effort in this, but cannot make any commitments yet," he said. An Education Ministry official responded, "The program will be taught exclusively by teachers from the state school system."

Rightist MK tries Knesset caucus effort to thwart Israeli Arabs

Haaretz Last update - 02:33 09/07/2008
By Shahar Ilan, Haaretz Correspondent

While the official name of the parliamentary alignment created Tuesday is the Legislative Caucus to Preserve the Jewish Identity of the State of Israel, it could more correctly termed the demographic caucus, or perhaps the caucus for the prevention of the proliferation of Arabs. The pressure group was founded by MK Eliyahu Gabbay (National Union-National Religious Party), who until now was best known for opposing Gay Pride parades in Jerusalem. By definition a legislative caucus concentrates the activity of more than a few MKs from more than a few parties, but Tuesday's event was a one-man show on the part of a man who is considered an outsider by his own party. While a few party colleagues did turn up, none stayed more than a few minutes.

Party colleague Aryeh Eldad took advantage of the opportunity to issue an announcement that - "the Israeli left, out of naivete, disingenuousness or stupidity, does not understand that it is indirectly aiding the enemy at home and abroad to destroy Israel. Israeli Arabs are the enemy of the Jewish state and should be treated as such," Eldad said.

Gabbay's action was motivated by the two recent terror attacks carried out by residents of East Jerusalem, who carry Israeli identity cards. "There are elements in the Arab population who are methodically working to infiltrate people into every community, to bring Arab families into kibbutzim, moshavim and communal villages, wherever they possibly can," Gabbay said. "The problem of the deprivation of Israeli Arabs simply doesn't exist, because it is the Jews and not the Arabs who are deprived," Gabbay said, noting that Arabs receive state social benefits and claiming they can build homes illegally while Jews are prosecuted for even adding a balcony without a building permit. Gabbay said that terrorists act out of nationalist motives only and are not driven to their actions by poverty and social distress. "One example is California, which once belonged to Mexico. There are poor and rich people there but still there's no Mexican terror in California," Gabbay said.

In the absence of MKs, representatives of various organizations presented their perspectives on the Arab problem. Erez Tadmor, of If You Will It, thinks the main problem is "the High Court of Justice, which is controlled by the left." He said that because the latter "views all attempts to preserve [Israel's] Jewish identity as racist," it is necessary to pass as many laws as possible restricting Israel's Arabs and containing stipulations obviating High Court intervention in these laws. Arieh Stav, director of the Ariel Center for Policy Research, focused mainly on Arab MKs. "It is inconceivable for an unmistakable fifth column to run its parties in the parliament. We have parties that openly cooperate with the enemy," Stav said. He said that the main problem is not the Arabs but rather a mental problem - "the Jewish pathology."

Land day

Haaretz 3/7/2008 By Shuki Sadeh

Anyone who wants to fully understand the changes undergone by Israeli society since the establishment of the state, and even beforehand, need not visit a museum or watch some documentary series on television. It is sufficient to peruse the lawsuit that has been under deliberation for the past four years by the Petah Tikva District Court, which is due to hand down a verdict in the near future. The lawsuit is really the story of the Borochov neighborhood in Givatayim, which begins with a group of laborers agreeing to live together in a way that would benefit everyone, and ends with real-estate deals and a demand that the state return money to its citizens.

The six plaintiffs are descendants of the pioneering laborers who established the neighborhood. They claim that the Israel Lands Administration (ILA) is exploiting them ruthlessly, and has illegally charged them a total of NIS 7 million as a condition for approving construction on plots that they own - even though in the original contracts their families signed, there was no obligation to pay for building permits.

David Cohen, the lawyer representing the plaintiffs, explains that if the suit is upheld by the court, the residents of Borochov and similar, veteran neighborhoods in other parts of the country will be able to demand that the ILA return money they paid in the past, and could amount to as much as NIS 5 billion.

Borochov, the first such workers' neighborhood established in the country, was set up in 1922 by a group headed by David Schneiderman, who had arrived during the Second Aliyah (wave of immigration). Schneiderman, who tried to acquire land in various areas in the central region of the country (among others, near Bat Yam and Holon) was ultimately successful in locating 300 dunams (or 75 acres), which at the time were part of Ir Haganim - the Ramat Gan of today. Every one of the 22 settlers bought 2.5 dunams, for which they paid 300 liras upon signing the contract, and another 1,000 liras after three months. Later on, another 70 families joined the group, and they received smaller plots.

The lawsuit is full of stories from the pioneering days of the 1920s when the settlers worked as construction laborers in Tel Aviv, or as guards or even sanitation workers in British military camps, to be able to pay back the loans they had taken for buying the land. Even though they bought the plots using their own private savings, the settlers decided of their own initiative to transfer their property collectively to the Jewish National Fund (JNF), which at that time organized Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel. This voluntary transfer of privately purchased land was also evident in other parts of the country - in towns, moshavim and kibbutzim.

"Our parents were socialists. As they saw it, it was forbidden for them to own real estate and therefore they handed this land over to the JNF," explains Ran Aldema, who still lives in the neighborhood his father helped to establish. Because of this ideology, people who refused to hand over their plots for national ownership were not allowed to live in the neighborhood: "We are very careful when accepting members ... because we care about the basic precept of nationalization, which is not agreeable to everyone," the residents' committee of the Borochov neighborhood wrote in a letter to the JNF headquarters in 1924 - a letter that is quoted in the current lawsuit.

This ideology was superseded by more practical interests, such as real estate, and members of the second generation of residents started to make "combination" deals: Developers were allowed to build on the available plots and to sell some of the apartments in the buildings they completed, while handing over - in return - the remaining apartments to the land owners. When a new structure was erected, the owners were asked to pay higher monthly leasing fees in accordance with the size of the built-up area.

Starting in 1987, the rules of the game changed. Land owners who wanted to strike a combination deal were asked to pay a permit fee of between $100,000 and $300,000 to the ILA, which administered the JNF properties. The owners did not realize at first that people who had closed similar deals in the past were not required to pay such fees, and therefore did not object to the ILA's demand. Only later did they understand this and begin to examine the matter more closely.

The property owners discovered that for the last 20 years, the ILA had asked them to sign new leases, which included a clause stating that any new building on their property was conditional upon payment of a fee determined by the size of the land. In the lawsuit they submitted to the court, the owners claimed they did not know that the demand for paying a fee was not included in their original contracts. They were sure that the signature was merely a technical matter and did not imagine that the ILA would change the terms of the agreement for the worse.

Says Eli Goldstein, the son of the late Avraham Goldstein, who was one of the initiators of the lawsuit: "I assume that many other good people did not read the fine print. They were not naive, but did not foresee where this would lead. They did not imagine that someone would demand a payment during the construction work. The founders paid a full price for the land and donated it. But wonder of wonders! When it was time for realization, the ILA wanted a fee."

"The ILA is behaving aggressively and exploiting its power while disregarding its public obligations in a way that shows a lack of bona fide intentions and transparency," attorney Cohen wrote, summing up the plaintiffs' grievances. He also quoted remarks made at a conference of ILA legal advisers in November 1998: They stated that lessees with whom a new contract is signed should be able to enjoy the conditions of the original contract. "It is regrettable that the legal advisers did not take it a step further as could be expected of them - that is, to trace the lessees from whom permit fees were stolen in an illegal and indecent fashion, and to return the money stolen from them," the lawsuit says.

'Getting rich?'

The ILA claims, for its part, that the matter is no longer legally relevant because the new contracts were signed between 10 and 15 years ago. The plaintiffs counter that that claim is merely the ILA's way of shaking off responsibility, and say the real facts became clear to them only a few months before the the lawsuit was submitted. Cohen says he approached the attorney general and state prosecutor's office to look into the matter.

In any event, the ILA says everything was done in accordance with the law. It says that the plaintiffs are basing their claims on procedures which are in some cases no longer relevant, simply to avoid paying a large sum for building rights. "The permit fees that the plaintiffs were asked to pay by the ILA not only are firmly anchored in the law, but also no other outcome is reasonable and would merely mean getting rich illegally at the expense of the public," the state has said in response, on behalf of the ILA.

This claim infuriates the plaintiffs. Yonatan Mameluk, the son of one founder, is currently finalizing plans to tear down the old house in which his parents lived and to erect an eight-story residence instead. Mameluk's home is one of the only three remaining structures from the early years of Borochov. Another one is also about to be torn down, and a third was donated to the Givatayim municipality to serve as an artists' house.

Mameluk did not join in the lawsuit since he knew this would hold up his construction plans. However, he supports the plaintiffs. "What the ILA is saying is chutzpah of the first order," he says. "Did any of them come here in 1922 to settle? After all, my father didn't have a thing to eat. For years he would ride his donkey every day to his pharmacy in the Sharona neighborhood of Tel Aviv, and at the same time, he rented out a room in his house. Did we make a good deal? Not exactly. My father gave the JNF a gift and got nothing back. I am his heir and I have children, and I have the responsibility of taking care of them. The residents of the Borochov neighborhood won't get rich from these lands. After 'eating' from a piece of land for 85 years, you have earned your bread. Is that called getting rich?"

Many similar arguments can be found in the lawsuit, which also reflects the conceptual changes undergone by the descendants of the founders. The first few pages are full of descriptions of the pioneering efforts of the latter, but afterward the plaintiffs adapt themselves to the spirit of the times. In this way, the socialist pioneer of the 1920s turns into an enthusiastic supporter of individualism in the 21st century. "He doesn't owe a thing either to anyone else or to the authorities. He is not a righteous man, nor a pious one. He does what is required of him; he is an ordinary citizen" - thus the plaintiffs write in summary, quoting a ruling, in response to those who accuse them of growing rich at the expense of the state.

Yizhar Schneiderman, 96, is one of the only veteran residents who has a slightly different perspective. He was 10 when his father David helped spearhead the establishment of the neighborhood. He witnessed the meetings of residents where it was decided to hand over the land to the JNF. Today Schneiderman is upset about Borochov's metamorphosis into a real-estate gold mine, and has done something unusual, in contrast to others of his generation: He donated his family home to the municipality to be used as an arts center. Soon, after the other two remaining historic houses in the neighborhood are torn down, that structure will be the last relic of the early days.

"No one in the neighborhood thought it was right to do something to commemorate [my father's] name, so we decided to donate the house to the municipality. That is more important to us than what those who submitted the lawsuit want," Schneiderman says. "My father certainly did not want this neighborhood to turn into real estate. He was an idealist, but now everything is the opposite of what he wanted. If his vision were to be applied, many more homes would have been preserved for the good of the public and the Schneiderman house would not have been the only one." The younger Schneiderman eventually built a house on half of his father's plot, but received only three apartments in the deal and had to pay the monetary value of one of them to the ILA as a leasing fee. In view of this example, it is difficult to understand the claims of the plaintiffs. Even after paying the fees to the ILA, they would remain with apartments in desired neighborhoods in the center of the country, whose value the pioneers of the 1920s could not have ever imagined.

Israeli Arab teaches Palestinians about the Holocaust

Haaretz Last update - 15:36 26/06/2008
By Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondent

On the way to the Hawara checkpoint, near the West Bank city of Nablus, Khaled Ksab Mahamid says: "You remember that you are American, yes? How is your accent in English?" Mahamid, whose family originates from a destroyed Arab village near what is now Megiddo, is the founder and director of a private Holocaust museum in Nazareth. We are on our way to the Balata refugee camp, where he is scheduled to give a lecture. The tension at the checkpoint is rising.

In general, Palestinians and Arabs try not to talk about the Holocaust. The distance between solidarity with the Jewish people and solidarity with the Jewish state is short, and is not usually up for discussion, especially in a refugee camp. Mahamid has a unique perspective on this issue. He argues that the Palestinian people paid the price for the Holocaust during their Nakba - Arabic for "catastrophe" or the day of Israel's independence. Mahamid says that Palestinians are still paying for the Holocaust, and will continue to do so, if it does not learn what happened to the Jews.

He has lectured in the Nablus area in the past, but this is his first time in Balata. He does not know exactly what to expect. The organizers of the lecture welcome him at the entrance to the camp, shake his hand. The first stop: memorial for the fallen. Mahamid mumbles the fataha, the opening chapter of the Koran, within the palms of his hands extended upward like an open book. After the memorial, we go down to one of the alleyways in the camp. It is exactly like in the movies ? the narrow alleyways of a refugee camp. A dozen or so residents gather next to a clubhouse - which also serves as the headquarters of Al-Alqsa Martyrs Brigade commander and Fatah parliament member, Jamal Tirawi, who was arrested by Israeli forces last year.

Mahamid begins his lecture with the claim that the Zionist movement has failed, in a big way. "Most Jews did not come to Palestine. Also today, there are eight million [Jews] in the world that are not here. Where are they?" The crowd listens quietly. One of the guests gets up to serve juice and cookies. When he stands, the gun in his belt is evident.

Mahamid raises his hands and warns that the Palestinians must not be like Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. This, he says, plays into the hands of the Zionists. Palestinians must remember the Jews' weak points. "Know your enemy," he says. He does not exactly tell what happened to the Jews during the Holocaust; he hints at it. He shows pictures of Jewish prisoners in the death camps and says Palestinians must use "understand what the other thinks, not deny it." "The Israelis believe in this, the Germans and the French believe in this. We also need to adopt this," he says. Addressing the crowd, he continues: "You, who live in Balata, could you tell somebody this is a lie?"

Mahamid insists that the Palestinians have to end the violent struggle against Israel, as given that they have lost six million of their people, the deaths of 25 in a terrorist attack will not deter them. Another person attending the lecture, of local origin, becomes angry. There is no logic in making the occupation a five-star occupation, he says. He is also against Mahamid's claim that the Zionist movement has failed. "If one Jew comes, if they took my father's orchard in Jaffa, it has not failed. Have you not read the Protocols of the Elders of Zion? They sit in a tent but want to control the entire world." As we leave the refugee camp and head back toward Hawara checkpoint, the tension eases. The journalists are already chatting in Hebrew with the guests. At the checkpoint, Mahamid pulls out his ID for the woman soldier. With his ID, he always carries a picture of a Jewish child from the Holocaust - why not shame the soldiers a little? When the woman soldier expresses amazement, he produces more pictures of Jews from the Holocaust and tells her that he just gave a lecture on the subject at Balata.

Will secret conversion course go on?

Jun. 19, 2008
Matthew Wagner , THE JERUSALEM POST

Shevach Mofet High School on south Tel Aviv's Rehov Hamasger is a living example of what many Israelis perceive to be a danger to the Jewish state's religious-cultural unity.
Perhaps no other high school better embodies the effect of the absorption of hundreds of thousands of non-Jews from the former Soviet Union as part of the waves of immigration in the 1980s and 1990s.
Of the elite math and science school's 1,600-strong student body, hundreds are gentiles by Orthodox Jewish standards.

True, the vast majority of Israelis might not consider themselves Orthodox. But most would grudgingly say Orthodoxy is the most legitimate expression of Judaism.
As a result, the gentile students at Shevach Mofet, part of group of about 300,000 non-Jewish immigrants from the FSU, have to cope with the gnawing feeling that they are not full-fledged citizens of a state that defines itself as both democratic and Jewish - especially the females, since matrilineal descent determines whether the next generation is Jewish or not.

So it comes as no surprise that it was at Shevach Mofet that the Immigrant Absorption Ministry, together with the Education Ministry, the IDF and a few maverick Orthodox rabbis launched a pilot program to instill non-Jewish students with the requisite knowledge and religious experience to prepare for conversion to Judaism.

"The demand came from the students," Avigdor Leviatan, head of the Absorption Ministry's Conversion Division, said on Thursday.

"School psychologists were confronted with dozens of cases of students who were concerned about their lack of Jewishness and how that affected their feeling of belonging to the Jewish people.

"So we decided to set up a curriculum that would prepare high school students for an Orthodox conversion. The first group of seven or eight girls will appear before the conversion court in the coming month."

Participants devote six hours a week for a year to the studies and take part in Shabbatot during which they are immersed in a Orthodox environment on religious kibbutzim.
In the coming year, the program will be expanded to schools in five cities and will include 300 students, Leviatan said.

The program, which was started nearly two years ago, was kept secret to prevent the Ashkenazi haredi establishment from attacking it. Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar, who is in charge of conversions, defers to the Ashkenazi haredi rabbis.

In the past Amar has backed down to haredi pressure. Many Orthodox rabbis, especially in haredi circles, oppose accepting as converts teenage girls enrolled in a totally secular, coed high school and living in an irreligious household.

An integral part of conversion to Judaism is embracing an Orthodox lifestyle, including maintaining a kosher diet, adhering to the restrictions against work on Shabbat and accepting sexual abstinence until marriage.

Conservative-minded rabbis, with a predisposition to being suspect of the purity of potential converts' intentions, doubt young women who are in a totally secular environment can faithfully embrace Orthodoxy.

Perhaps out of concern that the Shevach Mofet program will encounter stiff rabbinic opposition, more moderate rabbis within the National Conversion Authority, the body approved by the Chief Rabbinate to perform conversions, are denying any knowledge of and trying to downplay the issue.

For instance, the deputy head of the Conversion Authority, Rabbi Moshe Klein, told The Jerusalem Post that he was not familiar with the conversion program at Shevach Mofet.
"I know nothing about the program," Klein said. "I don't know how many students are learning in the program. I don't know what the educational content is and I have not set up a panel of judges to convert anyone."

Klein's comments contradicted statements made by Leviatan, who said that both Klein and Rabbi Haim Druckman, the outgoing head of the authority, knew all about the program and wholeheartedly supported it. "They are afraid of hurting the chances of its success," said Leviatan. "That's why they do not want to comment right now."

Leviatan said that several conversion judges have already agreed to cooperate with the program.
One of the judges named by Leviatan is a well respected rabbi who is not considered particularly lenient. The judge denied that he was involved.

Rabbi Sefi Sherman, who heads Tel Aviv's Beit Midrash Tair, an educational program that brings together secular and religious teenagers, is the educational director of the Shevach Mofet initiative.

Beit Midrash Tair provided young, dynamic rabbis who could teach the young women at Shevach Mofet in an interesting, nonthreatening atmosphere.

Sherman, who is also the principal of a high school in Tel Aviv, declined to comment.
Leviatan said that he agreed to an interview with the Post only after the story was revealed by Tel Aviv, a local weekly. Tel Aviv's breaking of the story also led to coverage on Israel Radio.
"Media exposure will only hurt the chances that this program will succeed," Leviatan said.

"Religious freedom now" - but only for Jewish converts

By Reuven Hammer
Haaretz 20/6/2008

At last the problems of conversion in Israel have begun to receive the attention and press coverage they deserve. Not since the Hanaton conversions in 1995, when our Masorti (Conservative) rabbinical court converted adopted children that the Rabbinate had refused to convert because their adoptive parents were not Orthodox, has so much publicity and public discussion been focused on the way in which Israel's official rabbinical establishment treats potential and actual converts. That earlier crisis led to the formation of the Neeman Commission, which ended its work without even issuing a report - because of the opposition of the Chief Rabbinate to any cooperation with other groups. But it also resulted in a 2002 Supreme Court decision requiring the state to register Masorti converts in Israel as Jews. That was a step forward, but no more than that. It took the high beit din's disgraceful treatment of Rabbi Chaim Druckman earlier this spring, and the retroactive voiding of thousands of his conversions, regardless of the consequences for the converts, their partners and their children, to once again arouse public concern about a problem that has been with us for years.

I am hardly the first to respond to the decision of the Rabbinate's highest court not to recognize conversions carried out by the state-appointed conversion administration headed by Druckman, and with the exception of the occasional ultra-Orthodox writer, all have been critical of the Rabbinate's actions. Depending on each individual writer's religious orientation, there have been calls for the replacement of the court's current judges, all of whom are Haredim, by more moderate religious-Zionist rabbis; for the Israeli Supreme Court to overturn the decisions of the rabbinical court; for the state to fully recognize conversions performed by Masorti and Reform rabbis in Israel; and for the creation of secular conversion, so that non-Jews can join the Jewish people without undergoing any religious process whatsoever.

Many of these suggestions are valuable. It would certainly be a step forward if Haredi rabbis of the Rabbinate and its high court were replaced by Zionist ones. This is, after all, a Zionist state, even though, looking at the official rabbinate today, one would not know it. The Rabbinate's current attitude toward conversions constitutes a complete reversal of the halakhic decisions of such eminent chief rabbis of the past as Abraham Isaac Kook, Ben-Zion Uziel and Shlomo Goren, all of whom had a much more realistic and positive attitude toward conversion. Certainly, the time has come for the government of Israel, which continues to fight tooth and nail in the courts with no justification to avoid full recognition of the actions of Masorti and Reform rabbinical courts here, to relinquish its foolish, futile and anti-democratic stance.

Yet none of this goes far enough. None of these suggestions are really sufficient to solve the problems of conversion, in particular, and of religious life in Israel, in general. As long as an official rabbinate continues to function as part of the political structure of the government of Israel, with monopolistic powers in so many realms, including marriage and divorce, these problems will continue to plague us.

Those who really care about the future of Judaism in the Jewish state - and this should certainly include the religious- Zionists - should be at the forefront of a battle to separate these religious powers from the state and to privatize the rabbinate, permitting Jews to freely chose their own rabbinical authorities or none. Regarding marriage, for example, the state should set up a system of civil partnerships entered into legally by those it considers eligible, with ensuing rights, even as the religious ceremony remains within the realm of an individual couple, depending on their religious affiliation.

We do not need a total separation of religion and state - this being a Jewish state, that would be all but impossible. What I am proposing is a system by which the state gives help and support to religious institutions but does not dictate their policies, nor does it grant monopolistic rights to any one clerical group. The state is a secular institution and should step back from dictating religious affairs. This is a development that has occurred in every modern Western country, and it is long overdue in Israel, which remains the only country in the free world in which Jews are not free to make their own choices concerning their religious affairs, and in which a rabbinate is empowered to make such decisions against the free will of the inhabitants.

There are three principal serious problems with which the government-sponsored Haredi rabbinate has failed to deal properly: the case of agunot (women who cannot obtain a divorce), shmita (the rabbinate refused to implement Rabbi Kook's method that made it possible to continue using the produce of the Land of Israel in the current agricultural sabbatical year), and now giyur (conversion). All of these have halakhic solutions that the current rabbinate refuses to adopt. This in itself should be sufficient to make us realize that the existence of a state-sponsored Chief Rabbinate is an anachronism Israel can no longer afford. We need freedom of religion here so that individual rights will no longer be trampled and, most of all, so that religion can flourish in Israel.

Rabbi Reuven Hammer is the head of the Rabbinical Court of the Israeli Masorti (Conservative) Movement and a former president of the movement's International Rabbinical Assembly.

'Standing at attention for Remembrance Day siren worthless'

Rabbi Hanania Tsfar calls for reciting Psalms during IDF Memorial Day and Holocaust Remembrance Day sirens instead of placing wreaths like non-Jews

Nitsan Yanko
Yedioth Aharonoth Published: 04.24.08, 12:35

Just before Israel marks its Holocaust Remembrance Day and memorial day for the fallen IDF soldiers, Religious Council head’ of Rosh Ha’ayin in central Israel, Rabbi Hanania Tsfar, is speaking against the customary ceremonies.
Standing at attention while the siren is sounded “is worthless,” writes Tsfar in a letter sent to the head of the local Yad Labanim commemoration organization. By his standards, it is better to recite Psalms and Kaddish during that time. Tsfar also asked Yad Labanim not to lay wreaths on gravesites and memorials, since it is considered “gentile practice.”
In previous years, Tsfar says, the Religious Council had placed a wreath during the IDF Memorial Day, but this year, they will prefer to light memorial candles and ask the public to read Psalms to elevate the souls of the fallen soldiers.
“It is our duty to express the Jewish Halacha which sees no benefit to the soul in placing flower wreaths, whereas candles have a long lasting effect and are highly beneficial, since a man’s soul is akin to a candle, so by reciting Talmudic phrases and Kaddish, the soul finds comfort and is elevated to higher spheres.”
Regarding his comment about the pointlessness of merely standing at attention during the siren and his call to recite Jewish text, Tsfar added that “it must be done modestly so as no to upset the secular population that does not understand its meaning and value. It’s high time to speak the truth and make a change.”

Head of the local Yad Labanim memorial bureau, Ovadia Simhi, expressed his discontentment with Tsfar’s suggestions: “No one has brought this up except for him (Tsfar.) We’re not going to act any differently,” said Simhi, adding that “one doesn’t mix politics with sensitive, military ceremonies such as Memorial Day and Holocaust Remembrance Day.”
As far as placing wreaths, Simhi said: “Who are we to act any differently than the rest of the country?”

Israel protests UN chief Ban Ki-Moon's use of term 'nakba'

Haaretz Last update - 02:35 16/05/2008
By Rotem Sela, TheMarker Correspondent, and Haaretz Service

The Israeli mission to the United Nations is seeking clarifications after an official communique released by Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon's bureau made specific reference to the word "nakba," according to a report broadcast on Israel Radio early Friday morning. The report said the UN chief telephoned Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to express his solidarity with the Palestinians on the day they mark the "nakba," the Arabic word meaning "catastrophe" that is used in reference to the founding of the state of Israel. Danny Carmon, Israel's deputy ambassador to the UN, told Israel Radio that the term "'nakba' is a tool of Arab propaganda used to undermine the legitimacy of the establishment of the State of Israel, and it must not be part of the lexicon of the UN."

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Thursday said that the Palestinians will be able to celebrate their independence day on the same day that the word "nakba" or catastrophe is erased from their lexicon. Livni was referring to the Palestinians' "Nakba Day" which is commemorated on May 15, the day Israel was founded in 1948. Speaking at the closing panel of the "Facing Tomorrow" presidential conference in Jerusalem, Livni said that Israel needs a constitution, and stressed that since Israel views itself as a Jewish democratic state, it must take into account that it will have to relinquish territories. However, she said, land will only be handed over after the Palestinians change their stance. "Deciding on fixed borders is important, but not enough; before we draw up a border we must decide what will be on the other side of it," she said. Defense Minister Ehud Barak also addressed the crowd in Jerusalem, saying that "there is no future for a nation that doesn't know its past." After giving an overview of the history of the state of Israel, Barak said that of all the events that Israel has experienced, the one thing that he remembers most is the day that he met Ronny, the female fighter pilot from Kibbutz Lohamei HaGetaot, who symbolized for him the long way the Jewish people had come since the Holocaust. "Ronny flies in circles 30,000 feet over Kibbutz Lohamei HaGetaot, which was established in memory of those who fought in the Holocaust," he said. Though he called for peace in his address, Barak chose to disparage those who urge immediate peace negotiations with the Palestinians, saying "the saying 'the wolf shall dwell with the lamb' came out of Jerusalem, but in practice, the lamb is replaced every few days." Opposition leader and Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu began his address before the conference with a focus on finance. He said that Israel could turn into an "Israeli tiger" ? referencing the Celtic tiger, a nickname given to Ireland following its rapid financial development since the mid 1990s. "Israel can enjoy 6-8 percent growth each year over the next decade," the former finance minister said. He emphasized the importance of the reforms that he had instituted during his tenure as finance minister, which, according to him, directly resulted in the financial growth Israel has enjoyed in recent years. All three speakers chose to emphasize the importance of education in their speeches. Barak said that Israel's only resource was the grey matter between the ears of Israel's younger generation. He added that the only way to achieve security and prosperity was to invest in education.

Bereaved father: Druze are equal only in IDF

Nawaf Nabuani of Galilee village of Julis, who lost his son during military navigation, says motivation among his community to serve in army skyrocketing despite recent tensions
Ahiya Raved Yedioth Ahranoth Published: 05.07.08, 13:26
The first day of 2008 began as a regular day for Nawaf Nabuani, a junior high school teacher from the Druze town of Julis in the western Galilee. He entered the ninth grade classroom to teach mathematics, and during the break, the cellular phone in his pocket began ringing. A young man asked him about his son Tamir, a soldier serving in the elite Sayeret Matkal commando unit.
"I wasn't worried at the time, I knew Tamir was in the middle of a navigation. I was more concerned about his brother, who was training with the Nahal Brigade," Nawaf recounts.

As the class ended, he noticed that the same young man had called once again. And then his oldest son called as well. "Dad," he told him, "people are calling me and asking about Tamir. Has something happened?"
Nawaf tried to check with the team commander, but got no answers. He already knew that the town-major people were making their way to his house.
"I entered another class, but I could no longer think straight. I had a feeling that something bad was about to happen. When one of the teachers came and asked me to come to the principal's room, my legs shook. I saw the town-major and others, and I knew that the worst piece of news of all has arrived."
Several hours earlier, Tamir's commanders had failed to locate him on his communication device, which he carried with him to a lone navigation on Mount Negev. The Israel Air Force rescue unit was dispatched to the area and found his body at the foot of the cliff. The next day he was laid to rest at his village.
There are now four military graves in the small grave plot belonging to the Nabuani family in the Julis cemetery. Walking between them, Nawaf feels the pride of someone who has made a breakthrough. Here is the relative who was the first Druze soldier in the paratroopers' unit. Here are other cousins who fell in Israel's wars. Here is Tamir's grave.

"If, God forbid, we are forced to dig another grave," he says, "there won't be any room here. The village had 23 fallen soldiers since 1956, but has yet to have a military cemetery. We're working on it."

No regrets
Tamir's road to Sayeret Matkal was not an easy one. In the middle of the ninth grade he decided to join the military boarding school at Haifa's Reali High School, and although he registered late, he managed to fill the gaps. He then passed the exams and the pre-conscription evaluations.

"I told him, 'No matter where you are, in which reconnaissance company, the only important thing is that you are among the best,'" the bereaved father says.

"I trusted him. He was a strong and responsible guy. Since the age of 12 he used to work in the summer and provide for himself almost all alone. He worked for a contractor. He would climb a four-story scaffolding.

"I told him not to tell many people that he was part of the commando unit, so he didn’t. I would just ask him each time if he was healthy, he told me he was, that the training was going well."

Only after his personal tragedy, Nawaf began hearing stories about his son.

"His commander from the recruit service came and told us about a fire which broke out in a tent. Everyone began shouting and call the commanders. Tamir, with a blanket, stood up and put out the fire. He was then taken to the hospital because he inhaled smoke. But this is how he was.

"The service at Sayeret Matkal was good for him. It's not just a place which develops fighting abilities, but the mind as well. I had no regrets about sending him there. I still have no regrets. Don’t forget that we believe in faith, that it's all written from above and no one can change it. It calms the person down."

Many picture of Tamir hang on the house's walls in Julis. From the military boarding school, from the different stages he took. One of the walls carries a large oil painting and a poem in Arabic. The son who died asks his mother not to be angry over his departure, not to cry too much. And if the neighbors ask, she should tell them he will be back.

"Of course he won't be back," Nawaf adds, translating the song into Hebrew.

'Peki'in events did not hurt motivation'
Three Druze soldiers from the Galilee have died in less than two years. The first day of the Second Lebanon War saw the death of Wassim Nazal, of the village of Yanuh, in one of the Hummer jeeps attacked in the kidnapping incident. In January, Nabuani was killed during a navigation, and last month, Sayef Bisan of the village of Jat, was killed in a battle with terrorists near Kissufim.

Despite all this, the Druze public reports of particularly high motivation – more than 85% of the young Julis residents are inducted to the army, and more than 65% join combat units.

Nawaf Nabuani says this is the community and family's heritage. "The young see the adults and want to be like them. In our family alone there are 23 officers today, two of them lieutenant-colonels. The young ones see and learn."

Two of Nawaf's older sons, Kamal and Sari, serve as career officers. The youngest son, Nawaf hopes, will follow in his brother's footsteps and may even be accepted into Sayeret Matkal. In the recent war, when Tamir had just joined the IDF, four of the family members were in the army, some of them reservists, some career offers and some regular soldiers.

The recent tensions – led by the violent events in Peki'in – did not harm the motivation, the bereaved father says.

"The Defense Ministry and the IDF are the only places in Israel where Druze are really considered completely equal," he says. "A Druze soldier can reach any unit in the IDF."

He opposes demonstrations and aggressiveness, but calls on the State to close the gaps. "No one deludes himself that one day all the gaps will be filled. But the government ministers must do their homework, must find out what is missing and do everything for us to receive these things."

Bedouin soldiers: Israel shuns us

On Remembrance Day, Bedouin community mourns IDF casualties, calls for end to inequality
Yonat Atlas
Yedioth Ahranoth Published: 05.06.08, 22:07
Equal only in death: Among those observing Remembrance Day the families of 168 Bedouin casualties killed in the line of duty since Israel's establishment. Forty one of them are from the Negev’s dispersed Bedouin community, which is greatly underprivileged despite its close ties to the IDF and the fact that it is forced to hide its sons’ army service.
Two Bedouin soldiers have been killed in 2008: A 28 year-old tracker whose family refused to publish his name was killed by a roadside bomb on the Gaza border, and 20 year-old Corporal Menahesh Albinath from Kuseife, during intense clashes with a Palestinian terror cell near the security fence in central Gaza.

Casualties of War

The Albinath family lives in shacks with no electricity; their water supply was resumed only after their son’s death. Menahesh’s brother, Fares, serves in the territories, yet his house is under a demolition order threat.
“Instead of peacefully serving the country, the soldiers are forced to worry over the fate of their homes, wondering whether or not their house will remain intact upon their return,” said Menahesh’s uncle, Mussa Albinath, who served in the IDF for 20 years. His five sons and nephew also served in the army.
The problematic treatment of Bedouin soldiers by their community is evident in the fact that the Remembrance Day siren was heard for the first time only in 2005 in the Hura community.
Remembrance Day for Bedouin IDF fallen (Photo: IDF Spokespersons)

Meanwhile, data shows that there is a significant decline in the number of Bedouins joining the IDF. Community leaders say they will not encourage youth to join the IDF if Israel continues to overlook them and their needs.

Southern Region Commander Yoav Galant spoke at the memorial ceremony for Bedouin casualties in Beersheba Tuesday, saying that “we must help Bedouins solve their problems and aid in implementing the national decision made regarding their communities.

"The Bedouin soldiers are excellent in performing their duties, but we still need more fighters to join," Galant said, urging Bedouin community leaders to encourage their youth to enlist.

One-state solution: From a 'card' to a vital interest

Haaretz 02:48 11/04/2008

By Calev Ben-Dor

Following the meeting earlier this week between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and reports of another summit being planned to coincide with U.S. President George W. Bush's visit in May, negotiations seem to have returned to the frequency and seriousness of the pre-Intifada period. A decade, though, is a long time in politics, especially in the Middle East. Yet despite this truism, Israel seems to be approaching negotiations with exactly the same mindset as in the past - a position that may undermine its ability to achieve its interests. Since the Oslo Accords, Israeli policy has been guided by the assumption that the goal of the Palestinian national movement was the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. Israel viewed its decision to "grant" its adversaries such a state as a negotiating "card" that could be "traded" for Palestinian concessions in other areas, specifically Israeli security demands. If the Palestinians wanted a state so much, the logic went, they would agree to certain restrictions on their sovereignty - such as demilitarization, Israeli use of Palestinian air space and early-warning stations in the West Bank.

However, recent regional trends have eroded these assumptions to the point of irrelevancy, and are turning the establishment of a Palestinian state from an Israeli "card" into a pressing Israeli interest. For one, the changing demographics and international balance of power are threatening Israel's legitimacy as a Jewish and democratic state. Predictions that Arabs will reach demographic parity with Jews in the Land of Israel within the next decade, coupled with Palestinian and international impatience with developments on the ground, are bringing the threat of a binational state closer. For this reason, many Israelis now consider the creation of a Palestinian state not as a threat to Zionism, but, rather, as its lifeline.

Second, while Israelis increasingly see the desirability of the "two-state solution," more and more Palestinians increasingly doubt its viability. In addition to greater support for Hamas, which promotes a state in place of, rather than alongside, Israel, the lack of progress in negotiations has also taken its toll on more "moderate" Palestinians. Many view the Palestinian Authority as simply granting Israel a "license for occupation," and now suggest dissolving it and returning the full economic and political burden of that occupation to Israel.

Third, those Palestinians who still support the establishment of an independent state alongside Israel are raising the bar regarding what type of state will be acceptable to them. If in the past the Palestinians were willing to consider a state with provisional borders, Abbas now sees this as a trap. If during the Camp David negotiations Palestinians agreed to certain Israeli security demands that infringed on their sovereignty, they now oppose anything less than a full-fledged Palestinian state.

This new situation poses several dilemmas for Israel, most notably in its need to balance between security and political interests. Israel's security interests in relation to the Palestinians dictate, among other things, that it be able to prevent rocket fire on its population centers, the emergence of an eastern front, and the presence of enemy troops in the West Bank. In other words, military logic generally requires that Israel maintain control on the ground, or that it agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state only after its demands are guaranteed.

Israel's political logic, meanwhile, is to avoid having to retake responsibility for the fate of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, as well as stopping the continuing erosion of the two-state option and of the Jewish state's legitimacy in the international community. In contrast to its military logic, Israel's political logic requires further withdrawals from the West Bank and the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Whereas Israel traditionally believed that a peace agreement with the Palestinians could ensure both these logics, the changing reality may force Israel to choose - between creating a Palestinian state without seeing its security interests guaranteed, on the one hand, and continued security control without a political solution, on the other. In other words, the choice could well be between an agreement without security interests or no agreement at all.

There are ways Israel could alleviate this situation. It could reframe the negotiation agenda so as to leverage its security demands by discussing them alongside Palestinian demands to "intrude" into Israel's sovereign territory. Such a negotiation agenda could see Israeli demands for Palestinian demilitarization and use of air space "exchanged" for Palestinian demands for safe passage between the West Bank and Gaza, and access to Israel's labor market. At the same time, Israel could begin to formulate a national security doctrine based on deterrence within its own territory rather than on security arrangements around the external perimeter of Palestine.

But regardless of these options, without a comprehensive reevaluation of the new reality, Israel may find it difficult to attain any of its political and security interests vis-a-vis the Palestinians. Nonetheless, to date, such a reevaluation does not seem to have taken place. Calev Ben-Dor is an analyst at the Reut Institute for Policy Planning, in Tel Aviv.

Tel Aviv court convicts four Israeli neo-nazis

Jerusalem Post Apr 10, 2008 9:04 Updated Apr 11, 2008 0:21
By DAN IZENBERG

Tel Aviv District Court convicted four of eight suspects on Thursday who were charged with neo-Nazi activities, following a plea bargain between the Tel Aviv District Attorney's Office and the defendants' lawyers.

A Justice Ministry spokesman said the state would ask for punishments ranging from 15 months to four-and-a-half years, depending on the individual charges regarding each of the defendants and his personal circumstances, such as whether he had a previous criminal record and his family background.
Four other neo-Nazi suspects, suspected of more serious crimes, are still on trial, including the suspected ringleader of the group, Arik Boanayev, 21. The ministry spokesman said the state and lawyers for these four were negotiating a plea bargain.
Those who pleaded guilty on Thursday to the modified indictment were three minors, two from Petah Tikva and one from Holon, and 20-year-old Alex Flich, from Karnei Shomron.
The four suspects still on trial are Boanayev; Eliahu (Ilya) Bonderenko, 21, from Petah Tikva; Kiril Bolenkov, 19, from Holon; and Vladimir Nizvetzov, 18, from Bat Yam.
The suspects were arrested on September 10, 2007. The 22-page indictment, which was filed two days later, included 11 separate charges against one or more of the suspects. The counts included assault in aggravated circumstances, incitement to racism, possession of racist material and conspiracy to commit a crime. Boanayev was included in 10 of the 11 charges.
According to the indictment, the gang had been operating for at least two years. The members called themselves "Patrol 35," and preyed on the weak and minorities; they also desecrated at least two Petah Tikva synagogues. The indictment detailed the members' attacks on foreign workers, drug addicts, homosexuals and others.

Rabbi Eliyahu: Approve outposts, encourage birth rate

Thousands of religious-Zionist youths rally under slogan 'Rise and be encouraged', in honor of Mercaz Harav attack's 30-day anniversary. Rabbi Eliyahu comforts bereaved parents, strengthens youths
Kobi Nahshoni Yedioth Ahrabnoth Published: 04.09.08, 07:45
"The government's most important mission these days is the establishment of yeshivas and settlements, the approval of outposts, and the encouragement of the national birth rate," former Sephardi Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu told a crowd of religious-Zionist youths assembled at Teddy stadium in Jerusalem on Tuesday evening.

About 8,000 youths participated in the rally commemorating the 30-day anniversary of the attack at Mercaz Harav yeshiva. Eight beacons were lit by youths injured by the attack in honor of the deceased, and Sergeant David Shapiro and Rabbi Yitzhak Dadon were awarded certificates of honor for their brave acts during the attack, in front of the students, rabbis, and faculty seated on the grass.

In a speech carried out by Rabbi Eliyahu, he asked the participants to comfort the bereaved parents. "The dear boys who were murdered are in heaven now, in the company of Rabbi Akiva and his friends, under the wings of the Divine presence," he said. "Parents, be comforted."

'Rise and be encouraged'
Head of the Bnei Akiva yeshivas, Rabbi Abraham Zuckerman, also spoke at the rally, saying, "Once Israel was all ours, and we did not hasten to settle and populate it. This is a sin that requires amending."

Praising the youths, he said, "God demands that we be role models for others, to other nations and to our brothers who are far from love, even brotherly love. We must bring them closer. Our slogan is 'rise and be encouraged', and we must encourage others too."

In video excerpts that were shown to the assembly, other rabbis spoke about the young generation and promised that the yeshiva attack would not threaten the Jews' hold on Israel. They called on the youths to utilize their powers to affect the opinions of others.
Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski said, "We mourn and are immersed in sorrow – but we do not despair, we bewail – we have no compassion for ourselves, but you have it in you to turn this disaster into a building block. Israel will emerge victorious; our victory is hidden between the yeshiva walls."

UN expert stands by Nazi comments

BBC 05:10 GMT, Tuesday, 8 April 2008 06:10 UK

By Tim Franks BBC Middle East correspondent

Falk believes that Israel has been avoiding criticism

The next UN investigator into Israeli conduct in the occupied territories has stood by comments comparing Israeli actions in Gaza to those of the Nazis.
Speaking to the BBC, Professor Richard Falk said he believed that up to now Israel had been successful in avoiding the criticism that it was due.
Professor Falk is scheduled to take up his post for the UN Human Rights Council later in the year.
But Israel wants his mandate changed to probe Palestinian actions as well.
Professor Falk said he drew the comparison between the treatment of Palestinians with the Nazi record of collective atrocity, because of what he described as the massive Israeli punishment directed at the entire population of Gaza.
He said he understood that it was a provocative thing to say, but at the time, last summer, he had wanted to shake the American public from its torpor.

Israeli actions in Gaza are collective punishment, says Falk
"If this kind of situation had existed for instance in the manner in which China was dealing with Tibet or the Sudanese government was dealing with Darfur, I think there would be no reluctance to make that comparison," he said.
That reluctance was, he argued, based on the particular historical sensitivity of the Jewish people, and Israel's ability to avoid having their policies held up to international law and morality.
These and other comments from Professor Falk comments are, if anything, even harsher than the current UN investigator, John Dugard, who himself has been withering about Israel's actions.
A spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry said that Israel wanted the UN investigator's mandate changed, so that he could look into human rights violations by the Palestinians as well as Israel.
If that were not to happen, the Israeli government may consider barring entry to the new UN investigator.

Israel is 'deserting' Bedouin Arabs

The Independent By Donald Macintyre Tuesday, 1 April 2008

Tens of thousands of Bedouin Arabs are being forced by discriminatory Israeli laws to live in "unrecognised" shanty towns in constant fear of having their homes demolished and their communities torn apart, Human Rights Watch said yesterday.
The agency called for an immediate halt to the systematic demolition of thousands of Bedouin homes since the 1970s and the establishment of an independent commission to investigate "pervasive land and housing discrimination" against Bedouin citizens of Israel in the Negev desert.
The report contrasted Israel's depiction of 45,000 Bedouin homes in 39 unrecognised villages as illegal with what it said was the authorities' willingness to overlook or retrospectively legalise unlawful construction by Jewish citizens and to link them to the water and electricity networks.
Joe Stork, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said: " The [Israeli] state has forced [Bedouin] off the land they claimed as their own and into illegal shanty towns, cut off from basic necessities such as water and electricity.
"Israel is willing and able to build new Negev towns for Jewish Israelis seeking a rural way of life, but not for the people who have lived and worked this land for generations. This is grossly unfair."
Israeli policy is for Bedouin in southern Israel to relocate to seven government-planned townships or a group of newly recognised villages. But HRW says the townships are seven of the eight poorest communities in Israel and are ill-equipped to handle large scale arrivals.
It says most Bedouin are reluctant to relocate to the townships "with their deplorable infrastructure, high crime rates, scarce job opportunities, and insufficient land for traditional livelihoods such as herding and grazing." And it adds: "The state requires Bedouin who move to the townships to renounce their ancestral land claims."
Pointing out that the Bedouin community makes up 25 per cent of the population of northern Negev, but controls less than 2 per cent of the land there, the report says the authorities have allocated large tracts of land and funds for Jewish-owned family ranches or farms.
A government-appointed commission led by Justice Eliezer Goldberg is examining land ownership disputes between the Bedouin and the state, which controls 93 per cent of land in Israel through the Israel Lands Authority. The report points out almost half of the ILA's board are members of the Jewish Agency which has an explicit mandate to develop land for Jewish use only.
The report says the Goldberg commission includes no representative from the unrecognised communities and urges it to prohibit discrimination. But it says that an independent inquiry is needed because the state is itself responsible for the "denial of basic rights."

Jewish Agency's vulnerability underlined

Jerusalem Post Mar 21, 2008 8:22
By HAVIV RETTIG
There is nothing new or dramatic about media leaks indicating that the Jewish Agency is considering restructuring its departments to deal with a budget crunch.
The budget crunch is not new, and not the agency's fault. The nearly 30-percent drop in the value of the dollar is a drastic blow to an organization that solicits all its donors in dollar terms, receives most of its money from American donors and organizations, and spends nearly all its money outside the US.
It is noteworthy that the final tally of dollars the agency takes in each year for Jewish education and welfare programs worldwide has not declined, but has transformed into "designated gifts," where donors, not the agency, decide where the money should go.
The result has been a noticeable decline in activities worldwide - the dollar just doesn't go as far in Israel or Ukraine - and a far more drastic decline in the administrative budget, which faces the dual pressure of the weakened dollar and the picky philanthropist.
Though many spent Thursday breathlessly lambasting the Jewish Agency - Labor MK Ophir Pines-Paz took pains to say the preliminary discussions about restructuring amount to no less than "the bankrupting of Zionism" - it is hard to get too emotional about a budget-conscious agency's plan to trim its administrative overhead.
Why maintain an Education Department emissary in some city across the ocean alongside another Aliya Department emissary? Can't the one do the other's job as well?
One sympathizes with the angry denials from within the agency that merely discussing the closure of the Aliya Department - possibly by redistributing its duties to leaner "external activities" and "internal activities" departments - somehow amounts to a loss of Zionist values.
However, as Jewish officials generally agreed this week, the media leak that revealed the restructuring plans was more dangerous to the agency than the plan itself.
The leak, which billed the new plans as a dramatic shift in Jewish Agency priorities away from the core Zionist value of aliya, appears to have been intended to torpedo the restructuring effort, possibly by someone who would stand to lose their job in a leaner Jewish Agency.
More than one knowledgeable observer of the agency recalled a former Tel Aviv mayor who, when campaigning for a budget increase from the government, would immediately announce the closure of soup kitchens - not city parks or the opera house - due to budgetary constraints.
Such a policy of "shame-based" fundraising, which many say was employed by the Jewish Agency when it threatened last year to shut down the Hebrew education program in the former Soviet Union for lack of funds, is a dangerous road for a donation-based organization to tread.
Judging by the genuine anger with which the senior leadership of the Jewish Agency responded to the leak - agency head Bielski admitted his anger with unusual vehemence - point to a low-ranking official as the source.
But the problem was not the leak itself. The large organizations of the Jewish world leak as abundantly as one might expect from a people so viscerally addicted to "schmoozing." Rather, the problem is that the leak may have unnecessarily dramatized what must remain a serious and professional discussion.
It is not unreasonable to seek to streamline internal administration in order to maintain the level of activities in the field.
The Jewish Agency still spends hundreds of millions of dollars each year on some of the most vulnerable and needy groups in the Jewish world. It is far from perfect, but its detractors, MK Ophir Pines-Paz included, are hardly offering to locate a new source for up to $100m. in lost value to the budget.
The problem, then, is that the agency found itself utterly vulnerable to a simple media leak, without the ability to coherently respond or coordinate its response. For an organization that, because it does not fundraise, is utterly dependent on the goodwill of others, "controlling the message" and knowing how to explain itself is a survival skill no less important than the capacity to streamline itself during a budget crunch.

NGOs Demand Cancellation of Nomination of Racist Yoel Lavi as Director of Israel Land Administration

Written by Adalah
Thursday, 20 March 2008

Yoel Lavi, who has a long history of racist statments and actions against Palestinian citizens of Israel, was named to the position of Director of the Israel Land Administration (ILA).
On 10 March 2008, human rights and social change organizations sent an urgent letter to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the Minister of Construction and Housing Ze’ev Boim and the Attorney General Menachem Mazuz demanding the cancellation of the candidacy of Yoel Lavi to the position of Director of the Israel Land Administration (ILA) on the grounds that, as the mayor of the mixed Arab-Jewish city of Ramle for the last fifteen years, he has made racist statements on numerous occasions against Arab citizens of Israel. Lavi’s statements and racist opinions against Arabs have been met with protests, and the Hebrew and Arabic-language press have published articles and reports condemning his statements and declaring a lack of trust in him.
The organizations, which include Shatil’s mixed cities project, al-Dar, Adalah, The Association for Distributive Justice, and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, argued that Lavi’s nomination as Director of the ILA is irrational and illogical and listed the problems associated with his nomination. The ILA is a governmental body, established under the law. Among its various responsibilities it the management of what are known as “state lands”, with honesty, integrity and sincerity, while abiding to the principle of just distribution.
As the organizations argued, “Yoel Lavi’s opinions are without any doubt racist and hostile towards Arab citizens in general and the Arab residents of Ramle in particular. We question Lavi’s ability to direct the ILA and to carry the burden of trust invested in the person who directs one of the most important and influential bodies in Israel.”
One of the most notorious racist remarks made recently by Lavi in 2006 came in response to a request made by an Arab citizens’ group in Ramle to change the names of some city streets that now have Hebrew or Jewish names to Arabic names. When asked about the request, Lavi reportedly told reporter Ron Feinreich of the Ayalon newspaper, “Why should I change the name, because Jamal wants to change the name? Because Ahmad wants to change the name? He should change his god. They all should go get [expletive deleted]. ... If Arabs don’t like it, they can go to Jaljulia.”
Mr. Lavi ran and was elected mayor of Ramle as a member of the Likud political party and in March 2006 he switched his affiliation and became a member of Kadima. He is clearly a political figure, whose opinions and party affiliations are not conducive or appropriate for a position that requires dealing with requests and applications from the public.
The organizations further argued that the logic governing democratic and sound governance dictates the appointment of a person who possesses the ability to avoid and avert problems arising from discriminatory and arbitrary policies. “The person who holds this position must be decent, professional and neutral (i.e., not aligned with a political party), as a person without these characteristics will be unable to obtain the trust of citizens. Therefore, the appointment of Yoel Lavi to this position, given that the issue of land lies at the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict, contradicts common sense, and the principle of democratic and sound governance.”

Jerusalem's first Palestinian Latin Patriarch to retire this year

Haaretz 11:08 19/03/2008

By The Associated Press

Michel Sabbah, the Holy Land's top Roman Catholic clergyman, is to retire this year. The Latin Patriach is turning 75 on Wednesday - the traditional retirement age of church officials. Sabbah is the first Palestinian to hold his position. Throughout his tenure, he has been a vocal advocate for the Palestinian cause. At the same time, he has been an outspoken critic of violence.
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A church official said Sabbah will stay on the job at least through the upcoming Easter holiday. The official stated that Sabbah is expected to be succeeded by another Palestinian church leader, Archbishop Fuad Twal. In a pre-Christmas address last year, the Latin Patriarch said Israel's identity as a Jewish state discriminates against non-Jews. "If there's a state of one religion, other religions are naturally discriminated against," Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah in December told reporters at the annual press conference in Jerusalem before the Christian holiday.

Ilan Pappe: I'm not a traitor

Controversial historian Ilan Pappe left Israel last year after his endorsement of an academic boycott of Israel exposed him and his family to death threats. Now a professor in England, Pappe maintains that a cultural boycott on his homeland is the only way to end the occupation
Ayelet Negev
Ynetnews.com 03.15.08, 23:49
Last summer, the Pappe family packed its belongings, rented out its spacious house in Israel and moved to Britain. Ever since his support of an academic boycott on Israel's universities became public, historian Ilan Pappe, 54, has felt like public enemy number one. Pappe says he had received death threats by phone almost on a daily basis.
Did it not occur to you that calling for an academic boycott on Israel might incite the public against you?
"I supported the boycott because I believe that without pressure, Israel will not end the occupation. Even before then I reached the conclusion that the peace process enables Israel to stall for time. When in 2003 several international organizations approached me and asked whether I would support the boycott I replied positively.
"I believe that things would change only if Israel receives a strong message that as long as the occupation continues it would not be a legitimate member of the international community, and that until then its academics, doctors and authors would not be welcome. A similar boycott was imposed on South Africa. It took 21 years, but it eventually led to the end of Apartheid."
Do you also call for an economic boycott of Israel?
"I am currently editing a book that compares the situation in Israel to the situation in South Africa, and I'm becoming convinced that there too, the economic boycott was less effective than the cultural one. As the son of German Jews, I know how important it is for our elites to be a part of Europe."
Did you wholeheartedly support the boycott?
"No, you can’t wholeheartedly recommend a boycott of your society, especially when it includes you place of work, the Haifa University… The last thing I enjoy is being the person that holds up a mirror to his society's face and says, 'Look how ugly you are.' Some people like to challenge and incite their neighbors. I'm not like that, I don't write in order to annoy and I certainly don't hate myself, and I also love many people in Israel. I did not commit treason.
"But, I'm a historian, and this is the truth the way I see it: The story of a victim and a victimizer. And the victim is the Palestinians. Without idealizing the Palestinians -victims are not necessarily nice people, but they are still victims."
Pappe claims that his promotion at Haifa University has been blocked due to his political activity. "Provincial Haifa was unwilling to grant me the rank of a professor. I left for England as a doctor and in two days I climbed two ranks and became a faculty professor at the University of Exeter," he states.
However, Haifa University President Aharon Ben-Zeev claims that the university applied only relevant considerations in the question of Pappe's promotion. "We applied the regular criteria according to the university's constitution: Not only the list and quality of publications, but other considerations pertaining to the contribution to the university, teaching and so on," he explained.

Claims of ethnic cleansing In an article published in the Israeli Mita'am Review for Literature and Radical Thought this week, titled "On the destruction of the Palestinian cities, spring 1948," Pappe maintains that the claim that the Arab residents fled or left their homes willingly during the war is false, and that a policy of "cleansing" the area from Arabs was employed as part of a plan to establish a Jewish-only state.
Pappe made similar claims in his book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, which was published in England in 2006, in which he also presented testimonies of alleged massacres of Palestinians by Jewish soldiers.

These claims have been contested by many historians in Israel and abroad. Dr. Mordechai Bar-On, a research fellow at the Yad Ben-Zvi Institute and a former MK, calls Pappe "a propagandist, not a historian." Bar-On said that "the term ethnic cleansing is a vicious one, because it has never been used prior to the wars in former Yugoslavia. Indeed, there were places where Arab were expelled… but to say that there was an evil plan since the inception of Zionism for a forceful transfer – this is simply wrong and vicious."
However, Pappe insists that allowing the Palestinian refugees to return to Israel is the only thing that could secure peace in the region.
Would you be willing to vacate your home when they return to what used to be their villages near your house in Tivon?
"After years of working with refugees around the world and attending conferences on the right of return, I believe that no such notion exists on the Palestinian side. They want to return while understanding that they will live alongside the Jews. They don't want to expel anyone. What turned me into a great lover of the Palestinians is the will of many among them to share the land with us. Even people in Hamas.
"The reason most of my friends in the territories voted for Hamas wasn't because they didn't want to share the land with the Israelis, but because they thought Hamas would be more effective in the struggle against the occupation."
By using terror?
"They don't consider this to be terror. Fatah and Hamas employ the tools of the weak, because they don't have planes or tanks. They are as violent as the Israelis, no more or less, with only one difference: The difference between the violence of the occupier and the violence of those fighting occupation."
An article you wrote titled "Genocide in Gaza, ethnic cleansing in the West Bank" was published in the Tehran Times about a month ago. Are you providing the enemy with weapons against us?
"On the contrary, I wish to speak to the people in Iran. A Jordanian newspaper wrote in its editorial a year ago that absurdly, I am Israel's best ambassador in the Arab world, because they say – if such Israelis exist, maybe there's hope for peace with the Jewish state."
Would you like your sons to serve in the army?
"It's their decision, but I preferred it if they didn't. As long as Israel has an occupying army, a rather cruel army, I wouldn’t want them to be part of it… I don't think there is one moral person in the world that supports what Israel stands for. And it pains me to say this. I truly love the country, I would very much like to live in it, but I very much dislike my state. Everything related to its policy against the Palestinians makes me very angry."

Pappe denies being more sensitive to the suffering of Palestinians than to that of Israelis. "I'm shocked when I see the child who lost his leg in Sderot, and I'm shocked when I see a child killed in Gaza. But as long as Israel maintains its stance that the Palestinian issue can be resolved by force, the Palestinian side will respond with force.

"Once we realize that the only way is to relinquish some of out holy ideas, and once the Palestinians give up the idea of nationalism, and once they realize that there needs to be one state here that isn't Jewish nor Palestinian, but a state of all its citizens, like in the US, we will have peace."

Most new conversion court judges will be ultra-Orthodox

Haaretz 10.3.2008
By Anshel Pfeffer
At least eight out of 10 new judges to be selected today to serve on the rabbinical courts for conversion will come from the strict ultra-Orthodox sector. Leading officials involved in the conversion process said the original objective was to choose more liberal judges who would make conversion easier.
The officials said the selection committee, headed by Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, made a deal to appoint four ultra-Orthodox judges who currently serve in the private rabbinical court of Rabbi Nissim Karelitz in Bnei Brak and four rabbis who are affiliated with Shas or Amar's associates. The other two will likely be from the religious Zionist camp. "Over the last few weeks, there has been a lot of pressure on committee members from ultra-Orthodox quarters and also from religious Zionist rabbis who are hostile to the conversion issue. Ultimately they'll bring in judges who have no connection with or sympathy for the public that will appear before them," one of the officials said. A long-time educator who helps prospective converts learn about Judaism said the problem is that Cabinet Secretary Oved Yehezkel put all the authority in Amar's hands, without realizing that Amar cannot withstand the pressure from the ultra-Orthodox and Shas.