We Jews must face the reality of discrimination on the West Bank | Shaiya Rothberg | The Blogs | The Times of Israel

We Jews must face the reality of discrimination on the West Bank | Shaiya Rothberg | The Blogs | The Times of Israel

This blog is a “Human Rights Report Review”. The report I’m reviewing is called One Rule, Two Legal Systems: Israel’s Regime of Laws in the West Bank and it was published by The Association for Civil Rights in Israel(ACRI) in October of 2014. In the review, I’ll briefly present the contents of the report. I’ll also say what parts of it I accept and what conclusions I draw from it.

I know that a lot of reasonable people who care about Israel are cynical about “human rights”. They see how racists and fundamentalists sometimes use “human rights” rhetoric as a justification for criminal violence against Israeli Jews. And they see anti-Israel bigotry parading as “human rights activism” on college campuses and other places. And so they write off “human rights” altogether.

But the difference between real and bogus human rights discourse is easy to identify. If you hear people talking about human rights, but they clearly don’t give a damn about the life and dignity of Israeli Jews (including those that live over the green line), then what they are up to has nothing to do with human rights. You should call their bluff. But even your justified anger over bogus “human rights” discourse cannot excuse ignoring real human rights criticism. I think that all decent human beings must take intelligent human rights criticism seriously. If you think that a claim made in this report is not true, I challenge you to show me which one and why it is not true. But to reject the whole report because ‘all human rights organizations are out to get us’ is, in my opinion, a betrayal of your most basic moral responsibility.  (Continued at clickable link above...)