http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16907-2001Apr13.html
Grass-Roots Effort for Mideast Peace
Jewish Group Wants to Replant Olive Trees Destroyed by Israelis
By Caryle Murphy
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 14, 2001; Page B11
As a symbol of peace, the olive branch speaks to just about everyone.
And that, a group of American Jews hope, will boost their latest
effort to advance peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
Break the Silence, a national network of Jews opposed to Israeli
policies in the occupied territories, is soliciting donations to
replace thousands of Palestinian-owned olive trees uprooted in recent
years by the Israeli military and Jewish settlers.
The network's "Olive Trees For Peace" campaign was formally begun
Sunday with a full-page ad in the New York Times signed by more than
360 people, including several prominent American Jewish leaders.
"Historically, branches of the olive tree have been symbols of peace,"
said David Shneyer, head of Bethesda's Am Kolel Judaic Resource Center
and a local supporter of the campaign. The replanting effort, he
added, "is a way of saying we want to replant the seeds for peace in
the Middle East."
Noting that the Torah declares that "even if you are at war with a
city . . . you must not destroy its trees," Shneyer called the
uprootings "a moral issue . . . because these trees represent
sustenance for Palestinians."
Many Palestinian families depend on olive trees for income because
they sell the olives and oil made from them. Israeli authorities,
however, say the trees often provide cover for Palestinians committing
violence.
Break the Silence is working with the Israeli-based Rabbis for Human
Rights, a group that seeks reconciliation with Palestinians. The group
estimates that more than 20,000 trees have been destroyed, 1,500 of
them in one village.
Among the ad's signers were Susannah Heschel, a Dartmouth University
professor and daughter of the late Abraham Joshua Heschel, one of
American Judaism's most respected theologians; Rabbi Zalman Schachter
Shalomi, founder of the Jewish Renewal Movement; Philadelphia Rabbis
Mordechai Liebling of the Shefa Fund and Arthur Waskow of the Shalom
Center; and Cherie Brown, director of the D.C.-based National
Coalition Building Institute.
"Most American Jews are frustrated and don't know what to do," Shneyer
said. "This is something concrete to do."
(c) 2001 The Washington Post Company
