A Moment of Moral Clarity? Understanding the B'Tselem Report on Israeli Apartheid (Scroll down to register)

This past January, the largest Israeli human rights organization, B’Tselem, published a report stating that Israel cannot be a democracy while maintaining an occupation of Palestinian territories. It argues that Israel controls the entire area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River using different means of control over the Palestinian population in each area. The common denominator in the entire area is that Palestinians have vastly unequal rights. 

Rabbi Brian Walt, a Reconstructionist rabbi who grew up in South Africa, will share his reflections on the report and lead two discussions about whether the B’Tselem report presents a new framework that offers a moment of moral clarity for Jews and others who believe in justice for all people who live in the region. He recently wrote an op-ed on this subject entitled, “As a Rabbi Raised in South Africa, I Can’t Ignore Israel Is an Apartheid State.” Scholarship money is available. If requesting a scholarship, please select that option when registering and you will be contacted about paying a lower rate.

If you have time, please read these pieces in advance of our classes:

• For May 2: The B’Tselem Report: “A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid” (January 2021)    
• For May 9: “The Separate Regimes Delusion,” by Nathan Thrall, London Review of books (January 21, 2021)

Optional material:

• B’Tselem and Kerem Navot Report: “This is Ours and This, Too: Israel’s Settlement Policy in the West Bank” (April 2021) - Read the two page executive summary on pages 6-7
• “Video: What’s New About the New B’Tselem Report: A Moment of Moral Clarity” (February 23, 2021) The video has been removed from this page but the program can be viewed here.  Held at the Harvard Divinity School, Program on Religion and Public Life with Sam Bahour, Biana Buttu, Hagai El-Ad, and Orly Noy.
• “A Day in the Life of Abed Salama,” by Nathan Thrall, New York Review of Books (March 19, 2021) (very long but amazing and thought provoking article)
• Human Rights Watch Report: “A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution” (April 27, 2021)