Rabbi calls for ‘horrible revenge’ against Arabs

An influential rabbi in Israel is to be reported to the country’s legal authorities for inciting racial hatred by calling publicly for "a horrible revenge" against Palestinians. He has demanded retaliation for the murders of eight Jewish seminary students by a lone Palestinian gunman earlier this month.

Shmuel Eliyahu (right) says the children of the terrorist who carried out the attack should "hang from a high tree" and he is urging the Israeli authorities to inflict such harsh punishment on the Arabs "that they will fall flat on their faces and scream 'Enough'."

Writing in a newsletter that will be distributed to synagogues across Israel this weekend, Eliyahu also denounces 'bleeding heart' Israelis who refuse to accept that Palestinians "understand very well the language of revenge." Two weeks have passed since the seminary killings, he complains, yet there has been no retribution by the government. "Something is amiss among the decision takers at the top [who] have forgotten the meaning of 'deterrent force'."

In a swift response to Eliyahu's diatribe, the Musawa Centre for Arab Rights, which campaigns on behalf of Israeli Arabs, said it would be urging Israel's Attorney General to punish him "to the fullest severity of the law".

Its spokesman pointed out that "this is not the first time the rabbi for Safed [a holy city for Jews] incites against the Arabs". The spokesman claimed that the authorities have been reluctant to enforce the law against Jewish extremists like Eliyahu who advocate violence.

Three years ago, the rabbi was investigated for criminal incitement but no legal action was ever taken against him.

The son of a former Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel, Eliyahu is well known for expressing highly controversial opinions: he once observed that it was no coincidence the Holocaust began in Germany because "wherever Jews try to act like Gentiles, they are punished".

He is characteristically unrepentant about his latest outburst, telling the Associated Press: "I don't apologise for anything and stand behind everything I wrote."

Yet with tensions still running high in the aftermath of the seminary attack, his outburst could further inflame the communal hatred that saw hundreds of religious students demonstrating to chants of "Kill the Arabs".

A subsequent attempt to march on the home of the gunman, who was shot dead by an Israeli marksman, was broken up by riot police.

A fellow rabbi, Gilad Kavi, has pulled no punches in condemning Eliyahu's intemperate remarks, noting that "Jewish history is rife with extremists whose fanaticism brought disasters upon the nation while sullying its moral character." ·