Tamar Ziff was an International Relations Intern at ACRI betweeen May – August 2014.
Tamar is studying International Relations at the University of Virginia.
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It began as all Israeli summers do: hot. The air was sticky with humidity and smoke, trapping the shrill whining of small children and the echoes of footsteps on the pavement outside Ben Gurion Airport. I had come to Israel for a variety of reasons: to visit family, eat hummus, traipse around in torn shorts and a tank top and never feel as though I were underdressed. Mostly, though, my two months were to be dedicated to an internship at the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), a non-profit human rights organization that I had been told about by an Israeli family friend. “They’re good people,” I remember him saying. “They do good work.”
I took the bait. Months later, after having exchanged a variety of e-mails, writing samples, references, and assorted evidence of my Mature and Responsible Manner and Great Work Ethic, I was accepted as an International Relations Intern. After looking at the organization’s website, and seeing the quantity and variety of its human rights endeavors and successes, I was excited, both about the prospect of doing actual good, or at least being in the vicinity of those who enact real change, and about exploring the nuanced landscape of Israeli human and civil rights. Internationally, Israel is often seen as a monolithic entity, thrown into the limelight every few years when a war breaks out or when a politician says something particularly controversial, usually regarding the situation in neighboring Palestine. While U.S. domestic issues – including but not limited to immigration, racial discrimination, and narcotic abuse – are constantly at the forefront of global consciousness, I had not read much on internal Israeli issues, and was eager to learn.
My enthusiasm was duly rewarded, if perversely – on 12 June, three Israeli yeshiva students were kidnapped near a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, beginning a summer of unbelievable and wrenching domestic turmoil. Conflicts and biases that had been simmering on the stove of Israeli consciousness quickly boiled over, and I was confronted with a national crisis of identity, religion, politics, and – at the center of it all, though rarely addressed – human rights. As an intern at ACRI, I was able to both take part in and witness ACRI’s staunch protection of the human rights and freedoms of Israelis of any and all backgrounds as well as their Palestinian neighbors. Through the Parliament and the High Court of Justice, ACRI submitted petition after petition in an effort to institute change for the better – for Bedouins without bomb shelters, for Israelis unable to afford recently-privatized healthcare, for Palestinian East Jerusalemites whose homes continue to be threatened by demolition orders from the Israeli government. There were public campaigns – with letters, various media publications, organized demonstrations – and other forms of grassroots organization, yet ACRI’s true power lay in its legal expertise. In reforming law, ACRI manages to establish a concrete foundation for future respect for human rights, rather than merely supporting or orchestrating a one-off improvement for a certain group of people.
Throughout Operation Protective Edge, ACRI acted like liquid cement for the dam preventing a flow of human rights violations; cracks would appear everywhere, from physical abuse by right-wing fanatics of left-wing protesters to police harassment of citizens in Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem to Big-Brother-esque monitoring and censoring of online commentary. ACRI saw these things happen, and responded, dutifully and thoroughly, in an attempt to reverse or preclude actions by the Israeli government or military that violated basic human freedoms.
Yet, even outside the context of the latest round of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, ACRI manages to identify and address domestic issues that most people outside of Israel rarely hear of: the sordid state of citizens in East Jerusalem, the exclusion of migrant workers and their children from involvement in Israeli society, the harmful effects of a quickly privatizing healthcare system in a country founded upon and known for qualitative provision of social services. In the news, Israel is simply a two-dimensional opponent to Palestine, ostensibly unified and untroubled by all but politics and relations with its neighbors. However, though barely 65 years old, it has all of the trappings – good and bad – of any other Western democracy, facing challenges of social equality and a balanced economy, of hordes of immigrants and pervasive ethnic stereotype. Through my work with ACRI – drafting project proposals, writing summaries and briefings of ACRI’s work on a variety of social, economic, and civic issues, discussing matters of identity, rights, democracy, and war with experienced lawyers and human rights activists – I came to know more about Israeli society, law, and government, as well as the universal human rights norms and regulations that should theoretically be kept in mind but are often dismissed for short term tactical gains.
It was a long, hot summer, with political and social temperatures running far higher than a thermostat would allow. Working with ACRI gave me the skills, knowledge, and resources to interpret and analyze the developments of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict outside of the simultaneously esoteric and over-simplified political paradigm, through the lens of a humanist. Terms like good or evil were not brought up – they are meaningless concerning the ultimately practical nature of war. What I came to rely upon in order to maneuver through the overload of information, what ACRI taught me to seek, were concrete indications of human rights violations, clear signs of political or social misconduct upon which a solid case could be built for improvement or reparation. Temperatures may run high, but in times of crisis we must keep a cool head and continue to advocate for what is right, and what are our rights. Dedicated individuals, reasoned and researched petitioning, and active, peaceful, and persistent campaigning are the means to improve Israel’s human rights situation. What ACRI emphasizes is the affirmation of the rule of law, constantly reminding everyone – citizen and politician alike – that the most important thing, the fulcrum of any functioning democracy, is respect for human rights. And that is what ACRI is here to ensure.
