International Rescuers Awards to Atefa Ghaffoury and Ta’ayush

The International Rescuers’ Day ceremony is an opportunity to recognize those who are fighting for a better world. Held outdoors in the Garden of Rescuers next to the Spiritual Center on March 10, this year’s awards went to one individual: Afghani journalist Atefa Ghaffoury, and an organization: Ta’ayush. The annual event in the village corresponds to "The European Day of the Righteous" (March 6).

The event was hosted by Prof. Yair Auron, and it began with opening remarks and a musical performance by the Wahat al Salam/Neve Shalom primary school choir.

Atefa Ghaffoury was born during the first Taliban regime and fled her country during the second. In that short time – just 31 years – she managed to attain a career that is still frowned upon for women and to report, honestly and clearly, about the atrocities she witnessed and those she experienced. “We cannot recognize the Taliban or support their government,” she wrote after fleeing. “My people are dying from hunger and illiteracy. My friends and colleagues are in hiding, changing houses weekly. Executions take place far from the spotlight of the state-run media.”

From the girl who was allowed to go to school – but warned to hide her schoolbooks under her burka – Atefa managed to get a journalism degree and work in her profession in Herat, Afghanistan. Despite threats from the Taliban for her public anti-fundamentalist opinions, she led a group for journalist safety and attempted to save 60 women.

When the Taliban returned, Ghaffoury fled with her five-year-old son in her arms, taking three months to finally make it out. She made it all the way to the European Parliament in Brussels, where she told her story and testified about the horrors she faced, and that others still face daily in a country that has collapsed.

Ta’ayush ("shared life" in Arabic) is an organization of Arabs and Jews, Palestinians and Israelis, working to “tear down walls.” Some of those walls are physical – concrete, barbed wire, jail cells and metal gates guarded by soldiers. Others are less tangible, but no less real – quarantine and separation, racism and the fortress mentality of the Israeli state.

Founded in 2000 by a group of Arabs and Jews, Ta’ayush is an organization dedicated to true cooperation, non-violence, justice and peace. The organization members accompany farmers and herders in the West Bank and Gaza who cannot access their land and fields due to the occupation, settler provocation and violence, vandalism and property destruction, and the destruction of infrastructure. Among other things, Ta’ayush members document these events and publicize them, creating international public pressure against the occupation.