Extremist rabbi charged with incitement to violence
Rabbi Yosef Elitzur, author of the controversial book The King's Torah, indicted for two opinion articles he wrote in which he justifies civilians 'taking action against the enemy.'
Rabbi Yosef Elitzur, an extremist religious leader from the settlement of Yitzhar, was indicted on Tuesday for incitement to violence in opinion articles he wrote.
Elitzur co-authored a controversial book titled The King's Torah, which details the conditions in which Jews are allowed to kill non-Jews. An investigation against Elitzur over the book was closed in 2012 due to lack of sufficient evidence.
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit decided to indict Elitzur for the allegedly inciting opinion articles he wrote in light of a petition filed by the Reform Movement and NGO Tag Meir to the High Court of Justice against the rabbi, accusing him of incitement to racism and violence.
Elitzur was charged with inciting to violence against Arabs in two opinion articles he published in May 2013 following the murder of Evyatar Borovsky in a terror attack at the Tapuach Junction in the West Bank.
At the time, the rabbi was a senior teacher at the Od Yosef Chai yeshiva in the settlement of Yitzhar and was also teaching teenagers in other education institutions at the Samaria Regional Council. He was also writing a regular column on the Jewish Voice internet site.
According to the indictment, on May 1, 2013, a day after Borovsky's murder, Elitzur published an op-ed titled "Don't despair, just grow," in which he wrote, among other things, "There is a growing and expanding phenomenon of actions taken by warm and caring Jews against the enemy. One can consider these the desperate actions of a public backed into a corner, but those who look closer would see these are the first signs of a growing public that takes responsibility over Jews' security."
On May 28, 2013, as the 30-day mourning period over Borovsky was coming to a close, Elitzur published an op-ed titled "How to 'catch' price tag perpetrators," in which he wrote, "I'm not trying to diminish the talents of the anonymous price tag perpetrators and their operational abilities. And yet, I believe the reason for the security forces' resounding failure in catching those who carry out what they call 'price tag' attacks also has to do—if not mostly—with the variety of statements speakers in the media and the political systems tend to add to discussions on the matter. For example: 'How is it possible security forces are unable to catch the handful of radicals carrying out these heinous acts?'
"These acts, born of warm caring of Jews, are not the aim (even though one can definitely understand such acts in the current climate). At the end of the day, no one wants to live in anarchy. Even if there is a time in which we have to live by the rules of the jungle, we can show the wicked in the world's nations that Jews can play this game too."
