Rabbi Menachem Froman

This was originally posted at BuJ Al Arab and I thought it would be a good idea to share it here.


I hate the Daily Telegraph.

They publish pictures of Iraq as if it was Ireland. They are quite out of touch with anything South of Dover. They appeal to people who eat Fish wrapped with their paper.

I was bored today at work, but in our kitchen we sometimes have the Telegraph, and I read this article which is quite fascinating and should be re-published especially amongst the Arab and Muslim worlds. click here for article.

Below you shall find a few select paragraphs, but I strongly recommend reading the whole article:

"On a windswept hilltop in the middle of the West Bank, long-bearded, quick-to-laugh Rabbi Menachem Froman is preparing to desert the state of Israel."

And it continues..

"He will do it even though it was on the craggy hills outside his house in Tekoa that Rabbi Froman says his father once had a vision of Abraham leading Isaac to sacrifice.

Yet Rabbi Froman will not be moving an inch. Rather Tekoa, and Israel with it, will be leaving him.

This week it became clear that Tekoa, an isolated settlement south of Jerusalem, will almost certainly be abandoned by the state of Israel if - as is likely - the acting prime minister, Ehud Olmert, wins the general election on March 28."

This is the same prince of a man that said that he will finalise Israel's borders by 2010. We know this includes Al-Furat (Ephrates) but will you get to the Nile in four years?
Anyway, the story continues..

"This came as no surprise to Rabbi Froman. "I know that they plan to dismantle Tekoa, just like they did Gaza," he said, referring to Mr Sharon's forced evacuation of 8,000 settlers from the Gaza Strip last summer.

"But what matters is the holiness of this land. I prefer to live here in a future Palestine than leave to live in an Israeli state."

Tekoa's outlook is indeed grim. Mr Sharon may lie comatose in a Jerusalem hospital after a huge stroke in January, but earlier this week his political successors detailed a plan to evacuate thousands more Israeli settlers from swathes of the West Bank, should they win the election."

Very interesting stuff coming from a Rabbi.... anyways back to the article:

"I am one of the founders of the settler movement," he said, strapping a tiny prayer scroll to his forehead. "But you can't claim to love the earth and not the people [Palestinians] living there."

So Rabbi Froman has spent more than 20 years getting to know his neighbours. Both the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and assassinated Hamas chief Ahmed Yassin were "friends" whom he met several times.

"I had deep connections with Arafat," he said. "I visited Yassin in jail."

So here's an Israeli and a Jew that believes in human rights. Give this guy a medal. Make him known. Where is the media?

OK, so neither Arafat or Sheikh Yassin were angels, but at least this man stands for dialogue, and that is a good thing.

Visit this page for more information about Rabbi Froman.

There is no better words to end this than with the Rabbi's own words:

"I prefer to live on the land, not in the state - to live on the land of Israel, not in the state of Israel, and I can do that if I follow the essence of my belief that I must love my neighbours, and the Palestinians are my neighbours."