Darkness has struck again

By Rabbi Arik W. Ascherman on December 11, 2006 - כ' כסלו תשס"ז

Darkness has struck again. Please act now so that Light will yet prevail

I received the call at 2:00 AM here in the U.S. The bulldozers demolished the Dari home even as our lawyer Ziad Karar was waiting in the judge’s chamber for an answer to our request for a stay based on our atira minhalit, an appeal designed to force the Municipality for the first time to explain the policy of home demolitions to the court. Little Yousef is again homeless, and shortly his sister will again come home from school to discover that the home she left in the morning is now rubble.

Just a few hours ago I stood in front of the UN on International Human Rights Day and read the letter I wrote when the home was demolished the first time in 2003 (reprinted below). This time the family was all alone with their tears. I was not there to stand in front of the bulldozers and nobody from the RHR staff was able to get through the cordon of border police protecting the demolition. Over the past year we did not succeed in generating enough pressure to convince Mayor of Jerusalem that it was not worth his while to demolish this home. However, I have promised Ahmed Musa Dari that this is not the end. We will not abandon him and his family.

As I write, the Mayor of Jerusalem and his accomplices are smugly confident that they have succeeded in putting this issue to rest. It is within your hands to determine whether he is correct or mistaken.

If the mayor’s phone and fax remain quiet, he will have succeeded. If the Mayor’s phone and fax are tied up for days until he must implore us, “intervene for me” (Exodus 5:24), he will have been mistaken.

If we simply express our anger, the Mayor will still have succeeded and will continue to harden his heart. He will have been mistaken if you leave the message not only that you are outraged but that you are contributing to the rebuilding of 10 homes and demanding that your country’s officials take action. Perhaps this will at least save the long list of homes slated for demolition before the end of 2006 in order to “use up” the demolition budget. (See profile of Hamad family below.)

The shell of a new home will cost $30,000. If three hundred of you donate $100 today, we can rebuild one home. If six hundred of you donate we can rebuild two homes…. Because RHR is also facing financial challenges in 2007, please make this designated donation in addition, but not in lieu of your general contribution to RHR.

These are the candles we therefore ask you to light at this dark hour:

1. Call Mayor Lupolianski Tel. 972 2 6297717; Fax: 972 2 6296014; mayor@jerusalem.muni.il, lpuri@jerusalem.muni.il. Please forward us all correspondence and all responses.

2. Call your representatives in your country. Inform them what has happened and yet about to happen. Remind them that firm pressure has been effective on this issue in the past while polite protest has not. Ask them to take action and report back to you on what they have done.

3. Make the most generous contribution that you can to RHR’s home rebuilding fund in addition to a generous general contribution to RHR. This contribution is tax deductible in the U.S. through RHR-North America and can be made by check and sent to Box 1539 West Tisbury MA 02575 or online at www.rhr-na.org. A portion of general contributions will also be used to strengthen the work of RHR-NA. Please inform us of all contributions for rebuilding homes so that we can insure that they are properly categorized. Donor designated donations to the New Israel Fund may be tax deductible in the countries in which NIF operates, and donations can be sent directly to RHR, 9 HaRehavim St. Jerusalem 93462 Israel.

In Israel, we will also light candles. We will continue with our principled appeal even though the home is not standing. We will deliver pictures of the demolition and rubble from the home to the Mayor. Our sister human rights organization, Bimkom, is preparing a new master plan for Issawiyah that will put this neighborhood on the planning map and give the some 150 housing units in the Dari’s neighborhood a chance to become legal.

With Hope that Light will yet prevail,

Rabbi Arik W. Ascherman

Executive Director

RHR

Rabbis for Human Rights recommends that you read these articles in Housing Rights

Darkness has struck again - December 11th, 2006
Sukkoth: Symbolic versus authentic homelessness - October 5th, 2006
Succot has Universal Meaning - October 4th, 2006
Wanted: People to adopt people from disaster afflicted areas - August 11th, 2006
RHR rabbis and volunteers visit the bomb-shelters in Qiriat Bialik - August 3rd, 2006
Jerusalem Mayor announces intention to demolish home - July 28th, 2006
Rabbi convicted for blocking demolition - March 23rd, 2005
Preventing Home Demolitions - March 22nd, 2005
Protect Housing Rights: Act against discrimination in matters relating to land, development and housing construction. - April 16th, 2003
There Is A Kippah In The Rubble - April 15th, 2003

Categories: Housing Rights
Tags: Bo, court, ease, human rights, judge, order, palestinians, quiet, rest, settlers