Yitzhar rabbi nabbed for sedition, incitement
Rabbi Yosef Paley, who teaches in West Bank settlement yeshiva, wrote article 3 years ago endorsing Arab genocide. ‘We must strive not to leave the conquered population under our rule... If they escape, all the better, but if they don’t escape kill every male,’ he wrote
Samaria Police arrested Rabbi Yosef Paley of the settlement of Yitzhar early Tuesday on suspicion of incitement and sedition.
Judea and Samaria central unit police detectives presented the rabbi with an injunction obligating him to accompany them to the police station after he failed to comply with multiple police summons.
The rabbi, who teaches at the West Bank settlement’s Od Yosef Hai yeshiva, showed no resistance to the arrest.
Incitement to violence
Police were investigating charges that Rabbi Paley committed incitement and sedition in an article he wrote of the Lehava journal in 2003.
Under the headline “Ways of war,” the rabbi wrote: “If so, the main mitzvah is not to leave the conquered population in the area we conquer. The fleeing should flee, and those that don’t should be killed. Every male over the age of 13 (and thus demolish the national existence)…”
“So we must strive not to leave under our rule the conquered population after it is defeated. If they escape, all the better. And if they don’t escape kill every male, or at least act towards their migration to other countries,” he wrote.
Rabbi Paley has never been convicted for alleged disturbances of the peace or violence, but the allegations against him this time are for incitement to violence.
Head of the Yitzhar yeshiva, Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira, refused to comment on the arrest.
House arrest violation
Also Tuesday police arrested Hanoch Alber from the settlement of Ahiya for the violation of house arrest orders issued by OC Central Command Yair Naveh out of concern he would disrupt IDF forces evacuating illegal outposts in the West Bank.
Alber was handed a restriction order not to enter the West Bank, but since no alternate residence was found for him, Naveh agreed to amend the order to house arrest.
According to police claims, Alber violated the order numerous times. He was arrested in the Ramat Gan area and transferred to the Judea and Samaria police headquarters for questioning.
