West Bank rabbi says non-Jews can be murdered

Macau News.Net
Thursday 12th November, 2009

A Jewish rabbi from the Israeli-occupied West Bank has endorsed the killing of any non-Jew, including children and babies, who pose a threat to Israel.

In a book written by the prominent right-wing religious figure, Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira, it is suggested: "If a gentile endangers the existence of Israel, it is allowed to kill him. Also if he is completely not to blame for the situation that has been created."

The author has written: "Children should not be exempt from this fate. There is a reasonable explanation for killing infants if it is clear that they will grow up to hurt us, and in this situation, the strike should be directed at them.”

The rabbi has added that non-Jews could also be killed if they violate commandments, such as the prohibition against stealing, murdering or idol-worshipping.

The book includes endorsements from leading Jewish spiritual authorities in the West Bank.

The book, The King’s Torah, is to be published as a general opinion of the more radical settler rabbis living in the West Bank.

According to Jewish activists, the thinking in the book is quite widespread among settlers as a number of them have a deeply racist philosophy against any non-Jews, and especially against Arabs.

Shapira is considered to be a leading spiritual authority among the more radical Jewish inhabitants in the West Bank.

He is the head of an Orthodox Jewish school in Yitzhar, one of the territory’s most hardline settlements, located near Nablus.

The mass-selling Israeli newspaper Maariv has described the book as a deliberation on the permissability of taking the life of someone who is not Jewish.

The book will not be sold in mainstream Israeli bookstores, but the author has offered sales over the Internet.

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