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<p class="" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:15px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><b><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif"> Rabbi Arik Ascherman [<a href="mailto:rhr@itnewsletter.co.il" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)">mailto:rhr@itnewsletter.co.il</a>] <br>
<b>Sent:</b> Monday, June 24, 2013 5:47 AM<b><br>Subject:</b> "Tevye" Angers Israeli Government: Less Than 24 Hours to Stop The Transfer of 40,000 Israeli Bedouin</span></p><p class="" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:15px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">
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<u></u> <u></u></p><p class="" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Dear Friends and Supporters,</span><u></u><u></u></p><p class="" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;text-align:justify">
<span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> It is late, time is short, and there is very little to add to what I have already written. </span><u></u><u></u></p><p class="" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;text-align:justify">
<span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">The first vote on demolishing villages, expelling some 40,000 Israeli Bedouin from their homes and dispossessing them of most of their land is<b>today (<span class="" tabindex="0" style="border-bottom-width:1px;border-bottom-style:dashed;border-bottom-color:rgb(204,204,204)"><span class="" style>Monday</span></span>)</b>, at approximately <span class="" tabindex="0" style="border-bottom-width:1px;border-bottom-style:dashed;border-bottom-color:rgb(204,204,204)"><span class="" style>5:00 pm</span></span>, Israel time.</span><u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">This bill can be stopped, but <b>we need your help</b>:</span><u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">1.<b> <a href="http://itnewsletter.itnewsletter.co.il/r.ashx?h=http%3a%2f%2frhr.nationbuilder.com%2fstop_the_dispossession_of_negev_bedouin&l=1812286&d=10328469874866734987648065739279693275" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)">Please click here to send urgently needed letters</a></b> to stop this <i>Khilul HaShem</i>, this desecration of God's Name. <a href="http://itnewsletter.itnewsletter.co.il/r.ashx?h=http%3a%2f%2frhr.nationbuilder.com%2fstop_the_dispossession_of_negev_bedouin&l=1812287&d=10328469874866734987648065739279693275" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)"><b>Even if you have already signed letters, we now need you to ask everybody you know to do the same</b>. </a> <a href="http://itnewsletter.itnewsletter.co.il/r.ashx?h=http%3a%2f%2fhe.scribd.com%2fdoc%2f146653947%2fLetter-to-Minister-Prime-Minister-Netanyahu.&l=1812288&d=10328469874866734987648065739279693275" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)">British rabbinic leadership from Orthodox to Reform have spoken out.</a> In the U.S., the <a href="http://itnewsletter.itnewsletter.co.il/r.ashx?h=http%3a%2f%2frac.org%2fArticles%2findex.cfm%3fid%3d23200%26pge_prg_id%3d16390%26pge_id%3d2541&l=1812289&d=10328469874866734987648065739279693275" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)">Reform</a> and <a href="http://itnewsletter.itnewsletter.co.il/r.ashx?h=http%3a%2f%2fohalah.org%2fresolution-on-bedouin-settlement-in-the-negev%2f&l=1812290&d=10328469874866734987648065739279693275" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)">Renewal</a> Movements have taken a stand, and a Reconstructionist statement is pending. The Israeli government has taken notice. Now we need you. </span><u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">2. <a href="http://itnewsletter.itnewsletter.co.il/r.ashx?h=http%3a%2f%2fwww.youtube.com%2fwatch%3fv%3dfLeWQ470G6o%26feature%3dyoutu.be&l=1812291&d=10328469874866734987648065739279693275" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)">Please spread our video clip far and wide</a>.</span><u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">3. <a href="http://itnewsletter.itnewsletter.co.il/r.ashx?h=https%3a%2f%2ffbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net%2fhphotos-ak-frc1%2f944127_619635088048247_1274655960_n.jpg&l=1812292&d=10328469874866734987648065739279693275" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)">Please make a black flag with "40,000" written on it your facebook profile picture.</a> And yes, ask everybody you know to do the same.</span><u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">These three steps are the entire Torah on one foot, and now here is the commentary:</span><u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">In the Knesset last week, Benny Begin, a driving force behind this legislation, expressed his fury with Rabbis For Human Rights and "<a href="http://itnewsletter.itnewsletter.co.il/r.ashx?h=http%3a%2f%2fwww.youtube.com%2fwatch%3fv%3dfLeWQ470G6o%26feature%3dyoutu.be&l=1812293&d=10328469874866734987648065739279693275" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)">That Tevye" (Theodore Bikel) expressing his pain that the descendents of those expelled from the real Anatevkas are about to transfer their fellow citizens to a new Bedouin pale of settlement. </a></span><u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Part of that anger seems to have been because it is somehow anti-Israel to tell our fellow Israelis the truth. Government representatives have done everything to lull concerned MK's, acknowledging that the Bedouin will need to give up their land claims, but saying "Not so many villages will be destroyed, and only a few people will be displaced." They have avoided answering when asked, "Give us your numbers, and how you arrive at them." Of course, the numbers are there for all to see if one reads the bill and the <a href="http://itnewsletter.itnewsletter.co.il/r.ashx?h=http%3a%2f%2fwww.acri.org.il%2fen%2fwp-content%2fuploads%2f2013%2f01%2fBegin-Report-English-January-2013.pdf&l=1812294&d=10328469874866734987648065739279693275" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)">Begin Plan</a> it is based on. </span><u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">This last Shabbat we read the Torah portion Balak (Numbers 22:2-25:9). The Midrashic commentary acknowledges that prophecy is not limited to the Jewish people alone, but says that while so many prophets sought only to sooth and lull their people, while attacking others, the prophets of Israel warned their own people of potential wrongdoing. They did so out of compassion both for their fellow Jews, and for non-Jews. (BaMidbar Rabbah 20:1).</span><u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">The obfuscators know what our soon to be released public opinion poll shows – when Israelis know the facts, the majority think that it is perfectly fair that the Bedouin be allowed to hold on to the mere 5.4% of the Negev they claim to own. A few weeks ago, the radical right wing group "Regavim," that argues that even the current bill is "Giving away Jewish land," took Israeli media personality Avri Gilad for a one sided tour of the Negev. On his return, he too was convinced "The Bedouin are taking over the Negev." This last week he had the decency to come and see the other side. After meeting with the Bedouin and seeing pre Israel aerial photographs of a Negev cultivated by the Bedouin, he publicly acknowledged that he had judged too quickly, and expressed the belief that a fair solution could be worked out if the Government would sit down with the Bedouin as equal fellow citizens. </span><u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">We Israelis have all too often committed unjust acts when they happen in the shadows. When we know the truth, we do not wish to uproot and dispossess our fellow citizens. </span><u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Simply put, we are better than that. That is not who we are as a people.</span><u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">We are asking you to be "Pro-Israel" by holding up the prophetic mirror helping us Israelis to be who we really wish to be. We have less than 24 hours. <a href="http://itnewsletter.itnewsletter.co.il/r.ashx?h=http%3a%2f%2frhr.nationbuilder.com%2fstop_the_dispossession_of_negev_bedouin&l=1812295&d=10328469874866734987648065739279693275" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)">Please act now.</a> </span><u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">B'Vrakha,</span><u></u><u></u></p><p class="" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;text-align:justify">
<span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Arik</span><u></u><u></u></p><p class="" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">P.S. <a href="http://itnewsletter.itnewsletter.co.il/r.ashx?h=http%3a%2f%2frhr.nationbuilder.com%2fstop_the_dispossession_of_negev_bedouin&l=1812296&d=10328469874866734987648065739279693275" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)">If you click to send letters</a>, you will have your choice of sending one letter to 5 key Government ministers, or to write individualized letters to one or all of them. You will also see links to all the background information you might care to read. (There are a few bugs, but our high tech person is on vacation, and we need those letters now. Supposedly you can edit the letters, but that doesn't seem to work yet. Be sure to choose one letter or individualized letters only from the links at the top of the webpage, because some of the links further down lead you to old petitions.)<br>
<br>P.S.S. <a href="http://itnewsletter.itnewsletter.co.il/r.ashx?h=http%3a%2f%2frhr.org.il%2feng%2flinks%2f&l=1812297&d=10328469874866734987648065739279693275" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)">We know that many of you are still confused as to how to donate to RHR in North America after our fiscal split with Truah. Please click here for current donation information. </a> <br>
(We are pleased that Truah is one of our North American partners in this Bedouin campaign, along with Partners for Progressive Israel, Jewish Alliance For Change, British Friends of RHR, Canadian Friends of RHR. In Israel, our partners/organizations we coordinate with include The Recognition Forum, The Council of Unrecognized Villages, SHATIL, ACRI, Adallah, Bimkom, etc.)<br>
<br>P.S.S.S. <a href="http://itnewsletter.itnewsletter.co.il/r.ashx?h=http%3a%2f%2frhr.org.il%2feng%2f2013%2f06%2fthree-days-left-to-register-at-this-price-join-our-human-rights-tour-for-jewish-leadership-october-2nd-9th%2f&l=1812298&d=10328469874866734987648065739279693275" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)">Please join RHR's Jewish Leadership Human Rights Study Tour October 2nd-9th.</a> For more information, write to me or to Ayala Levy,<a href="mailto:ayala@rhr.israel.net" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)">ayala@rhr.israel.net</a>. <br>
<br>P.S.S.S.S. I will be in Ireland in August and in the U.S. in December, including Berkely on <span class="" tabindex="0" style="border-bottom-width:1px;border-bottom-style:dashed;border-bottom-color:rgb(204,204,204)"><span class="" style>December 8th</span></span> and Cleveland on December 20th. For more information, or to arrange for me or another RHR speaker to come to your community, please write to Ela Greenberg,<a href="mailto:ela@rhr.israel.net" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)">ela@rhr.israel.net</a></span><u></u><u></u></p>
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