"Aren't you ashamed to arrest little children?"

Palestinian residents of the West Bank village of Al-Rakiz, in the South Hebron Hills, as IDF soldiers arrested on Wednesday five Palestinian children on suspicion of trespassing into Havat Ma’on, a neighboring illegal outpost. The children said they were foraging for edible herbs.

Yossi Alpher is an independent security analyst. Views and positions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent APN's views and policy positions.

Israel's High Court Validates Reform and Conservative Conversion in Israel (March 8, 2021)

Q. A few hundred people are converted to Judaism every year in Israel by Reform and Conservative rabbis. Why is the recent High Court recognition of their Jewishness significant?

A. Until now, Reform and Conservative conversions were considered valid for purposes of immigration to Israel under the law of return, and for marriage in Israel, only if the conversions were carried out abroad.

Q. Why is the Haredi establishment so angry?

A. When it comes to marriage, divorce and conversion, monopoly means power, influence over the education of generations to come, and money. This, with regard to a Haredi religious establishment that is not even Zionist. True, there is also an element here of sincere belief in an extreme way of life. But why impose it on the rest of us? 

Q. Why wasn’t the Reform and Conservative conversion issue decided by the Knesset long ago? Where were these Haredi objectors all this time?

A. Chief Justice Esther Hayut complained that the political establishment had had 15 years to legislate on the issue but had refused to. “The Court”, she wrote, “had been asked time and again to delay its ruling, yet during this same time nothing was done to advance relevant legislation.”  

Q. So this High Court recognition is significant for Israel and world Jewry at some sort of strategic level?

A. Absolutely. At the end of the day, Israel has only two strategic allies in this world: the United States, and the American Jewish community. 

Q. With all this talk of Reform and Conservative as opposed to Orthodox and Haredi conversions, there remains a large segment of world Jewry who feel Jewish, or want to feel Jewish, without a religious imprimatur. . .

A. Years ago, then-minister of justice Yossi Beilin, who made a major contribution to Israeli-Diaspora Jewish unity by creating Birthright (offering a free trip to Israel for Jews aged 18 to 32), proposed a ‘secular entry gate to Judaism’ based on adherence to secular Jewish values of identity. That idea got nowhere.  

Israeli society bid farewell this week to one of its giants, Mordechai (Morale) Bar-On, a person who helped build the state and was among the icons of its peace movement and its progressive camp. Morale was among the leaders of APN’s Israeli sister-organization, Shalom Achshav (Peace Now), and wrote a book that documented Israel’s peace movement. Bar-On passed away at 92.

PeaceCast Episode #174: The Israeli-Palestinian Confederation Model

As physical separation between Israel and a future Palestinian state seems increasingly difficult to accomplish, the confederation model is gaining momentum among scholars. The co-authors of a recent New York Times article on the topic, Bernard Avishai and Sam Bahour, discussed the confederation idea on an APN webinar on March 4th, in a conversation with APN Board member Geoffrey Lewis.

 

Sam Bahour is an American-Palestinian writer and management consultant living in Ramallah. Bernard Avishai is an American-Israeli university professor, author and business consultant living in Jerusalem.

 

Join APN in celebrating its 40th anniversary with a visit to our online auction! Bidding will open April 11th and close on April 20th.

 

We are delighted to offer a variety of items, donated by APN supporters from around the world. Inside the auction you'll find vacation homes and airline travel, autographed items from beloved performers and cultural icons, concerts, cooking classes and other other online opportunities, art and food and more. 

 

Your winning bids will support APN's efforts to build bridges between Israelis and Palestinians and ensure a just, secure and lasting peace. 

 

Look for more information about the auction here in future weeks. We hope you'll join the fun! 

TAKE ACTION: Join APN in Telling JNF-KKL to Halt Funding of Settlements in West Bank

As a member of the Global Coalition to Stop the JNF-KKL Settlement Plan, Americans for Peace Now is co-sponsoring a petition to Avraham Duvdevani, the Chairman of the Jewish National Fund - Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael, notifying him that if the JNF-KKL follows through with its decision to fund West Bank settlements, “we pledge to lend no further support to the JNF-KKL.” 

SIGN THIS IMPORTANT PETITION > 

Click here to unsubscribe