Martin Luther King and Israel's Arab Citizens

Rabbi Melanie Aron

January 16, 2004

In a column in the Jerusalem Report, a rabbinic colleague, Rabbi Micha Odenheimer, best known for his work with the Ethiopian Jews, highlighted the power of the story of the Exodus in the Bible by recounting an experience he had while visiting Haiti. What he noticed, which astounded him, was that in one of the poorest slums of one of the poorest cities in the world, (in Citi Sotiel in Port au Prince) the most prevalent graffiti was the words “Exodus 14:4”. The reference is to God’s words of support at the moment when the Israelites stood facing the sea, with the Egyptians gaining on them from the rear. How amazing that these words were potent enough to travel thousands of years and tens of thousands of miles, crossing great cultural chasms and becoming the rallying cry of the down and out at the cusp of this new millennium.

This weekend, our Jewish cycle of Torah readings brings us to the first chapter of the book of Exodus while our secular American calendar reminds us of more recent struggles for freedom in the person of Dr. Martin Luther King, a man infused with a religious spirit, deeply committed to non-violent civil disobedience, a man whose life and message continue to have meaning to us today.

Much of what Dr. King accomplished currently we would consider politics, but to him it was very clearly, religion. Voting rights, an end to discrimination, even a living wage for the working poor, one of the causes of the last year of his life, were not for him the political agenda of a particular party. They were rather the moral imperative of a country of conscience. He did not see himself as a pastor who had wondered off into politics, but instead he saw his religious faith as the guiding vision by which the politics of his time needed to be reordered.

It is one of the greatest challenges of all religious leaders to convince their communities that the relevance of Scripture ‘s message doesn’t end at the sanctuary’s door. To excoriate Pharaoh for the killing of the Israelite babies without seeing a connection to the neediest children in our world is to turn Scripture into a fairy tale. Martin Luther King remains important as a reminder that religious values belong in politics, not as one group seeks to impose its values on everyone else, but as each individual attempts to grapple with his or her own religious conscience in promoting the common good. Commenting in 1965 on the movement towards ecumenism taking place in great conferences in his day, Dr. King noted that it was “on the streets of Selma and Montgomery and at the Lincoln Memorial…. that one saw the greatest and warmest expression of religious unity of Catholics, Protestants and Jew in the nation’s history.”

Martin Luther King’s life has added relevance today for those of us concerned with the situation between Israel and the Palestinians. It is one of the tragedies of the current situation that the Palestinian leadership has never recognized what Gandhi capitalized on in his struggles against the British, that is the tremendous vulnerability of good people to the demand for moral response placed upon them by non-violent actions.

David Shipler the former New York Times Pulitzer wining Middle East correspondent has written:” It is hard to get a clear view from the wrong side of a gun so most Palestinians have never been able to see the conscience that runs strongly beneath the surface of Israeli brutality. Palestinian leaders have never understood the power of shame, which Martin Luther King used as leverage against white America. They have never comprehended how malleable Israel could become to fulfill its yearning for virtue and acceptance. Instead, they have made sure that the Israelis don’t feel safe and when you don’t feel safe, you don’t feel flexible.”

Non-violent civil disobedience began to gain a following in the 1980’s among the Palestinian intelligentsia but it has never carried the day as the exclusive tactic of the Palestinians. Yet I believe that Shipler is right in his assessment that the Israelis, like the British, could not withstand even a small number of hunger strikers or similar non-violent public protests. Renouncing terror and pursuing non-violent action would strengthen support for the Palestinian cause around the world and in Israel.

For Israeli Arabs trying to overcome their second class status within Israeli society, Dr King’s approach would be even more effective as he wrote: ”Mass nonviolent direct action is a historically validated method for defending freedom and democracy and for enlarging these values for the ultimate benefit of the whole society.”

Of course non-violent doesn’t always mean uncontroversial. Rabbi Arik Asherman whom some of you met when he spoke at Temple in 1999 and then again in May of 2003, is currently on trial in Israel for an act of non-violent civil disobedience. He is charged with standing on two occasions in front of bulldozers attempting to prevent the demolition of Arab homes in East Jerusalem. These demolitions have nothing to do with terrorism: the issue here is zoning. The families were convicted of adding an extra room to their house without the proper permit.

In the winter of 2002 when I was on sabbatical in Israel I went out with Rabbi Ascherman to the home of an Arab family on the East side of the city, just north of Ramot Eshkol Area, whose house was threatened with demolition because of an illegal patio addition. Talking to the family through an interpreter, the relations of the Arab homeowner in East Jerusalem with the municipal government in West Jerusalem reminded me of the relationship of some of the residents of the poorer Outer Boroughs of New York City with the City government in Manhattan. There were complaints about lack of service and about being caught in catch 22 type situations, ( In New York if your neighborhood was downgraded your garbage pick up switched from twice to once a week, of course then things got even worse, leading to further cuts in city services). In both Jerusalem and New York there is the feeling of being a stepchild in terms of municipal services. Of course in Jerusalem those urban socio-economic and even racial tensions are compounded by the atmosphere of violence and mistrust, by Jewish/Arab tensions and by the perception that city zoning enforcement is a tool of the Likkud government in expanding the Jewish presence in formally Arab areas. The Likud government insists the problem of course is just the opposite, their concern is with what they see as the continuing increase in the number of Arabs in Jerusalem.

Speaking a few days before the opening of the trial which began this past Wednesday, Rabbi Ascherman said, “The charge sheet says that I stood in front of bulldozers that came to demolish the homes of families whose crime was to build a home in a system which makes it almost impossible for them to get a legal building permit without paying a bribe or agreeing to be an informer.” Rabbi Ascherman is well aware that he broke a law, but writes that it is not him and his two companions, but ”it is the policy of home (and family) demolitions which must stand trial, along with all the institutions which support it.”

Rabbis for Human Rights began its battle against these administrative home demolitions back in 1997 and there have been years in which, by drawing attention to the situation, they were successful in drastically reducing the number of such demolitions. Since the beginning of the second intifada of course, this has been a much less popular cause and the number of demolitions continues to rise. Rabbis for Human Rights, an organization of Israeli Orthodox, Conservative and Reform rabbis, claims that 2,500 Arab homes have been destroyed leaving 16,000 individuals homeless. While the government claims that it also razes the home of Israeli Jews who violate the building codes, I was unable to uncover a statistic on this aspect of zoning enforcement.

Though Rabbis for Human Rights has a very positive reputation in Israel for its work with the Bedouin, with Ethiopian Jewry, and with foreign workers, and has won the Speaker of the Knesset’s prestigious Award for contributions to Israeli society, concern for the rights of Arabs is not a popular cause right now. It’s a reminder that part of the Rev Martin Luther King’s current popularity as a hero within our school systems and the presence of President George Bush at his memorial this weekend, is because he is dead and the issues his legacy is publically associated with are considered consensus issues now. Were Dr. King still alive and promoting civil disobedience on the issues that were important to him during his lifetime, my guess is that he would be a lot less popular with the current administration and a lot more controversial.

Rabbi Ascherman’s trial has been held over until March 24th, until the 2nd day of Nissan, the month in which we as Jews celebrate our redemption, and the month in which we will be reading the Torah’s stirring call, “Thou shalt not oppress a stranger for you know the heart of a stranger, seeing that you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” This year as we contemplate Dr King’s legacy, and the legacy of our own story of liberation, may we open our eyes to their application, hashatah uvizman karev, here and now, speedily and in our own time.