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.
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"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."
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