JAPAN: Rabbis Recognised for Rights Effort in Palestine

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, May 24 2006 (IPS) - At a time when the recognition of human rights is high on the international agenda it is significant that Japan’s 23rd Niwano peace award has gone to a group of rabbis, focused on bringing better understanding in Israel and the Occupied Territories.

Rabbis for Human Rights, that represents various streams of the Jewish faith, works with hundreds of Israeli volunteers on three major fronts – uplift of unemployed Israelis, support for Palestinians grappling with unjust Israeli policies and spreading the universal message in Judaism.

It is no easy task to spread that message in the background of bombs exploding daily in Israel and Palestine, as Rabbi Arik Ascherman, executive director of the group, acknowledges.

In an interview with IPS, the United States-born rabbi, explained the essence of the message – that Judaism respects all individuals, irrespective of religion or faith. This is often challenged by other religious Jewish organisations, that accuse the group of using religion for the ‘wrong’ purpose.

”Often we are told we are wrong to promote Judaism for universal human rights because we are up against a tradition where Judaism is the basis of the Jewish identity. To debate human rights adopting Jewish values is a struggle, given the deep-rooted nuances we are faced with,” he said.

Ascherman said the debate is complex given the powerful role that religion plays in the lives of people. He points to the fanning of hatred, intolerance and segregation as seen in the Middle East. The rabbi peace group has had to work hard at emphasising the positive aspects of spiritual force and adapt religion as a promoter of human rights.

”It is difficult to say that everybody who meets us will stop violence. When bombs go off and people on both sides are killed, nobody listens to our message of human rights and tolerance. Still our work has shown the opposite of the stereotype images and that’s an important step,” he pointed out.

Tadashi Takatani, director of the Niwano peace award, the Japanese equivalent of the Nobel peace prize, says investing in prize money for the rabbis is important for this country.

”To be able to work together to protect the rights of both Israelis and Palestinians through religion is a unique approach. The group sends a strong message to the pacifist Japanese public that is deeply against war after the horrifying experience of World War ll,” explained Takatani

One reason why the group of rabbis could win this Japanese award, which carries cash worth 200,000 US dollars, is its strong activist streak.

Ascherman has, for instance, stood with Palestinians confronting Israeli bulldozers sent to raze homes in Occupied Territories, thereby showing Palestinians a different face of the Israelis.

The group provides legal help to Palestinians who have had their lands confiscated by Israeli authorities.

Rabbi Yeheil Grenimann, who was also in Tokyo for the award ceremony, said much of dialogue on peace and tolerance between Isreali vounteers and Palestinians occurs in work situations, say in olive fields. ”Grassroots activities are much more effective, in bringing home the message of hope and breaking down stereotypical images, than large formal conferences,” he explained.

At the award ceremony, Grenimann explained that Judaism carried an ”ancient prophetic vision of a future time without war or injustice, a time of harmony, justice and peace for all peoples”.

What is important, according to Grenimann, is that the concept of future peace is well known to Christians and Muslims from the Jewish roots of their religions. ”The theological basis for this is, of course, the Jewish belief in the oneness of the almighty, the divine creator of this world who created all human beings in the divine image.”

”A religious Jew cannot ignore the primacy of peace as a value of the prophetic and rabbinic tradition, but many have postponed its realisation to some distant utopian future, rather than seeing it as a real possibility in the present situation. The price of such a peace – if indeed it is still possible at all – is a willingness to compromise and share the land,” Grenimann said.

The focus on ‘action for peace’ has been strong among earlier Niwano awardees. Scilla Elsworthy, who claimed it in 2003, was recognised not only for her nuclear disarmament work but also for bringing policy makers in nuclear-armed countries together to develop innovative strategies.

Other prize winners include the late Brazilian archbishop Dom Helder Camara, the Neve Shalom peace village, jointly established by Jews and Palestinian Arabs in Israel, the World Muslim Congress and Sri Lanka’s A.T. Ariyaratne, founder of ‘Sarvodaya’, an organisation that spreads Buddhist values.

Last year’s winner was the Swiss Catholic theologian Hans Kung. The panel said his understanding and insight were indispensable for peace in the world, notably in the Middle East, Iraq and Sri Lanka.

The Niwano Peace Foundation was set up in 1978 by Nikkyo Niwano, who founded the Buddhist Rissho Kosei-kai organisation.

In Japan, the role of religion in peace through the promotion of human rights and social justice is an emerging concept in a country defeated at the end World War II in 1945.