Religious Israelis Crossing the ‘Green’ Line
Rabbis for Human Rights North America, the domestic counterpart to the Israeli human rights group, had their first-ever conference this week in New York. As I filed my story about it Tuesday, I came across this article about an essay contest in a religious area of Jerusalem sponsored by an Israeli environmental organization. As the piece implies, there’s less inherent skepticism among religious Israelis about getting involved in traditionally liberal causes like the environment, a theme I heard several times at the RHR conference. Maybe that’s because there’s less fear in Israel that a liberal social agenda is just a cover for pro-Palestinian activity. Or maybe not, given RHR’s defense of Palestinian home demolitions in Jerusalem.