Catch it Live! At tHE MondAvi CEntEr Chava Alberstein

news
community
Returning to a ‘normative
definition of human rights’
in the Middle East
by E l i s s a P ro van c e
Aryeh Green remembers opening
up the newspaper a
few years ago and seeing
a picture of Arab Muslim youth kneeling on
the ground with soldiers
standing over them. His
first thought was, ‘What
has happened in Israel?’ Aryeh Green
As it turned out,
nothing happened in Israel. The
picture, depicting the youth being
held in administrative detention,
was actually taken in France. Upon
further reading, Green, Director of
MediaCentral, a new initiative that
provides support services to foreign
journalists based in or visiting Israel,
discovered that French authorities
had carried out search and seizure
operations without warrants and held
the detainees without due process.
“Is there any recollection of
France being called in gross violation of human rights or a discussion
in the United Nations?” Green asked
the audience who gathered at Congregation Beth Shalom on October
18th to hear him address the topic of
“Human Rights and Freedom in the
Middle East.” “No,” was the collective
response.
Green, whose presentation was
sponsored by the Jewish Federation
of the Sacramento Region, Congregation Beth Shalom, the Jewish
Community Relations Council, and
StandWithUs, explained that under
a democratic system of government,
democracies make judgments and
occasionally carry out policies that
restrict rights.
“We all accept inconveniences
and time delays and we don’t protest
our invasion of privacy when we recognize occasions or special situations
when it is warranted,” said Green,
using air travel safety as an example.
“We are willing to relinquish our right
to privacy.” Green added that rights
are also a relative issue, especially
when the subject is Israel.
“The definition of human rights
has been hijacked by those with an
agenda to delegitimize Israel in the
eyes of the world,” Green said. “There
is castigation and condemnation
around the world that Israel is the
grossest violator of human rights in the
world. What rights?” he asked. “Freedom of speech? Since 1967 there has
been a plethora of news media with
daily, weekly, and monthly newspapers
in Palestine. There are more publications for four million people than
for all of Iran, which has 70 million
people. Freedom of speech?” Green
continued. “Freedom of speech has
been protected, encouraged, and
strengthened. How about freedom of
religion? Only under Israeli rule have
Palestinians achieved any sense of freedom of religion. Gay rights? How are
gays treated in Muslim society? Under
Israeli rule, they are protected.”
Green, who grew up in San Francisco and has lived in Israel for nearly
25 years, went on to explain that
Palestinians who have been working
with and actively involved in the pro-
Catch it Live! At tHE MondAvi CEntEr
Chava Alberstein
tHU, dEC 6 • 8 pM
Singing in Hebrew,
motion of democracy are
Yiddish and English, Chava
the first to acknowledge
Alberstein is one of the
that, beginning in 1967,
most prolific Israeli singerIsrael “inculcated a great
producers of all time,
number of freedoms and
having released nearly 50
rights we normally think
recordings since the late
of when we discuss hu1960s. “If we have a true
man rights.”
folk singer, it is Chava
How, then, did Israel
Alberstein,” Yediot Aharonot,
become known as a gross
Israel’s largest daily newsviolator of human rights
paper, said about Alberin the world, rather than a democratic
stein, naming her the most
country that implements policy decisions to protect its citizens, especially
important female musician
in a world that has witnessed human
in Israel’s history.
rights violations in Cambodia, the
Former Soviet Union, and Darfur?
The media, Green explained,
“carry the baggage of western society
and come to the region with an acceptance of the Palestinian version of
the situation— that Israeli is responsible for all of the ills of the world.”
He added that the Palestinians have
12 media outlets and many journalists
studied in universities where attitudes
are “part and parcel” with the accepted wisdom that Israel mistreats PalesMondaviArts.org
tinians and that they are repressed.
530.754.ARTS (2787) | 866.754.ARTS (toll-free)
“Reasonable people can disagree
whether a security barrier is appropriate, but when that segues into conRobeRt and MaRgRit Mondavi Center foR the PeRfoRMing aRts
demnation of Israel being the grossest
violator of human rights, we’re going
one step too far,” Gross said. “We
need to return to a normative definition of human rights. Once we return
to a normative definition, we can have
reasonable discussions about particu- Mondavi Jewish Voice
Ad Rep: Becky Summers 754.5424
lar Israeli policies.”
Dec, 2007
Production: Morissa Rubin 530.754.5426
MediaCentral, said Green, who is
1/4.
4.75
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7.5
also an advisory to Natan Sharansky,
PGOPSUI
F S O D B M J G P rmsummers@ucdavis.edu
SOJB
provides foreign journalists with sermrrubin@ucdavis.edu,
vices as mundane as assistance with
translating a telephone bill to higher
level support, such as setting up
interviews with experts and government spokespeople. They also escort
journalists on field trips and hold
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events, all with the purpose of giving
them access to stories. For example,
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journalists are taken to the security
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barrier, which is 94% fence and only
6% wall. They are offered access to
the reality of the barrier by being
brought to Palestinian villages to hear
complaints and inconveniences. They
are also told how, before the fence
3ACRAMENTOS,OCAL*EWISH&UNERAL(OME
was built, a 19-year-old Muslim Arab
walked 20 minutes from his village,
boarded a bus, and little more than
an hour later, strapped on a bomb
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and killed a 17-year-old boy.
“These are not violations of human
rights,” said Green. “Journalists who
come with a certain set of assump-EMBEROF*EWISH&UNERAL$IRECTORSOF!MERICAs&$
tions come out with a much broader
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ability to report more accurately. They
understand these are policy issues, not
human rights issues.”
Green also believes that truth is
Israel’s best ally, explaining, “To stand
up for the truth will help not just
Palestinians who are suffering under
the Palestinian Authority and not just
Palestinians who are waiting for their
own independence, but all who are
suffering.”
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For more information about MediaCentral, visit www.m-central.org.
For Ourselves. For Our Children. For Israel. Forever.