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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Dozens of Israeli rabbis endorse bombing hospitals if 'enemies' present</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">By Aina J Khan - November 1, 2023<br></div>
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<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div><p>Dozens
of Israeli rabbis have signed a letter addressed to Benjamin Netanyahu
and senior Israeli defence officials, stating that there is no
prohibition in halakha, or Jewish religious law, to bomb hospitals where
enemies are using the civilian population as human shields, if prior
warning to evacuate is given.</p>
<p>"We strengthen with all our hearts the hands of the soldiers and
ministers to fight bravely with courage and wisdom the war of God and to
win," the letter said in Hebrew, <a href="https://www.now14.co.il/%D7%94%D7%A8%D7%91%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%9C%D7%A0%D7%AA%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%94%D7%95-%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%AA%D7%A8-%D7%9C%D7%94%D7%A4%D7%A6%D7%99%D7%A5-%D7%91%D7%99%D7%AA-%D7%97%D7%95%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%9D/" target="_blank">according to Israel's Channel 14.</a></p>
<p>"From the great break and the terrible pain, we will rise and be
strengthened with God's help," the rabbis wrote. "The nation of Israel
will rise up bravely to strike at its enemies, as David, the King of
Israel said, 'I will pursue my enemies and destroy them, and I will not
return until they are finished'."</p>
<p>Israel has relentlessly bombed the besieged Gaza Strip since 7
October, after Palestinian fighters launched an unprecedented attack in
southern Israel during which 1,400 were killed and at least 220 people
were taken hostage.</p>
<p>At least 8,805 people in Gaza have been killed since the war broke
out, including 3,650 children and 2,252 women, according to the
Palestinian Ministry of Health. </p>
<p>The rabbis also said that prior warning needed to be given to the
population and that responsibility for civilian deaths lay "with the
murderers who are hiding behind them", <a href="https://www.now14.co.il/%D7%94%D7%A8%D7%91%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%9C%D7%A0%D7%AA%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%94%D7%95-%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%AA%D7%A8-%D7%9C%D7%94%D7%A4%D7%A6%D7%99%D7%A5-%D7%91%D7%99%D7%AA-%D7%97%D7%95%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%9D/" target="_blank">according to Israel's Channel 14.</a></p>
<p>A copy of the letter was shared on the <a href="https://t.me/amitsegal/28714" target="_blank">official Telegram account</a> of Amit Segal, a right-wing Israeli journalist, on 30 October.</p>
<p>Its publication came days after Israeli spokesman Daniel Hagari
claimed at a news conference that Hamas had “turned hospitals into
command and control centres and hideouts for Hamas terrorists and
commanders”.</p>
<p>On Friday, Hamas political official, Ezzat El-Reshiq, denied allegations that the group was using <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2023/10/27/palestinian-family-taking-shelter-at-al-shifa-hospital" target="_blank">al-Shifa hospital</a> as a shield for its underground military infrastructure, according to <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/27/hamas-rejects-israeli-claim-over-installations-under-al-shifa-hospital" target="_blank">Al Jazeera English. </a></p>
<p>Several co-signatories of the letter are prominent right-wing rabbis with a long history of questionable views.</p>
<h3>Who are some of the rabbis?</h3>
<p>One of the more prominent signatories of the letter is <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-rabbi-dov-lior-killing-innocent-palestinians" target="_blank">Dov Lior</a>, a right-wing rabbi and the spiritual leader for the entire far-right <a href="https://imeu.org/article/sharif-s.-elmusa-poet-and-environme/" target="_blank">Religious Zionism coalition</a>, which includes <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-far-right-religious-zionism-party-new-knesset-members" target="_blank">Religious Zionism</a>, Jewish Power and Noam. He's also the spiritual guide and ally of far-right politician, <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-ben-gvir-police-minister-coalition-deal-likud" target="_blank">Itamar Ben-Gvir</a>.</p>
<p>Lior has consistently supported the construction of illegal
settlements on Palestinian territories and does not recognise the right
of Palestinians to own land.</p>
<p>From 1987 to 2014, Lior was the rabbi of the illegal Israeli settlement, Kiryat Arba, within the occupied city of Hebron.</p>
<p>In 1994, one of his disciples, Baruch Goldstein, infamously shot and
murdered 29 Palestinians in the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron. Lior <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/2011-07-01/ty-article/a-racist-messianic-rabbi-is-the-ruler-of-israel/0000017f-db38-d3a5-af7f-fbbe7ebe0000" target="_blank">described</a> Goldstein afterwards as “holier than all the martyrs of the Holocaust”.</p>
<p>In 2011, Lior also expressed written support for the book, <em>The King’s Torah</em>,
a racist and genocidal book written by rabbis Yitzhak Shapira and Yosef
Elitzur, which endorsed the killing of non-Jewish babies who would
supposedly pose a risk to Jews.</p>
<p>In July 2014, during a previous Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, Lior issued a “psak halacha” (a religious ruling), <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/2014-07-24/ty-article/.premium/rabbi-says-israel-may-destroy-gaza/0000017f-dc76-df9c-a17f-fe7e9c610000" target="_blank">permitting</a> the
destruction of the entire Gaza Strip, and relieving Israeli soldiers
from the obligation to distinguish between combatants and
non-combatants. He also said blocking supplies or electricity, as is
currently being done by Israel in Gaza, is permitted. </p>
<p>"It's okay to kill innocent civilians and destroy Gaza," he <a href="https://www.jewworldorder.org/israeli-rabbi-its-okay-to-kill-innocent-civilians-and-destroy-gaza/" target="_blank">said</a>.</p>
<p>The Israeli paper Haaretz ran an <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2013-11-05/ty-article/.premium/as-dark-descends-admit-it-destroyers-arising/0000017f-e9cb-d62c-a1ff-fdfb76120000?lts=1698861150752" target="_blank">article</a> in 2013 saying, "If Rabbi Dov Lior were Muslim, Israel would probably have assassinated him".</p>
<h3>Rabbi Zvi Yisrael Tau</h3>
<p>Zvi Yisrael Tau, 86, is the head of the influential Har Hamor Yeshiva
in Jerusalem as well as the spiritual leader of the anti-LGBTQ Noam
political party. </p>
<p>While Tau has said in the past that Palestinians have deep
"historical" roots, he has also said that the Philistines, the ancient
name of the Palestinians, "were not meant to be, there is no place for
them from the outset", according to an article published by the <a href="https://www.hartman.org.il/philistines-and-the-future-of-zionism-the-redemptive-scenario-of-rabbi-zvi-tau/" target="_blank">Shalom Hartman Institute</a> - a Jewish research and education institute based in Jerusalem. </p>
<p>On the question of Jewish sovereignty over the land of Israel, Tau
has also said that Israel’s military battles are "wars for the
establishment of our kingdom, for establishing our might and national
courage", according to the institute. </p>
<p>Tau was embroiled in controversy last year when several women came
forward claiming he had sexually assaulted them, according to the <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/rape-accusations-painted-outside-home-of-rabbi-zvi-tau-who-is-suspected-of-assault/" target="_blank">Times of Israel</a>. He has also described the LGBTQ+ community as a "crime against humanity", according to <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-08-07/ty-article/.premium/influential-rabbi-calls-on-followers-to-forget-politeness-and-fight-lgbtq-community/00000189-cf1a-ddac-a3cd-ef7bad7e0000" target="_blank">Haaretz</a>.</p>
<h3>Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsburgh</h3>
<p>Born in the United States in 1944, Yitzhak <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israeli-ministers-attending-award-ceremony-jewish-rabbi-praised-hebron-massacre-1994" target="_blank">Ginsburgh</a> made a name in Israel as a prominent authority in Jewish Torah and mysticism.</p>
<p>In 1994, he wrote a pamphlet praising Dov Lior's disciple, Baruch
Goldstein, the American doctor who killed 29 Palestinians during the
holy month of Ramadan inside Hebron's Ibrahimi Mosque as they were
performing the dawn prayer.</p>
<p>Goldstein was part of the notorious Rabbi Meir Kahane's Kach party, which has been outlawed in Israel and designated as a <a href="https://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/other/des/123085.htm" target="_blank">terrorist</a> organisation by the US State Department.</p>
<p>Kahane, who was killed by a gunman in New York in 1990, preached that
only Jews should be able to live freely in Israel and encouraged
violence against the country's critics.</p>
<p>Ginsburgh also endorsed and co-authored some chapters of <em>The King’s Torah,</em>
with Yitzhak Shapira, a right-wing settler and rabbi. The book purports
to outline the “legal contexts” in which Jews can kill non-Jews.</p>
<p>In one part, the book says killing non-Jewish babies is permitted,
“if there is a good chance they will grow up to be like their evil
parents”, the Times of Israel has <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/ministers-to-honor-rabbi-who-praised-hebron-massacre-perpetrator/" target="_blank">reported</a>.</p>
<p>The controversial rabbi sparked criticism in 2019 when Israel's
former education minister, Rafi Peretz, and Bezalel Smotrich, now
Israel's finance minister, agreed to speak at an award ceremony <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israeli-ministers-attending-award-ceremony-jewish-rabbi-praised-hebron-massacre-1994" target="_blank">celebrating</a> the right-wing rabbi.</p>
<h3>Rabbi Meir Mazuz</h3>
<p>Known for his controversial views, Meir Mazuz is the senior Israeli
Sephardi Haredi rabbinic figure, head of the Tunisian Jewish community,
and spiritual leader of the Shas Party. He recently <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-734093" target="_blank">praised</a> Baruch
Goldstein during a Shabbat lecture as someone who "prevented a very
great danger" by massacring 29 Palestinian worshipers in Hebron's Cave
of the Patriarchs in 1994, <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-734093" target="_blank">The Jersualem Post said</a>, quoting Israeli news outlet, Walla.</p>
<p>Referring to the Palestinian worshippers killed at the time, Mazuz
said that the worshipers "hid axes, guns, knives under the prayer
rugs... [but] thanks to this Jew, the danger was avoided".</p>
<p>In the past, Mazuz has also <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-itamar-ben-gvir-five-moments-most-outrageous" target="_blank">faced criticism</a>
for comments he made stating Jews from the former Soviet Union and
Reform Jews were nonbelievers who were destroying Judaism. In the past,
he has also blamed pride parades for the coronavirus outbreak, according
to <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/rabbi-mazuz-blames-pride-parades-for-coronavirus-outbreak-620285" target="_blank">The Jerusalem Post</a>. </p>
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