News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) Reform rabbi Arik Asherman, head of the leftist group “Rabbis for Human Rights,” has been arrested after taking part in a protest against archeological digs in the Mei Shiloah (Silwan) neighborhood of Jerusalem.  Leftist and Arab protestors clashed with members of the Elad organization, which they blamed for the digs and for the recent destruction of illegal Arab structures in the area.

Asherman was accused of encouraging local Arabs to refuse police orders, and of preventing the timely evacuation of a wounded Jewish resident of the neighborhood who was injured in the clashes.  He was arrested after refusing to sign a document promising to stay away from the neighborhood for the next two weeks.

Rabbis for Human Rights condemned the arrest, and accused police of undermining “efforts to expose the unfair treatment and violations of human rights in the Palestinian territories.”