海角大神

For more than a decade, Rabbi Arik Ascherman has patrolled these hills to help shield the Palestinian olive harvest from extremist Israeli violence and ensure that the Israeli Army protects the Palestinians.

When a wave of Palestinian stabbing attacks broke out a month ago in Jerusalem, colleagues warned the US-born rabbi that it might be too dangerous.

But late last month, it was a fellow Israeli who descended on Rabbi Ascherman with a knife as he escorted Palestinian villagers harvesting olive trees beneath the hard-line Jewish settlement of Itamar. The dramatic struggle that ensued, in which he was struck with a stone and kicked down a hill, was captured on a video that went viral.

Last week, still nursing a bandaged broken finger from the attack, Ascherman, a Reform rabbi who heads the multidenominational peace group Rabbis for Human Rights, bounded up a hilltop in search of a lone group of Palestinian olive pickers to see if they felt secure enough to venture out. 聽

Blithely referring to the near-stabbing as 鈥渢he incident,鈥欌�� he says he has returned to the hillsides with Israeli volunteers to continue his work. Staying home, he says, would be a victory for vigilantes.聽

In the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, religious fundamentalism on both sides drives a cycle of violence and refusal to compromise. But Ascherman, a Harvard grad from Erie, Penn., who was ordained at Reform Judaism鈥檚 Hebrew Union College in New York, invokes Jewish texts that he says are both a call for tolerance and a call to action against what he considers excesses of the Israeli government and extremist settlers.

He and his organization have organized harvest volunteers, blocked bulldozers about to demolish Palestinian homes, and fought for Bedouin land rights. In 2006, Rabbis for Human Rights won an Israeli Supreme Court decision ordering the army to protect the olive harvest.

The olive harvest 鈥� an important economic lifeline for many Palestinian villagers 鈥� has been a battleground for more than a decade.聽The Israeli human rights group Yesh Din has documented 260 cases of olive tree vandalism over the last decade. Some 15 percent of the incidents were reported in the area just south of the Palestinian city of Nablus, near the settlements of Itamar and Har Bracha. Settlers say the Palestinians cut down and burn their olive fields, and that they face frequent incidents of rock and Molotov cocktail throwing by Palestinians.聽

鈥淲hen we created the state, we legitimately said, 鈥楴ever again. We will never again be powerless,鈥欌�� Ascherman says. 鈥淭hat has morphed into 鈥榳e can use the power we have to oppress others.鈥� Way before 鈥榥ever again鈥� the Torah tells us, 鈥楴ever ever. You know what it鈥檚 like to be oppressed, don鈥檛 oppress others.鈥�"

Fear on both sides

Ascherman argues that Israelis have created a society that has become violent both internally and externally. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a midrash [rabbinic commentary] that says don鈥檛 delude yourselves 鈥� a hand that strikes the non-Jew will eventually strike the Jew as well.鈥�

Ascherman and his cadre of Israeli volunteers have been working in the West Bank olive fields going back to the second intifada. The wave of stabbings and murder of Eitam and Naama Henkin while driving with their children near Itamar in October have sown mutual fear: Palestinians are reluctant to harvest olives on their own for fear of settler vigilantes looking for revenge, while Israeli security forces have bolstered their presence at West Bank intersections in an unprecedented deployment to protect settlers.

"Every time the Palestinians, with the Israeli army protecting them, successfully work their land, it鈥檚 like shattering that aspiration to use violence and economic pressure to get people to leave," Ascherman says. "I think we are actually contributing to Israel鈥檚 security, because we are showing them there are other types of Israelis."

Palestinian Mohammed Assous鈥檚 family was out harvesting olives with the rabbi鈥檚 group last week just a few feet away from an Israeli vineyard the Palestinians claim belongs to them. 鈥淚n our village, a lot of people don鈥檛 know there are good Jews. The don鈥檛 know people like Arik,鈥欌�� he says. 鈥淭hey only know from settlers and soldiers.鈥�

Settlers see a provocateur

But settlers see Rabbis for Human Rights in a different light. They insist Ascherman is a provocateur who instigates angry confrontations and damages otherwise good relations with Palestinian villagers. Ezra Ben Saadaon, a vintner from the settlement of Rehelim, says he鈥檚 seen the rabbi in two angry showdowns over olive trees and vineyards in the West Bank.

鈥淗e鈥檚 stirring things up. It cause a needless mess,鈥欌�� says Mr. Saadon, who nonetheless says the stabbing attack on the rabbi was unjustifiable.

Despite the tension, this year鈥檚 olive harvest has gone better than expected, with lower rates of vandalism and theft compared with previous years.

鈥淚鈥檇 like to think it's because of our discussions [with the army] and influence we鈥檙e doing a better job,鈥� Ascherman says. 鈥淢aybe many people, including the settler population, understand there鈥檚 a lid that could blow off at any second.鈥欌��

At the Assous family olive grove below the Israeli settlement of Har Bracha, volunteers and Palestinian villagers worked together shaking olives from branches before sitting down to a lunch of hummus and pita.聽Just a few feet away was a fence separating olive trees from a small settler run vineyard. Tempers have flared in the past in the field; the family said they felt safer working in the company of the Israeli activists.聽

鈥淪ome [Israelis] say we are helping the enemy,鈥欌�� says Yael Vurgan, a rabbinic student and volunteer coordinator. 鈥淸Volunteers] want to feel like they are doing something. They can鈥檛 solve the big problems, but they want to take a stand, and repair the world.鈥�

'There is another way'

Zacharia Sadeh, a Palestinian field worker for Rabbis for Human Rights, documented the attack on Ascherman two weeks ago. After his video footage was picked up by news organizations, Palestinians called to express their support for the rabbi, he says.

鈥淭his makes a big difference for the Palestinians,鈥欌�� Mr. Sadeh says. 鈥淭hey see that there are other kinds of religious Jews, who are willing to help and stand next to them.鈥�

Israel police said they arrested a聽17-year old聽minor on Nov. 8 , who was聽from the settlement of Itamar and confessed to the attack.聽The minor was indicted in a聽juvenile聽court on Nov. 13 on charges of aggravated assault, possession of a聽knife and ammunition.

The attention surrounding Ascherman after the attack has contributed to a boost in the number of volunteers for the human rights group after years of decline. Though the prospects for Israeli-Palestinian peace seem dim, Ascherman says he tells Palestinians and Israelis that even small actions have the potential to spur change.

鈥淔or a lot of our volunteers, it鈥檚 what helps them get up in the morning,鈥欌�� he says. 鈥淲hen you are in the middle of this insane situation with violence in all directions, and everybody is losing it, this is something concrete which reminds us that there is another way.鈥�