Education Snapshot: Student field work combats racism against Arabs over the Internet
6 March 2014
The students of the Beit Midrash for Human Rights at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, run by Rabbis for Human Rights, volunteer with various organizations that support social change. The field work of Alejandro Suschin, a student at the Beit Midrash, is a powerful example of how Judaism and human rights can fight together against racism and the segregation of Jews and Arabs.
Last week at the Beit Midrash for Human Rights we raised the question of human rights in the public sphere. To start the discussion off, we asked: what is the public sphere? While I was convinced that the answers given would be connected only to physical spaces, to streets and city squares, the Internet was raised as a place which can be defined as the public sphere. Next, an argument ensued between various voices concerning whether everything that gets uploaded to the Internet is considered in the public domain. And how about issues of privacy and copyright? Does all this take freedom of expression to an extreme or is it actually an opportunity to exercise freedom of speech to its fullest? Folks are faced with these and other questions every day.
But the question that I sought to focus on after we defined the public sphere was whose rights are being protected and whose are being trampled on in the public sphere? If the entire Internet is a sphere, it is difficult to determine the boundaries of personal space, shared space, family space and public space when the nature of the Internet is that even seemingly private spaces are breached.
All students at the Beit Midrash for Human Rights are involved in field work with organizations supporting social change. Alejandro Suschin (pictured above), a graduate student in the Hebrew language at the Hebrew University, focuses on the protection of human rights online with the Israel Religious Action Center. Attorney Ruth Carmi of the organization says of Alejandro’s work:
“The Israel Religious Action Center has worked for a number of years to eliminate racism from Israeli society, including eliminating racism propagated by rabbis and public figures in the name of Judaism. In recent months we have identified that the Internet is one of the major spheres in which a severe incitement campaign against the Arab public in Israel is being conducted, with Facebook as the primary concern. Since this is a dynamic space in which content is constantly changing, there was a need for someone to go through the various websites and pages and map out the things that are uploaded which incite racism and/or violence. This is Alejandro’s work.”
in full: http://rhr.org.il/eng/2014/03/education-snapshot-student-field-work-combats-racism-against-arabs-over-the-internet/
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Working to eliminate racism from any society should be something everyone can and should get behind 
Good to see ya Violet.
