The issue of human rights has a dubious reputation among some of us. In the "best" case, they are a matter for liberals, leftists, peaceniks and bleeding hearts. In the worst case, they run in conflict with everything that protects "us," a tool used by our enemies to undermine our security. Such an important worldview, it seems, has never had the misfortune of such terrible public relations.
The enemies of human rights the world over are politicians. Yitzhak Rabin said, "They have no High Court of Justice and no B'Tselem," when explaining the positive aspects of the Palestinian Authority. The detractors of peace point to human rights violations in the PA as an excuse. Politicians on the Right target human rights groups in Israel by presenting them as traitors.
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We all know why. It isn't convenient when people champion the right to protest, whether those protesters are from the Left or the Right. It isn't convenient when prisoners' conditions, Shin Bet and police torture methods, over-policing in Arab and Ethiopian Israeli communities, discriminatory practices by the state, sexual harassment and racism are publicized. It isn't comfortable when the State of Israel needs to explain why it must demolish the homes of terrorists' families, a collective form of punishment whose effectiveness is debatable. It's not easy when there's a need to investigate the deaths of Palestinians, some of them minors. Human rights, it seems, are always for the oppressed and downtrodden.
Abraham was the first champion of human rights. When God revealed his plan to wipe Sodom and Gomorrah off the face of the earth, Abraham didn't cheer. He asked to make sure it wasn't collective punishment. He tried with all his might to stand against God's wrath and to plead his case. His standing is what made Abraham the patriarch of the three great monotheistic religions.
Human rights are sometimes denigrated as contradictory to Judaism, which emphasizes the individual's obligations in this world. The bridge connecting the discourse over human rights to the discourse about the obligations of a Jew isn't at all narrow. Our Jewish obligation is a defense of and a fight for the rights of everyone around us. When Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and many other American Jews rallied in support of the civil rights movement in the US, they did so by virtue of their Jewishness. A Jewish worldview dictates that the world is not forsaken. We are all obliged to take responsibility and to be accountable for our actions. Without human rights, the strong will dominate the weak. Today you have the power, which you exploit to the fullest. Tomorrow this power will be taken from you, and you and your children will be on the side of the downtrodden.
This Thursday, December 10, we will mark International Human Rights Day. On December 10, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It opens by stating: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood." It states every person's right to life, liberty and security. It includes basic rights as a member of society and the right to "an existence worthy of human dignity." It concludes by stating that "everyone has duties to the community."
On the eve of International Human Rights Day, we will also light the first Hanukkah candle. Nothing could be more symbolic. Wherever a sense of responsibility exists, so does a fight for human rights. In a place where the outside world is not forsaken, there are human rights. In a place that insists upon the human rights of all people, there is light – which drives away much of the darkness.
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