Israeli police said this week they were searching for a Jewish man who is accused of assaulting a leader of the Rabbis for Human Rights organization near Nablus on Oct. 23.
The man, described as a right-wing Jewish-Israeli activist in the Jerusalem Post, allegedly lunged at Rabbi Arik Ascherman while holding a knife. The alleged assailant has not been named.
Ascherman, who was not injured, is a U.S.-born Reform rabbi who lived for a time in Berkeley. He was the director of U.C. Davis Hillel for two years and then served as spiritual leader of Temple Beth Hillel in Richmond for three years. He moved to Israel in 1994 to serve as co-director of Rabbis for Human Rights.
Ascherman was helping Palestinians harvest olives near the settlement of Itamar, not far from the West Bank city of Nablus, according to a spokesman for the group.
“The activist ran toward him [Ascherman] in a threatening way with a drawn knife,” a spokesman for Rabbis for Human Rights said.
A spokesman for the Judea and Samaria district of the Israel Police said that Ascherman and other Israeli left-wing activists remained in the grove after Palestinian farmers had finished their work there. An altercation broke out between the left-wing and right-wing activists, the police said. — jta