Here’s a contemporary Purim tale, complete with villains, victims, and behind-the-scenes heroism.
A few months ago, an Israeli court found the Palestinian Authority responsible for the torture of Arabs who were suspected of cooperating with Israel, which is considered a heinous crime punishable by the most extreme penalties, under Palestinian Authority law.
Often, suspected collaborators are murdered; other times, they are tortured mercilessly. Teeth are smashed, molten plastic is poured on their bodies, family members are raped and tortured – even infants are not spared. This is how anyone suspected of selling property to Jews is dealt with by the Palestinian Authority: Death or torture.
In this particular case, the victims turned to various human rights organizations for assistance in collecting the money awarded to them by the court.
But these organizations, which are normally quite outspoken, were suddenly mute.
Aside from The Committee for Prevention of Torture and Physicians for Human Rights, all other human rights organizations that were approached refused to help the unfortunate Arab victims.
Some offered strange, convoluted excuses, some simply ignored the victims’ requests, while others stated outright that violence perpetrated by the Palestinian Authority against Arabs does not interest them, according to the Regavim organization.
What became clear is that these “human rights” organizations showed their true faces: Human rights aren’t really what they’re interested in at all. Sad but true: “human rights” has become nothing more than a hackneyed cliché, a battering ram used to slander the State of Israel.
But the Israeli NGO, Regavim did step up to help the unfortunate Arab victims of Palestinian Authority torture, and paid for their legal representation.
In Judaism it is said that one of the highest forms of “tzedakah” is to provide a person with the wherewithal to provide for themselves — to give one a fishing pole rather than simply give him fish for one meal. That is how one shows compassion for human rights, and how an organization does whatever is possible to ensure justice prevails. Protection is important; legal assistance in helping an individual build his future perhaps even more so.