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Revision as of 22:08, 22 May 2008
Menachem Froman | |
|---|---|
| File:Menachem froman.jpg | |
| Born | 1945 |
| Nationality | Israel |
| Occupation(s) | Rabbi, Educator, Negotiator |
| Known for | interfaith dialogue, including with PLO and Hamas members |
| Website | http://www.jerusalempeacemakers.org/froman/index.html Profile by Jerusalem Peacemakers |
Rabbi Menachem Froman (Hebrew: מנחם פרומן born in the Galilee in 1945), also Menahem Froman, is an Ashkenazi Orthodox rabbi serving as the chief rabbi of Tekoa settlement in the West Bank. He is known for promoting and leading interfaith dialogue between Israeli Jews and Palestinians, focusing on finding religious common ground between Israelis and the religious Muslims. Froman succeeded in drafting a ceasefire agreement with Hamas, known as the Froman-Amayreh Accord, that was endorsed by the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip.
Career
Froman, a former Israel Defence Forces paratrooper who took part in the 1967 capture of the Western Wall, was a student at the Mercaz haRav and Yeshivat HaKotel yeshivas. He was a founder of the Gush Emunim settlement movement. He obtained rabbinical ordination from Rabbis Shlomo Goren and Avraham Shapira and then became the rabbi of Kibbutz Migdal Oz. He has taught at several yeshivas including Ateret Cohanim and Machon Meir, and is currently a lecturer at the Tekoa Yeshiva and Otniel hesder Yeshiva.
Interfaith meetings and dialogue
Froman has long been involved in interfaith dialogue between Jews and Muslims, and has participated in informal negotiations with many Palestinian leaders. In his opinion, peacemaking efforts between Israel and the Palestinians must include the religious sectors of both societies. For many years, Froman conducted meetings with controversial Palestinian leaders, including with the late PLO Chairman and President of Palestinian National Authority Yasser Arafat, and the late Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmad Yassin. [1]. In addition, he has met and conducted negotiations with current Hamas leaders Mahmoud al-Zahar and Hamas's Minister for Jerusalem Affairs Sheikh Mahmoud Abu Tir with the goal of drafting a ceasefire agreement that will end the killings in Gaza and the West Bank, end the hermetic blockade and lift the economic sanctions imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip. Since the election of the Hamas government in Gaza, Rabbi Froman stepped up his efforts to organize meetings between Israeli and Palestinian religious leaders.
Froman-Amayreh Accord
In February 2008, Rabbi Froman reached an agreement with a Hamas journalist for an Israeli-Hamas ceasefire in Gaza. Senior Hamas officials have endorsed the proposal. The Israeli government, however, has not responded to this initiative. [2]
Froman drafted the agreement with Khaled Amayreh, a Hebron-area journalist who is close to Hamas. The drafted cease-fire agreement includes the release of abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, and was submitted to the Israeli cabinet and to the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip. According to Amayreh, the proposal was presented to the highest political echelon in the Hamas government in Gaza and gained 100-percent approval. The document was presented to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who never responded to it.[2]
The agreement calls for Israel to lift its sanctions on the Gaza Strip, permit economic relations between Gaza and the outside world and open all border crossings. The Israel Defense Forces would end "all hostile activities toward the Gaza Strip, including targeted assassinations, the setting of ambushes, aerial bombardments and all penetrations into Gazan territory, in addition to ending the arrest, detention and persecution of Palestinians in the Strip."[2]
The Palestinians would be obligated "to take all the necessary steps to completely end the attacks against Israel," including stopping "indefinitely all rocket attacks on Israel," assaults "on Israeli civilians and soldiers" and "to impose a cease-fire on all groups, factions and individuals operating in the Strip."[2]
Froman and Amayreh say that even if the attempt turns out to be merely an academic exercise, its elements could be used by the Jerusalem and Gaza governments. It does not, for example, include the recognition by Hamas of the State of Israel, instead "recognizing that there are Jews living in the Holy Land," according to Froman, thus overcoming an obstacle that has been a deal-breaker for a long time.
As of May 2008, the Israeli government has yet to respond or comment on the Froman-Amayreh Accord. From the official Israeli response to President Jimmy Carter's negotiations with Hamas leaders in Egypt and Syria during April 2008, it does not seem likely the Israeli government will endorse the Froman-Amayreh Accord in the near future. According to Jewish reporter and commentator Richard Silverstein, "To paraphrase Abba Eban, Israelis and Palestinians never seem to miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. This time the onus is on Olmert." [3]
Effects of ignoring religion in the peace process
Rabbi Froman laments the current violence in Israel and the Palestinian Territories, and lays partial blame for the failure of the Oslo Accords on the tendency of Israeli and Palestinian secular negotiators to ignore and marginalize religion and religious leaders in the peace process:
Ahmad Yassin told me about the Oslo Accords that they were an agreement between our heretics and your heretics to subdue religion. The Oslo Accords collapsed because the PLO could not control the other forces. Hamas has the power to enforce agreements to end violence. Even Arafat could not control and enforce agreements on murederous units in his organization and in Hamas. But if Hamas has a strong enough interest for a ceasefire, they can enforce it. It's not easy, because in the Palestinian society there are many groups and resistence committees, and also plain underworld figures. But if there will be a coalition with the PLO and Hamas to achieve a ceasefire, the chances of ending the shooting of Qassam rockets on Sderot are much larger. Our primary goal should be achieving a ceasefire, and to reach that goal the politicans need to negotiate with politicans, and the rabbis negotiate with the religious leaders.[4]
Jerusaelm - a shared capital
Rabbi Froman supports making Jerusalem the religious capital of all three monotheistic faiths. In November 1999, he participated in a conference with dozens of international religious leaders including the Dalai Lama. [5]
Coexistence under Palestinian sovereignty
Froman opposes the forced eviction of Jewish settlers from their homes in the settlements in the West Bank and advocates that the State of Israel can withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza yet leave the settlements and Israeli/Jewish residents in place under Palestinian sovereignty.[6] He claims that if Israel withdraws from Tekoa and most residents leave, he will nonetheless stay because of his love of the Land of Israel:
"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."[7]
He was a strong opponent of Israel's unilateral disengagement plan. In August 2005, prior to its implementation, he moved with his family to Ganei Tal in Gush Katif in order to show support for the residents being evicted.[8]
References
- ^ ""Sheikh Yassin, Rabbi Menachem Froman to meet"". (www.arabicnews.com, October 9 1997)
- ^ a b c d Ettinger, Yair (2008-02-04). "W. Bank rabbi, Palestinian reporter present PM, Hamas draft truce". Haaretz. Retrieved 2008-05-21.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Silverstein, Richard (2008-02-04). "Settler Rabbi, Hamas Journalist Propose Gaza Ceasefire". israelenews.com. Retrieved 2008-05-21.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Ettinger, Yair (2006-06-26). "Let Me Talk to Hamas". Haaretz. Retrieved 2008-05-21.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ ""Religious leaders meet in Israel, urge peace""., by Elaine Ruth Fletcher (World Tibet Network News , November 28 1999)
- ^ ""Next in line""., by Meron Rapoport (Haaretz, March 30 2006)
- ^ ""Rabbi Froman will not be moving an inch""., by Harry de Quetteville (The Daily Telegraph, March 8 2006)
- ^ ""Ganei Tal / For Rabbi Froman, God was `in the computer.' But is he in Ganei Tal?""., by Yoav Stern (Haaretz, August 2005)