Rabbi Elyashiv joins Jaffa protest

Senior haredi rabbis join Eda Haredit protest against grave evacuation from Jaffa construction site, call for protest. 'Don't be complacent about these horrific acts,' they say

Kobi Nahshoni |Published: 07.15.10 , 08:27

The Eda Haredit is not alone. Senior rabbis from the central stream of haredi Judaism, led by Lithuanian leader Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, are joining the protest against the evacuation of graves from the Andromeda Hill construction site in Jaffa.

The rabbis are calling upon their followers to demonstrate against the ongoing work on the site.

"An obscenity has been committed in Israel," claimed the rabbis. "Woe to us that this has occurred in our time. Woe to our ears for hearing thus."

In a statement signed by the rabbis that was published Wednesday in the newspaper Yated Ne'eman, they wrote, "We are informing of the Torah view that this is completely forbidden and grave. No man should dare lay his hand on this cemetery for the sake of disinterring bones. It is forbidden to every son of Israel to lend a hand and aid this grave transgression in any way. We express our horror and vehement protest against this horrific and terrible crime."

It should be noted that various rabbis and representatives from religious communities other than the Eda Haredit have arrived on the construction site to protest. However, this is the first time that a public statement is being issued by mainstream haredi rabbis on the matter, thus making their addition to the fight official.

The rabbis reminded the public that 15 years ago "Israel's greats fought bravely" against the desecration of graves on the site, just as the haredim today are asking, "Don't be complacent about such horrific acts."

The authors of the statement wrote against the situation in which "the laborers for Torah who arrive at the site are being cruelly driven away and sent to detention."

In order to increase motivation to join the struggle, the rabbis wrote that when Israel's oppressors showed their faces in times past, all of Israel was shaken and stood in prayer and supplications to God so that the harsh verdict of reality be overturned.