Menachem Froman
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| Rabbi Menachem Froman | |
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| Born | 1945 Galilee, Israel |
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| Residence | Israel |
| Nationality | Israel |
| Occupation | Rabbi, Educator, Negotiator |
| Known for | interfaith dialogue, including with PLO and Hamas members |
| Religious beliefs | Jewish |
| Website http://www.jerusalempeacemakers.org/froman/index.html Profile by Jerusalem Peacemakers |
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Rabbi Menachem Froman, also Menahem or Fruman (Hebrew: מנחם פרומן born 1945 in the Galilee), is an Ashkenazi Orthodox rabbi and a peacemaker and negotiator with close ties to Palestinian religious leaders from the PLO and Hamas. A founding member of the settler movement Gush Emunim, he serves today as the chief rabbi of Tekoa in the West Bank. He is well-known for promoting and leading interfaith dialogue between Israeli Jews and Palestinians, focusing on using religion as a tool and source for recognizing the humanity and dignity of all Palestinians.[1] Together with a Palestinian journalist close to Hamas, Rabbi Froman has drafted a ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, known as the Froman-Amayreh Agreement. The agreement was endorsed by Hamas government but has yet to receive any official response from the Israeli government.[2]
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[edit] 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 among the founders of the Gush Emunim settlement movement and supported the establishment of Jewish settlments in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He obtained rabbinical ordination from Rabbis Shlomo Goren and Avraham Shapira and then became the rabbi of Migdal Oz, a settlement in the Gush Etzion area. 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.
[edit] Interfaith meetings and dialogue
Froman has long been involved in interfaith dialogue between Jews and Muslims, and has participated in informal negotiations with many militant 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. [3]. In a letter sent on January 25, 2005 to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Froman recounted his last conversation with Yasser Arafat:
I remember my last conversation with him, close to his death, when he answered me with emotion: "You are my brother!" and of course it is possible to explain his emotion, that he wanted to tell me, close to his death, that the two nations – the Israelis and the Palestinians – are brothers, that if the fate of one improves so does the fate of its double. The president customarily would thank me for these blessings and would order that these blessings be publicized in the Palestinian newspapers so that the Palestinian nation will know that there are Jewish rabbis who are blessing them with blessings of peace.[4]
Since the election of the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, Rabbi Froman stepped up his efforts to organize meetings between Israeli and Palestinian religious leaders. 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 and lift the blockade imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip.
[edit] Froman-Amayreh Agreement
In February 2008, Rabbi Froman reached an agreement with Khaled Amayreh, a journalist close to Hamas, for an Israeli-Hamas ceasefire in the Gaza Strip that would put an immediate end to all Palestinian attacks against Israeli civilians or soldiers, facilitate the release of abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, and end the Israeli siege of the Gaza Strip. Senior Hamas officials have endorsed the agreement. The Israeli government, however, has not responded to this initiative, effectively rejecting it. [2]
Froman drafted the agreement with Amayreh, after meeting with him over the course of several months. The agreement was finalized and shown to Hamas leaders in Gaza and Hamas leader-in-exile Khaled Meshal who approved of the agreement (see External links section). The agreement was also submitted to the Israeli government but according to Froman, the Israeli government never responded to it.[2] The efforts of Froman and Amayreh to meet with Israeli government officials were rebuffed.
The agreement calls for Israel to lift economic sanctions imposed on the Gaza Strip and open all border crossings. The cease-fire agreement includes the release of abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, and a gradual release of Palestinian prisoners. 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 long been a deal-breaker.
[edit] Israeli refusal to negotiate with Hamas
As of May 2008, the Israeli government has not responded or commented on the Froman-Amayreh Agreement, ignoring the non-sanctioned individual efforts of Rabbi Froman and journalist Amayreh. Rabbi Froman recognizes that his efforts to secure a lasting ceasefire are being undermined by stubborn Israeli refusal to engage in negotiations with Hamas. Citing declarations made to him by Yassin and al-Zahar of their readiness for a cease-fire and negotiations with Israel, Froman has commented:
| “ | The root of the problem is Israeli and American arrogance. If Israeli governments had grasped these opportunities, not only would a great deal of bloodshed been spared and there would be a cease-fire between our two peoples, but there would have been no attack on the World Trade Center, and no American invasion of Iraq.[1] | ” |
[edit] 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.[5]
[edit] Jerusalem - a shared capital
Froman supports making Jerusalem, the current capital of Israel, 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. [6] In his 2005 letter to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Froman cites examples from Jewish tradition of the importance of sharing Jerusalem between all 3 religions and turning it into a city of peace:
- From the difficult experience of the shared history of the two nations – the Israel nation and the Palestinian nation – we can learn one important thing – between two brothers – when one's fate is bad, the fate is also bad of the second. Only when it is good for one, it will be, with God's help, good for its double. Little Jewish children know the famous story (the hadith) of the man who came to the head of the Jewish Sages and asked him to teach him the principle of the Jewish religion while he was standing on one foot (in one sentence). The Sage taught him, "Love your neighbor exactly how you would love yourself...From this hadith, which summarized the main principle of our religion, it's possible to learn that just as Jews have obtained a free and thriving state from Allah the Exalted, respected in the world, and just as we obtained from Allah the Exalted a state with Jerusalem as its capital, our neighbor will also obtain a state with its capital as Jerusalem. If both nations will be fortunate to stone the Cursed Satan who stimulates war and hate, and establish Jerusalem as a capital of peace of Israel and Palestine, there will be, God Willing, Jerusalem the Capital of Peace for the whole world![4]
[edit] 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.[7] 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."[8]
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.[9]
[edit] Personal
Rabbi Froman is married to educator and artist Hadassah Froman, and the couple have 10 children.[10]
[edit] References
- ^ a b Derfner, Larry. "Always look at the bright side", Jerusalem Post, 2006-02-02. Retrieved on 2008-05-21.
- ^ a b c d e Ettinger, Yair. "W. Bank rabbi, Palestinian reporter present PM, Hamas draft truce", Haaretz, 2008-02-04. Retrieved on 2008-05-21.
- ^ "Sheikh Yassin, Rabbi Menachem Froman to meet". (www.arabicnews.com, October 9 1997)
- ^ a b Letter to Abu Mazen. www.jerusalempeacemakers.org (2005-02-25). Retrieved on 2008-05-21.
- ^ Ettinger, Yair. "Let Me Talk to Hamas", Haaretz, 2006-06-26. Retrieved on 2008-05-21.
- ^ "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)
- ^ Wikipedia Hebrew article on Rabbi Froman.
