- Rabbi in Hebron Says Annihilation of Non- Jews Acceptable
-
- OCCUPIED JERUSALEM - A prominent
Israeli rabbi with thousands of followers said during a Sabbath homily
in the settlement in Kiryat Arba'a Saturday that halacha, or Jewish religious
law, "essentially supported the annihilation of non-Jews in Israel."
-
- The rabbi, Rav Leor, said most rabbinic authorities "of
the past and the present accepted the opinion that the lives of non-Jews
don't enjoy the same sanctity as the lives of Jews."
-
- "Hashmadat goyem" (the extermination of non-Jews),
he said, was an established principle in Jewish theology.
-
- The rabbi is affiliated with the messianic Jewish movement
known as Gush Emunim which is represented in the Israeli Knesset by seven
Knesset members.
-
- The movement is represented in the Israeli government
by Minister without portfolio Ed Eifam of the National Religious Party
(NRP).
-
- In 1994, Rav Leor supported the mass murder of scores
of Arab worshipers by a fellow Jewish settler, Baruch Goldstein, an American
Jewish immigrant from New York.
-
- He referred to Goldstein as "a great rabbi and saint."
-
- First Published Saturday, November 16, 2002
|
