A ‘Pushke for Palestinians’ could help American Jews repair the damage Israeli settlers have caused to West Bank olive farmers. Illustration by Rob Eshman

Senior Columnist Rob Eshman December 18, 2023

I can understand why American Jews who are privately aghast at the carnage Israel is causing in Gaza are conflicted about publicly calling for a cease-fire.

But I can’t understand their silence about the cruelty and destruction some Israelis are wreaking on Palestinian farmers in the West Bank.

Since Oct. 7, West Bank settlers have harassed Palestinian olive farmers, prevented them from reaching their groves and destroyed their olive trees. American Jews, who have been sending money to plant trees in Israel since before there was an Israel, should start a campaign to reimburse these farmers for their lost crops and replant their destroyed trees.

We could call it “Pushkes for Palestinians,” using the Yiddish word for those blue coin boxes that for generations held a place of pride in American Jewish homes.

I can’t take credit for this idea; it came up at a recent synagogue Q&A about the war. But it would be a clear way for those who support a democratic Israel as well as Palestinian human rights to stand up for those values at a critical time.

“It’s a good idea,” said Arik Ascherman of Torat Tzedek, an Israeli group he founded to protect the Palestinian farmers from settler incursions. “It’s important that people who support Israel speak up and say this is ultimately not in Israel’s interest.”

Olives, which ripen in late fall, account for 50% to 90% of West Bank farmers’ annual earnings. December rains, which have already begun, mark the end of the olive harvest season.

Every fall since 2006, when Rabbis for Human Rights, which Ascherman co-founded, won a Supreme Court decision protecting the right of Palestinians to access their crops, the Israel Defense Forces has been deployed to protect the farmers from settler interference. But this year, those soldiers were redeployed toward the war that began with the Hamas terror attack on Oct. 7, and the farmers were left to fend for themselves.

The situation was ripe for the settlers to exploit, and they have.

The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem has documented dozens of cases in which settlers have rampaged through Palestinian villages, destroying olive trees, driving away shepherds and forcibly displacing at least 13 communities, including more than 1,000 people, from their land since Oct. 7.

There’s a word for this, and it’s a familiar one to Jews everywhere, including the offending settlers and the IDF soldiers who help them: pogrom.

On Oct. 16, settlers and the army blocked all roads leading to the village of Susiya, then masked and armed men descended on the village, demanding the Palestinians leave.

On Oct. 28, a 40-year-old farmer named Bilal Muhammed Saleh was murdered in front of his children by an off-duty soldier while attempting to harvest his olive trees near the village of As-Sawiya.

On Dec. 11, the Israeli authorities finally granted Palestinian farmers in Awata access to their olive trees. But the next morning, soldiers and settlers blocked them. Instead, the Palestinians watched as soldiers stood guard while settlers picked their groves clean, according to video taken at the scene by the Israeli civil rights group Yesh Din.

Earlier today, dozens of settlers celebrated the holiday of Hanukkah by stealing crops from Palestinian-owned olive trees outside the village of Awarta. After the theft, which was escorted by Israeli soldiers, the settlers proceeded to cut down several trees. pic.twitter.com/uNvzcYW3KW

— Yesh Din English (@Yesh_Din) December 11, 2023

Land confiscation, harassment, olive tree destruction, and outright murder carried out against West Bank Palestinians predate the Oct. 7 attack. But Israeli human rights activists and the farmers they work with say it’s never been this bad.

“This is an old thing that we see in a new way,” Firas Diab, an olive farmer who is also the mayor of Deir Istiya, told NPR. “Their goal, their aim, is the land. And they’re using the war in order to seize the land.”

Anyone who cares about Israel should want to see the pogroms stop. The Cossack settlers undermine the rule of law and make a mockery of Israel’s claim to democratic, humanitarian principles. The spiraling violence between Israelis and Palestinians can end in chaos or compromise. The Cossacks are ensuring chaos.

The Biden administration announced earlier this month that it would impose visa restrictions on Israelis who foment such violence, and has also limited the transfer of small arms, which often end up in settler hands.

But there’s no evidence these measures have led Israel to crack down. And even if they did, that only stops future harm. It doesn’t reverse the damage that’s been done.

That’s where Pushkes for Palestinians can help. Jewish Federations should earmark part of the more than $700 million they have raised to support Israel since Oct. 7 to this cause. Groups like Rabbis for Human Rights, B’tselem and Yesh Din know where it’s needed most.

Using the nomenclature of those classic blue boxes could even help counter the Jewish National Fund’s unfortunate foray into helping to expropriate West Bank land.

Ascherman, a Pennsylvania-born Reform rabbi who has worked on these issues for decades, said the first priority should be getting food to Palestinian families whose livelihoods were destroyed along with the harvest. But eventually, they will also need to plant new olive trees.

“All this land has been degraded and will need to be restored,” he said.

Dropping a few coins into a blue box for olives won’t repair the damage the settler movement has done to the dream of a better Israel. But it will help Palestinians replant the olives some Jews destroyed while some others weren’t paying attention.

If two peoples are ever to truly share this land, they both could use a pushke.

An earlier version erroneously reported Rabbi Arik Ascherman is still with Rabbis for Human Rights. He is now director of Torat Tzedek.

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