5-8-201The Palestinian Talmud – Rabbi Brant Rosen Blog of the Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinic Council

http://palestiniantalmud.com/2014/05/08/love-thy-palestinian-neighbor-a-bar-mitzvah-dvar-torah-by-elijah-david-gold/?blogsub=confirming#blog_subscription-2

Elijah David Gold for his Bar Mitzvah:

…I believe "love your neighbor" should include all human beings, not just Jews. But even if you do not agree with that, K'doshim also includes the requirement to love the stranger. It says:

When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not wrong him. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

Certainly in this case, it is clear that we are to treat all human beings with dignity, equality, and respect. For this reason, for my D'var Torah I decided to learn more about how Palestinians, and especially Palestinian children, are treated in the state of Israel. .. If the Torah says that you are to love your neighbor and love the stranger as yourself, it seems that Israel is in serious violation of this. Palestinians in the West Bank only get 20 percent of the water that Israelis get. As I learned about Palestinians living in the West and Gaza Strip, what affected me the most was the children.

The Israeli military targets children for arrest and detention in order to uproot Palestinian communities. Around 200 Palestinian children are arrested per month. They are tried in the only juvenile military court in the world. The most common charge is rock throwing. They are between the age of twelve and seventeen. This includes what is my Bar Mitzvah age…

Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

 

 


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