PALESTINE: This is Zionism: Hang Their Children From a Tree! - Palestinian Pundit

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This is Zionism: Hang Their Children From a Tree!
Safed chief rabbi calls on state to exact 'revenge' against Arabs
Nadav Shragai, Jack Khoury, and Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondents ,
via Palestinian Pundit

March 26, 2008

The chief rabbi of Safed, Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, is calling on the
government to carry out "state-sanctioned revenge" against Arabs in
order to, in his words, restore Israel's deterrence.

The Musawa Center for Arab Rights in Israel said it planned to urge
the Attorney General to censure Eliyahu over the comments and punish
him "at the fullest severity of the law."

In a piece penned for this upcoming weekend's edition of the
newsletter "Eretz Yisrael Shelanu," Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu wrote: "It's
time to call the child by its name: Revenge, revenge, revenge. We
mustn't forget. We have to take horrible revenge for the terrorist
attack at Mercaz Harav yeshiva," referring to the incident in which
eight students were killed earlier this month.

"I'm not talking about individual people in particular, I'm talking
about the state," Eliyahu wrote. "[The state] has to pain them to the
point where they scream 'Enough,' to the point where they fall flat on
their face and scream 'help.' Not for the sake of satisfying the need
for revenge but for the purposes of deterrence."

In the newsletter, which was distributed to synagogues around the
country, Eliyahu proposes "hanging the children of the terrorist who
carried out the attack in the Mercaz Harav yeshiva from a tree."

"Two weeks have passed since the attack and we haven't heard of any
retaliatory operations by Israel," the Safed chief rabbi wrote.
"Something is amiss among the decision makers at the top. At one time,
this was a basic component of Israel's policy. Every operation by the
'fedayeen' - the prior name used to describe terrorists - would bring
a painful response. Today, they have forgotten the meaning of
'deterrence force'. The IDF's capacity for deterrence is gone."

The rabbi added that he "already sees all the bleeding hearts clicking
their tongues, moving uncomfortably in their chairs, contorting their
faces at this display of 'depravity' and beginning to spout their
slogans. 'Barbaric.' 'Amoral.' 'Inciter' and the rest of the usual
words that are frequently blurted out from their mouths. Don't pay
them any mind. With their way of doing things, there won't be a state
here in another 30 years. They've already taken the trouble to arrange
foreign passports for their children. We'll stay here. We need to live
with those who understand very well the language of revenge."

Activists at Musawa pointed to prior statements in which the rabbi
made statements which were viewed as problematic by the Arab
community.

"This isn't the first time the rabbi from Safed incites against
Arabs," a Musawa spokesperson said. "In 2004, Eliyahu gave a radio
interview in which he called on homeowners neither to rent out their
homes nor sell their homes to Arabs."

The activist also accused the attorney general of being too selective
in enforcing laws against expressions of racism and incitement.

"Whenever Mazuz receives a complaint about an instance of incitement
and racism, he defends the freedom of expression for the Jewish
inciters while, on the other hand, hands down an indictment against
[the head of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement] Sheikh Ra'ad
Salah," the activist said. "Calls to torture and take revenge against
Arabs are incitement to racism and violence, and we expect the justice
system to act and crack down on the phenomena that lead to violence."

The head of Young Meretz, Uri Zachi, urged Mazuz to investigate the
rabbi and to prohibit the disseminating of the newsletter "Eretz
Yisrael Shelanu."

Officials in the Reform Movement also issued harsh condemnations in
response to Eliyahu's statements.

"Jewish history is rife with extremists whose fanaticism brought
disasters upon the nation while sullying its moral character," Rabbi
Gilad Kariv said. "It would be best if the concept of revenge, as
opposed to the concept of deterrence, would be a foreign one to the
state of Israel as a democratic state of law and as the state of the
Jewish people. Rabbi Eliyahu's comments are further proof of the
attorney general's serious error in deciding to retract an indictment
against Rabbi Eliyahu for incitement to racism in exchange for a shady
apology."