Gaza Synagogue Demolitions And Palestinian Peace Overtures
As demolitions of settlement homes in Gaza and northern Samaria began this week, the question of what to do with the 30 synagogues and 8 Torah academies in Gaza has reemerged.
All Palestinian factions including the PA believe armed struggle caused Israel to retreat and is the strategy needed in forcing Israel to leave further territory. While many of these groups continue to call for the destruction of the State of Israel, the issue of leaving the synagogues standing is a difficult one.
The reality that Jewish houses of worship survived Nazi Germany's planned extermination of the Jewish People and many still stand in countries officially at war with the Jewish State begs the question: Where is the Palestinian's hatred guided? Is it towards the State of Israel, which is the symbol of its pain and loss? Or is it towards a more terrifying reality: hatred of anything Jewish.
At the start of the disengagement plan, the state's representative attorney Avi Licht said the state decided it was too difficult to relocate the physical structures of each synagogue. It was determined that except for large buildings that were to be handed over to the Palestinians, all structures including the synagogues would be destroyed.
As the disengagement date grew near, a petition to save the houses of worship was filed to the Israeli High Court by attorney Gilead Corinaldi on behalf of Elei Sinai Rabbi Yishai Bar-Chen and professional photographer Neil Folberg.
The petition asked the court to internally debate either the possibility of leaving the buildings in place or transferring the physical structures from Gaza to Israeli territory.
Justices Dorit Beinisch, Edmond Levy and Elyakim Rubinstein ordered the state on Tuesday 16 August to decide whether it was possible to dismantle the structures and reuse them in the construction of new synagogues in Israel.
"When I walked into the courtroom I thought the state should have a hard time, especially when we look at a procedure that aims to bring peace on earth - why not leave the constructions there? Why not put the other party to the test?" said Justice Levy at the time.
"But then I told myself that knowing the Palestinians, if we leave the synagogues where they are we would be contemptuous towards the prayer houses, and the state must act as a state should and do this much for the sake of their preservations," he said.
After a week of deliberations, the High Court determined 2-1 on Tuesday 23 August that two synagogues in Gaza whose structures allow for their dismantlement and reassembly will be moved across the border into Israel. Both are in the former Tel Katifa and Slav Jewish communities in northern Gaza.
It also called for an examination of whether the synagogue in Bedolah, the Yemenite synagogue in Neve Dekalim and the new dome of the synagogue in Netzarim could be dismantled and moved.
As for the rest, the court ruled that as much should be done as possible to maintain the memory of the sites and after their sanctity is removed according to Jewish law, they must be destroyed.
“The decision was a difficult one, to the point of heartbreak," said High Court Justice Elyakim Rubinstein who voted with Justice Dorit Beinisch against the petition to leave the Jewish houses of worship standing.
According to the ruling, which was written by Rubinstein, the synagogues would be photographed and documented before being destroyed.
All artifacts of significance, including Holy Arks, book shelves, the cantor's stand, the bima, picture windows, memorial tablets, sinks for washing hands, benches, and the front doors were to be removed. Any external elements that could be reused or symbolically set into new synagogue structures in Israel would also be moved.
In response, the petition's attorney Corinaldi called the ruling a victory and a tribute to the "cultural and spiritual treasures of the synagogues in Gush Katif," adding that without the petition the Gaza settlements would have been erased from the national memory.
Justice Levy, however, had a different take on the matter.
He was not convinced the synagogues built of concrete and cement blocks could not have remained in the Gaza Strip had the government done more to preserve their integrity. He wrote:
"Who if not the Israeli government should have tried every way to avoid the destruction of the synagogues... If there is any substance to the declared intention of those who initiated the unilateral evacuation to create a new climate that will lead to a process that will enable two nations to live in peace and neighborly relations, then preserving holy sites should be a clear objective of the Palestinian Authority as well... to show that it is really bent on peace."
In other words, had Israel tried to reach agreements with the Palestinian Authority or international organizations, according to Levy, their fate may have been altered.
Judge Levy also wrote that the Jews of the world are permitted to demand the preservation of the synagogues in Gush Katif, "not only because of their sanctity, but also to remind all of history, until the end of the generations, of the great sacrifice made by the State of Israel the moment a glimmer of hope for a political arrangement began to emerge."
He said the synagogues should be treated as mosques and churches, which are not destroyed even if they are abandoned. Levy wrote that the state must appeal to the Palestinian Authority and international bodies with an interest in promoting the peace process and examine the possibility of preserving the synagogues in their current locations in the Gaza Strip.
Though Levy is the minority opinion in the tribunal, his reasoning is something to admire. Only cruel ego centric religionists would find the presence of a synagogue or any other house of worship outside of their own an abomination.
The impact of this decision is not just political but casts a doubt on what kind of neighbor Israel is creating near its heart.
Is the creation of a Palestinian state a political war being waged for justice by a people who believe it was wronged by another or is it a religious war by Muslims bent on ridding history of anything Jewish and would have no problem using a synagogue as a trash dump or a pen for animals?
All Palestinian factions including the PA believe armed struggle caused Israel to retreat and is the strategy needed in forcing Israel to leave further territory. While many of these groups continue to call for the destruction of the State of Israel, the issue of leaving the synagogues standing is a difficult one.
The reality that Jewish houses of worship survived Nazi Germany's planned extermination of the Jewish People and many still stand in countries officially at war with the Jewish State begs the question: Where is the Palestinian's hatred guided? Is it towards the State of Israel, which is the symbol of its pain and loss? Or is it towards a more terrifying reality: hatred of anything Jewish.
At the start of the disengagement plan, the state's representative attorney Avi Licht said the state decided it was too difficult to relocate the physical structures of each synagogue. It was determined that except for large buildings that were to be handed over to the Palestinians, all structures including the synagogues would be destroyed.
As the disengagement date grew near, a petition to save the houses of worship was filed to the Israeli High Court by attorney Gilead Corinaldi on behalf of Elei Sinai Rabbi Yishai Bar-Chen and professional photographer Neil Folberg.
The petition asked the court to internally debate either the possibility of leaving the buildings in place or transferring the physical structures from Gaza to Israeli territory.
Justices Dorit Beinisch, Edmond Levy and Elyakim Rubinstein ordered the state on Tuesday 16 August to decide whether it was possible to dismantle the structures and reuse them in the construction of new synagogues in Israel.
"When I walked into the courtroom I thought the state should have a hard time, especially when we look at a procedure that aims to bring peace on earth - why not leave the constructions there? Why not put the other party to the test?" said Justice Levy at the time.
"But then I told myself that knowing the Palestinians, if we leave the synagogues where they are we would be contemptuous towards the prayer houses, and the state must act as a state should and do this much for the sake of their preservations," he said.
After a week of deliberations, the High Court determined 2-1 on Tuesday 23 August that two synagogues in Gaza whose structures allow for their dismantlement and reassembly will be moved across the border into Israel. Both are in the former Tel Katifa and Slav Jewish communities in northern Gaza.
It also called for an examination of whether the synagogue in Bedolah, the Yemenite synagogue in Neve Dekalim and the new dome of the synagogue in Netzarim could be dismantled and moved.
As for the rest, the court ruled that as much should be done as possible to maintain the memory of the sites and after their sanctity is removed according to Jewish law, they must be destroyed.
“The decision was a difficult one, to the point of heartbreak," said High Court Justice Elyakim Rubinstein who voted with Justice Dorit Beinisch against the petition to leave the Jewish houses of worship standing.
According to the ruling, which was written by Rubinstein, the synagogues would be photographed and documented before being destroyed.
All artifacts of significance, including Holy Arks, book shelves, the cantor's stand, the bima, picture windows, memorial tablets, sinks for washing hands, benches, and the front doors were to be removed. Any external elements that could be reused or symbolically set into new synagogue structures in Israel would also be moved.
In response, the petition's attorney Corinaldi called the ruling a victory and a tribute to the "cultural and spiritual treasures of the synagogues in Gush Katif," adding that without the petition the Gaza settlements would have been erased from the national memory.
Justice Levy, however, had a different take on the matter.
He was not convinced the synagogues built of concrete and cement blocks could not have remained in the Gaza Strip had the government done more to preserve their integrity. He wrote:
"Who if not the Israeli government should have tried every way to avoid the destruction of the synagogues... If there is any substance to the declared intention of those who initiated the unilateral evacuation to create a new climate that will lead to a process that will enable two nations to live in peace and neighborly relations, then preserving holy sites should be a clear objective of the Palestinian Authority as well... to show that it is really bent on peace."
In other words, had Israel tried to reach agreements with the Palestinian Authority or international organizations, according to Levy, their fate may have been altered.
Judge Levy also wrote that the Jews of the world are permitted to demand the preservation of the synagogues in Gush Katif, "not only because of their sanctity, but also to remind all of history, until the end of the generations, of the great sacrifice made by the State of Israel the moment a glimmer of hope for a political arrangement began to emerge."
He said the synagogues should be treated as mosques and churches, which are not destroyed even if they are abandoned. Levy wrote that the state must appeal to the Palestinian Authority and international bodies with an interest in promoting the peace process and examine the possibility of preserving the synagogues in their current locations in the Gaza Strip.
Though Levy is the minority opinion in the tribunal, his reasoning is something to admire. Only cruel ego centric religionists would find the presence of a synagogue or any other house of worship outside of their own an abomination.
The impact of this decision is not just political but casts a doubt on what kind of neighbor Israel is creating near its heart.
Is the creation of a Palestinian state a political war being waged for justice by a people who believe it was wronged by another or is it a religious war by Muslims bent on ridding history of anything Jewish and would have no problem using a synagogue as a trash dump or a pen for animals?
posted by Amihai at Tuesday, August 23, 2005
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