The Racist Chief Rabbi of Safed Shmuel Eliyahu in Charge of Morality and Ethics at Israel's Magen David Adom

Qualifications?  Eliyahu Called for Murder of 1 million Palestinians and for Palestinian Children to be Hanged in Revenge

Who can possibly say that the Israeli state and its leaders don’t possess a sense of humour?  After all how else can  you describe the decision to put the Chief Rabbi of Safed, Shmuel Eliyahu, in charge of the supervision of morals, ethics and gender relations in Israel’s equivalent of the Red Cross, the Magen David Adom.  Or maybe Eliyahu had gotten the measure of the organisation.

Shmuel Eliyahu is the son of former Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel, Mordechai Eliyahu, who is also no slouch when it comes to the mass murder of Palestinians

Below is an article from Ha’aretz about how Eliyahu was prepared  to call for the murder of one million Arabs if the people of Gaza dare retaliate against Israeli air strikes.

The MDA should be treaded with the same respect as the collaborating German Red Cross was.

It is noticeable that the Musawa spokesperson contrasts the treatment of people like Eliyahu and their calls for genocide and child killing with their treatment of Sheik Raed Salah who was prosecuted for things he didn't even say, but which were considered 'anti-Semitic'.  Perhaps our own far-Right Zionist Community Security Trust might bring themselves to condemn such instances of Israeli racism?

Tony Greenstein

Eliyahu advocates carpet bombing Gaza

By MATTHEW WAGNER
05/30/2007 21:24

Says there is no moral prohibition against killing civilians to save Jews.

Eliyahu advocates carpet bombing Gaza Photo: Courtesy

Like  Father Like Son

 All civilians living in Gaza are collectively guilty for Kassam attacks on Sderot, former Sephardi chief rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu has written in a letter to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Eliyahu ruled that there was absolutely no moral prohibition against the indiscriminate killing of civilians during a potential massive military offensive on Gaza aimed at stopping the rocket launchings.

The letter, published in Olam Katan [Small World], a weekly pamphlet to be distributed in synagogues nationwide this Friday, cited the biblical story of the Shechem massacre (Genesis 34) and Maimonides' commentary (Laws of Kings 9, 14) on the story as proof texts for his legal decision.

According to Jewish war ethics, wrote Eliyahu, an entire city holds collective responsibility for the immoral behavior of individuals. In Gaza, the entire populace is responsible because they do nothing to stop the firing of Kassam rockets. The former chief rabbi also said it was forbidden to risk the lives of Jews in Sderot or the lives of IDF soldiers for fear of injuring or killing Palestinian noncombatants living in Gaza. Eliyahu could not be reached for an interview.

However, Eliyahu's son, Shmuel Eliyahu, who is chief rabbi of Safed, said his father opposed a ground troop incursion into Gaza that would endanger IDF soldiers. Rather, he advocated carpet bombing the general area from which the Kassams were launched, regardless of the price in Palestinian life. "If they don't stop after we kill 100, then we must kill a thousand," said Shmuel Eliyahu. "And if they do not stop after 1,000 then we must kill 10,000. If they still don't stop we must kill 100,000, even a million. Whatever it takes to make them stop." In the letter, Eliyahu quoted from Psalms. "I will pursue my enemies and apprehend them and I will not desist until I have eradicated them." Eliyahu wrote that "This is a message to all leaders of the Jewish people not to be compassionate with those who shoot [rockets] at civilians in their houses."

Safed chief rabbi calls on state to exact 'revenge' against Arabs

Right group urges censure of Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu for calls to 'hang children of Mercaz Harav gunman from tree.'

By Jack Khoury, Nadav Shragai, Yoav Stern and Haaretz Correspondents | Mar.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."