Wednesday, January 29, 2020
Shai Glick, the founder of Btsalmo,
is a really good guy who is working hard for human rights. He’s not just
working hard for the people of Israel, but for the wider world Jewish
community. Yet Glick also believes that his work benefits humanity in general,
as more Muslims are killed by extremists than any other people today. Fighting
against incitement to terror helps these Muslims as much as it helps the Jews.
I decided that someone should
tell the world about Shai Glick and the important almost unknown work of
Btsalmo. But in the end, I decided to let Shai do the talking himself. In long
form. Because I believe in giving a person a platform to say everything he
wants to say about himself. Everything he wants to say to the world.
So here is where I let Shai
step in to give you a bit of background information about himself, followed by
our written question and answer session (with translation help from Sheri Oz of
Israel Diaries):
My name is Shai Glick and I am 32 years old from Beit Shemesh, married
to an amazing woman who supports me in all I do even though I can sometimes be
very irritating, always singing and talking or just issuing public
clarifications.
I am also the father of three children.
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| Shai Glick of Btsalmo |
I was born in Jerusalem to a Haredi family that always was open to help
and host people. I always knew that I needed to protect my people and while I was studying in the American branch of the Mir Yeshiva, imediately following my
wedding, I was drafted into the army and I served in the 8200 Intelligence
Unit.
During my army service I gained expertise in classified intelligence
and truly became familiar with the intelligence situation. During Operation Protective
Edge, I was assigned to intelligence. While in the IDF's underground command
center (the “Bor”) in the Kirya, I was exposed to the fact that there was a hospital
in Gaza (Shifa) from which missiles were launched at us. At the same time, we
were forbidden from responding to the launching site because there were
patients there and I understood that we are the most ethical army in the world,
even more than was necessary.
Our goal at Btsalmo is very, very simple.
Human rights – but true human
rights.
The right for Israeli citizens to live without terrorism.
The right of the Jews to live without antisemitism and boycotts which are,
in fact, Jew-hatred under the guise of freedom of expression – not hatred of
Israelis but hatred of Jews.
The right to live. Our organization helps each and every human being in
every possible domain with emphasis on the fight against incitement, boycotts, and
terrorism.
It’s unacceptable that every time terrorists are arrested, there are
those who speak of their rights while nobody talks about the rights of their
victims. It is insanity, pure and simple.
There are dozens of organizations that speak about the rights of
terrorists and condemn those who challenge those rights (The Public Committee
against Torture in Israel, Hamoked, Amnesty, The Association for Civil Rights
in Israel, Adalah, and more). This is not only true in Israel but around the
globe. Everyone is constantly talking about the rights of terrorists and of
Muslim religious leaders who incite terror. Who is talking about our right not
to be hurt by them? About your right to walk in the street without being
stabbed in the back?
Nobody!
***
Varda Epstein: You have a lot of famous people in your family. Tell us
about your grandfather, your father, uncles. Anything you like about your
family, as far back as you’d like to go. (We’re listening.)
Shai Glick: I was born to a
family with a good heart and with helpfulness in our blood and as I wrote
above, we never ate alone. To this day, I remember breaking the Yom Kippur
fast, everyone returning home hungry, but my mother waited for guests to arrive
and only then did we begin to eat.
The guests were homeless.
Everyone came to us.
This family tradition began
with my great-grandfather, Shlomo Zalman Glick, who always worked for charity
and when he immigrated to Israel he immediately set up a charitable
organization that exists to this day.
My beloved grandfather, Professor Shimon Glick,
always believed in helping others and made the change from being the high
status department director in the United States to living in a “hole” in Beer
Sheva, with the main focus of developing the Negev and helping people.
To this day, my grandfather has
been awarded dozens of prizes for his work. My grandfather has held dozens of
roles, among them, Dean of the Medical School in Beer Sheva and the
introduction of an important dimension to the faculty – the human dimension. It
was not only important to be a quality professional, but to be a good person,
too.
And exactly because of this, my
grandfather fought with all his strength against terrorist hunger strikes and took
charge of this fight on behalf of the government. While most doctors were in
favor of letting terrorists engage in hunger strikes, my grandfather was not. He
understood that their hunger strikes could cause their deaths and lead to
outbreaks of violence. He called for force feeding these terrorists because he
truly understood the meaning of human rights.
By the way, my grandfather
believed in preserving and saving lives and did not agree to such hunger strikes
for any reason because hunger strikes are the opposite of supporting the preservation
and saving of lives.
My father was the rabbi in an
American yeshiva in the Neve Yaakov neighborhood of Jerusalem, and for the
students of his yeshiva, our home was always their home.
Human rights was our way of
life.
One of my uncles, Dr
Yitzchak Glick, is a doctor whose life’s work was saving thousands of lives
every day and his center serves as a hospital for everyone regardless of
ethnicity or origin. He founded a mini-hospital in Efrat that has provided
medical services for tens of thousands of Jews and Palestinian Arabs in the
region.
My uncle is a doctor and a kind
of mukhtar to the entire region. He
delivered the babies of hundreds of Palestinian women and travels freely in all
the villages in the area. To me, that is true peace and co-existence.
Another uncle is Yehudah Glick, who works
day and night to connect people to each other and to bring peace and shed
light. Thank God, more and more people understand that the Temple Mount is a
focus for peace and not terror, thanks to this uncle. At the beginning he was
thought to be crazy, but today everyone understands that he is the one who is
right and spoke wisely the whole time.
My uncle, Yehudah Glick, who
never hurt a fly, was shot and seriously wounded by an Arab he had never met
who had come to him for the express purpose of hurting a Jew. This is the
result of incitement.
A moment before the incident,
the terrorist told my uncle he was sorry, but that he had harmed Al Aqsa (the
mosque on the Temple Mount). Then he shot him.
This terrorist was fed
incitement the same as the murderer of Dafna Meir of Otniel. A 15-year-old
adolescent saw an anti-Israel television program and immediately set out to find
and stab her. During his interrogation, the terrorist admitted that he already
regretted what he had done and confessed that he had been overwhelmed by the
propaganda he saw on his television screen.
The same was true of the four
15-year-olds who threw rocks and murdered Alexander Leibovitz in Armon Hanatziv
during Rosh Hashana. In their interrogation, they admitted that they had just
emerged from a lecture in Um el Fahm given by the inciteful sheikh Raed Salah.
The sheikh had filled them with the passionate belief that they had to protect
the Al Aqsa Mosque from Jewish vandals. Right after the lecture they went out
and murdered Leibovitz. They also expressed remorse for this but it was, of
course, too late.
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| Shai Glick at a coexistence event |
Varda Epstein: Elder of Ziyon wrote about a recent achievement of Btsalmo that impacted Israel’s official high school curriculum for cinema. Can you tell us about that, please?
Shai Glick: It was the case in
which I was exposed to the fact that whoever dreams about the destruction of
Israel in fact teaches this idea, or more accurately, their terrorist propaganda
films are taught in school. For me, the most important battle in our generation
is the battle against terrorism.
Terror does not begin with the
terrorist but with an atmosphere that leads to murder. Therefore, anyone who
fans the flames, in my opinion, is the cause of death and terrorism and murder
and must be arrested and put away for life. Certainly we should not teach our
youth about him, or teach students about his writings or films.
What I did is simple. I turned
to the Minister of Education and made him aware of all the writings of that
Palestinian that call for our extermination. And he immediately removed the
film from the list of educational films to be shown in schools.
I acted in a similar fashion
regarding the play about the terrorist Walid Daka who viciously murdered the
soldier Moshe Tamam. The play was called “A Parallel Time” and it was to be
performed at Al-Midan in Haifa. The play appeared on the list of cultural
activities for Israeli children and exposed them to the violent murderer who, under
direct orders, killed an Israeli soldier who had been bound and restrained.
This is a war crime.
I did the same regarding a play
called “The Admission” that was supposed to be performed in Jaffa. I contacted
the Minister of Education, Naftali Bennett. The play argues that Israel is
guilty of the false “Nakba” the Arab word for “Disaster,” which they use to
describe the founding of the State of Israel. Both these plays were removed
from the list of cultural events for school pupils.
I actually succeeded in closing
Al-Midan Theatre entirely. The place disappeared into the trash bin of history.
Jaffa Theatre, unfortunately, is still open in spite of the fact that it serves
as a stage for incitement to terror and the boycotting of the Jewish State. The
theatre participated in the past in the international Apartheid Week events of
the BDS movement and continually hosts events calling for a boycott in
conjunction with organizations such as Amnesty International, the Women’s
Coalition for Peace, and more.
 |
| Demonstrating for the cancellation of the screening of the film, Born in Deir Yassin. The film argues that a massacre was carried out against women and children by Etzel and Lehi soldiers. Because of the pressure Btsalmo brought to bear, the film received no prize and was not entered in the Oscars. |
Varda Epstein: Haaretz accuses you of “silencing the left,” and the truth is, they make you sound a bissel meshuga, a little crazy. Is shutting down a poetry reading by Dareen Tatour, for instance, shutting down free speech? Do you regret the article? How would you respond, if you could? (Here’s your chance!)
Shai Glick: As I have already
said, incitement and antisemitism are the biggest danger in the world and they
hide, today, in a variety of disguises, for example, in films and programs,
poems, Facebook, and on YouTube. For that reason, I fight them.
The battlefield today is not
within the boundaries we have known in the past, but hidden in plain sight on YouTube
and in films. The incitement we find there causes murder, and it is against
that, which I fight.
I am proud to censor calls for
murder that are framed within poetry, art and culture. In the end, they call
for murder, period. In the past few years I have caused dozens of events to be
cancelled, events that incite against Israeli soldiers and Israeli citizens. I
have had festivals cancelled. I have caused the closure of a variety of venues.
And I have made sure that many people will be investigated and imprisoned for
incitement and I am proud of that. In my opinion, this is lifesaving. (A
partial list of closures I am responsible for includes the Barbur Art Gallery, the
Negev Co-Existence Forum, the Acco Festival, Al-Midan Theatre, along with many
performances and terror-supporting events.)
Varda Epstein: Btsalmo has been working on pushing forward the
demolition of the homes of Rina Shnerb’s murderers. Doesn’t the IDF order the
demolition of a terrorist’s house automatically in the case of murder? I know
the terrorists’ families always appeal and the courts delay, but usually it
goes through, right? (Of course, they let the families take out the fixtures
and stuff first and then they only fill a single room—the terrorist’s
bedroom—with cement. Then the PA rebuilds. Right? I mean, is it even a
deterrent, such demolitions??)
Shai Glick: Terrorists do not
wake up one morning to commit murder. There is an entire system behind them
that causes them to do so. A large part of this system includes the family
members who encourage and support terror along with the sheikhs and other
religious leaders.
It is not a secret that many
would be terrorists are apprehensive about what will happen to their families
after a terror event. When they know that their families will be evicted from
their homes, their homes destroyed, and that they will only suffer, the terror
attack can often be prevented and lives saved.
Therefore, in spite of the fact
that, unfortunately, in the terrorist’s house there are infants who are not
guilty of the acts of their fathers, the terrorist’s environment must be
destroyed in order to prevent all payment connected with the attack and all
potential glorification of the terrorist by the presence of a mourning tent to
which masses of people can come, something that can inspire other young people
to follow in the footsteps of the terrorist.
There is a reason why
terrorists fight to have their houses remain standing.
To this day, there have been
hundreds of cases that, because of this fear, the terrorists did not carry out
an attack or family members turned the potential terrorist in to the Israeli
army before the attack, thus saving lives.
The demolition of a terrorist’s
home prevents terror attacks and therefore the equation is simple: demolition
of the house equals human rights.
I believe in human rights and
because of that I understand that we must totally destroy and punish the
terrorist in order that all of us may live! The terrorists must be afraid and
deterred and that is the only consideration, the only equation.
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| Shai in front of the Kfar Saba courthouse where he sued Breaking the Silence for libel |
Varda Epstein: Tell us about the Israeli flag-flying issue with the Beit HaGefen Arab-Jewish Center in Haifa. What did Btsalmo do there? Should we be forcing unpatriotic people to be patriotic? Or is this about something else?
Shai Glick: We must remember
one simple thing: those who are hurt most in the world by terror are not the
Jews and not the Christians but the Muslims. It is simply insane how many
Muslims are murdered. The killing has reached the millions in Syria, Yemen, Libya,
Nigeria, Iran, Gaza and dozens of other places. Most Muslims are against terror
but they have no power to change the situation. Anyone who voices opposition is
killed. And unfortunately, most of the human rights organization silence the moderate
Muslims. At Btsalmo, we work to strengthen the moderates and understand that
victory will only be achieved when the moderates gain the upper hand over the
extremists. We are working to integrate the moderates within Israeli society.
The fight to have the Israeli
flag flying over Bet Hagefen, an Arab cultural center in Haifa, is based on the
simple assertion that the Arabs are part of Israel. Yes, they are part of
Israel and we must integrate them and give them the strength to fight the
global war against extremism in the world. Because that is the truth: the
extremists are not acting in the name of religion but in the name of murder and
insanity. They kill their wives and sisters in the context of family honor or
whatever they feel at the moment. They are murderers and not religious people.
Period.
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| Lecturing on human right for members of the Film and Television Council |
Shai Glick: Heba Yazbak is an
excellent example of an antisemite in disguise and false human rights. She is a
member of the Knesset but in actuality she supports terror, for example the
brutal killing of women, children and infants. She does not care about simple
people but about killers. And therefore she has to be in prison and not in the
Knesset.
Btsalmo represents the families
of the victims of the murderer Samir Kuntar, the Hezbollah terrorist who
committed a vicious act of murder years ago. Yazbak supports this very murderer
and glorifies him. Yes, the same killer of women and children.
And we approached the Attorney
General and the Elections Committee in order to have Yazbak’s candidacy
cancelled and to have her investigated for criminal charges involving her
support of terror. We hope that just as right-wing
candidates were denied the right to run because of things they have said that
were far less inflammatory than what she has said, that these bodies will deem
Yazbak unsuitable to run in the next elections.
We have not yet received an
official response but we know that the topic is under discussion at the highest
levels and we believe that we will be successful.
Varda Epstein: Btsalmo was working on getting an anti-Israel activist banned
from speaking at the site of a former concentration camp. Tell us about that.
Also, can you tell us why this is something we need to fight?
Shai Glick: As I have said, the
world today is full of disguises. One such disguise is “freedom of expression.”
In the name of freedom of expression, Hitler would have had a free hand to
incite and call for the Final Solution and to put on exhibitions together with Goebbels,
his Propaganda Minister and he would have been protected in the name of freedom
of expression in arts and culture. For that reason, I understand that we must
fight boycotts, antisemitism, and hate because that is just like incitement to
murder and therefore I fight it in every place where it raises its head, in
every exhibit of antisemitism and boycott around the world, because that is
what will cause the next Holocaust. That is today’s battle and we must
understand it and raise the resources needed to fight.
 |
| Shai with Tuvia Tenenbom |
Varda Epstein: What’s next for Shai Glick?
Shai Glick: My dream is to be like
the New Israel Fund, but totally opposite. To found a national and
international legal unit that will protect the rights of Jews everywhere, in
Israel and the entire world, and that will give strength to moderate Arabs and
encourage initiatives on their part and that will raise the voice of human
rights around the world.
Unfortunately, that is
extremely expensive and would require enormous resources. All the organizations
operating opposite to the way Btsalmo anticipates operating, have hundreds of
funders and governments, such as the European Union, Norway, Switzerland,
Germany and more. There is no government that supports true human rights as
Btsalmo understands them and far fewer sources of funding. But I believe that
we will succeed and in another ten years the term “human rights” will mean
human rights for all people but not for terrorists.
I will make a difference in
this world. From Israel will emerge the understanding that human rights is the
fight against terror!
That will be a global
revolution.
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| Shai Glick of Btsalmo |
UPDATE: Within 12 hours of the publication of this interview, the Jewish Press announced that a Knesset committee had banned Heba Yazbak from running as a candidate in Israel's upcoming election. Another human rights victory for Shai Glick and Btsalmo, who represented Ron Keren, brother of terror victim Danny Haran in the battle to disqualify Yazbak's candidacy.
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Read more Judean Rose
interviews:
A
Father Speaks Out: The Murder of Malki Roth and the Refusal of Jordan to
Extradite the Beast Ahlam Tamimi (Arnold Roth)
