The Rabbinical Alliance of America — Igud HaRabbonim, with a membership of over 950 Orthodox Rabbis — mourns the forced evacuation and demolition of the Netiv Ha’Avot neighborhood in Israel. The matriarch Rachel cried when her descendants were led off to Babylonian exile. The RAA/IGUD joins our mother Rachel in crying over the displacement of the residents of Netiv Ha’Avot.
The RAA/IGUD extends brotherly love and support to these noble residents who were forced out of their homes by Israeli police acting on orders from an overly activist and misguided Supreme Court. No court of law can deny Jews their ancestral home and certainly not destroy their homes in which they have raised their families with so much self–sacrifice and effort — spanning decades.
Jewish settlement of Israel is a Mitzvah, and the abandonment of unsettled land is the neglect of a Mitzvah and the rejection of a gift from the Creator. The RAA/IGUD stands with those who are dedicated to reviving and building Jewish communities throughout the land of Israel. No place in Israel should be forbidden to Jews, no neighborhood segregated to prevent Jews from living there.
Rabbi Yehoshua S. Hecht, Presidium Chairman of the RAA declared, “We celebrate these Jewish residents as champions of Jewish rights against disgraceful court judgments that are based on political sympathies rather than the rule of law. Furthermore, the court’s decision to dispossess these families is based upon unsubstantiated documentation and verifications, something that would never stand up in a non-partisan court of law.”
We pray for the restoration of Netiv Ha’Avot and the Jewish development of empty land throughout the biblical land of Israel.
The Rabbinical Alliance of America continues to pray for the peace of all who desire peace and for all who work to bring understanding and truth to a world so conflicted and splintered.
May the One who makes peace in His heavens make peace upon us and upon all Israel, Amen.