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A FEW PRE-SHABBAT WORDS FROM RABBI AARON

Who Cares About Olive Trees, Anyway?
Toward the end of this week's parasha [Deuteronomy 20:19], we read the prohibition against cutting down the fruit-bearing trees of one's enemies. The writer poetically asks: "Are the trees of the field like people - able to flee before your siege?" Lest we view the bible verse as a noble, yet quaint artifact of a bygone era (sieges, catapults, Lord of the Rings), I urge you to read the article immediately below. 

Palestinians: Settlers cut down 200 olive trees near Nablus; Destruction of trees comes day after Kibbutz volunteers helped Salem village residents restore damaged olive groves.

By Eli Ashkenazi and Arnon Regular, Haaretz Correspondents

Palestinians on Sunday said that settlers cut down more than 200 olive trees in the West Bank village of Salem, near Nablus. The Palestinians told the police that the settlers arrived during the night and cut down the trees using chainsaws. Police were trying to track the settlers responsible for the act. The destruction of the trees came a day after after volunteers from the Kibbutz Movement's assignment division, headed by Yoel Marshak, helped the residents of Salem restore olive groves that were destroyed by Elon Moreh settlers a month ago.

The Palestinian farmers had not tended the groves since they were destroyed for fear of being attacked by the settlers. Throughout the mission, Marshak was in touch with Israel Defense Forces troops to ensure that the restoration would go ahead without any violent clashes. "The Kibbutz Movement assists any farmer in distress out of social solidarity. The same way we helped Gush Katif farmers during the evacuation, we are now helping Palestinians prepare the ground for planting the olive trees after they were destroyed," Marshak said.

Marshak also called on settlers to stop harassing Palestinians and to avoid disrupting the preparations for planting the trees. He called on the army to act more aggressively toward any further attempts to harm the Palestinian farmers. He said that Palestinian farmers were unable to go near their olive groves since the settlers destroyed them, and that this caused them great economic distress. The volunteers plan to help the Palestinians on the upcoming weekends to prepare the ground for the planting of the olive trees, scheduled for December 24.

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If we wish to take the Torah text seriously, there are some very uncomfortable truths waiting for us to confront. Not only do Israeli settlers hate Palestinians, they regularly wage war upon them with impunity. Do the settlers consider the morality of their actions toward their Palestinian neighbors ? It appears they do not. The Israeli army struggles to find the perpetrators of the crimes (property damage, intimidation, murder). One has to occasionally wonder just how hard the Israeli authorities are trying. We live a world away, in Memphis. This story (which is part of a long pattern of criminal settler behavior) will not be covered by our local Jewish newspaper of record. It's not important enough to the vast majority of the readers or advertisers. After all, who cares about the olive groves of the foe? 
For starters, the Torah does.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Aaron

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