The High Court of Justice has ruled that the government must discipline Rabbi of Safed Shmuel Eliyahu for incitement over a series of comments the court called racist.
Justice Alex Stein, who wrote the ruling, characterized Eliyahu's comments as "threats, incitement, hateful."
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As an example, Stein quoted Eliyahu saying that "We need to try and kill anyone who raises his hand against a Jew. And he doesn't even have to kill [a Jew], only strike him or want him dead … soldier, police, and civilians have an obligation to take them out. Not 'neutralize' them or 'get them under control,' but remove them from the world."
In another case, Eliyahu, discussing the Palestinians, said, "What do we do about these wild urges about the Temple Mount … there is no one more exploitative than they are … They are given money, and they spit in your face."
Eliyahu also said in a video clip that "Wherever they [Palestinians] see Jews, they kill."
Stein said that remarks of this kind did not fall under the prerogative granted to publicly-employed rabbis, because they included "contempt and incitement that are not in line with the Torah or Jewish law."
In addition to Eliyahu's comments about Palestinians, he has also made public remarks of a political nature that violate the rules that obligate civil servants.
Referring to Yamina leader Naftali Bennett, Eliyahu said, "He has zero spine when it comes to matters of Judaism. He cannot serve as head of Habayit Hayehudi."
According to Stein, "The damage from a civil servant's crude criticism of the government's policy and system is double. First, such criticism includes a grain of anarchy. Second, public and crude criticism voiced by a civil servant against government institutions damages the public's faith in civil service."
Eliyahu said in response to the decision to have him disciplined: "This is a political court. If we were talking about freedom of speech for their people, there would be no problem showing a guillotine or the prime minister being hanged. If we're talking about rabbis or religious peope, they bend the law to eradicate this basic right. We won't stop talking. We won't stop telling the truth."
Reactions to the court's ruling came quickly.
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Leader of the National Union Party MK Bezalel Smotrich said, "In a functioning world, Chief Justice [Esther] Hayut and the High Court justices would have been disciplined dozens of times for perverting Israeli law for political purposes.
"Once again, a ruling designed only to silence people, a city rabbi, a great scholar, and a public leader is being put on trial for his opinions," Smotrich said.
The right-wing Zionist movement Im Tirzu said, "Senior legal officials, and High Court justices most of all, are in the midst of a campaign to silence anyone who wants to see Israel as the national state of the Jewish people."
LGBTQ groups and left-wing organizations, however, welcomed the court's decision.
The anti-racism group Tag Meir, which was a signatory to the petition demanding disciplinary measures for Eliyahu, said, "Rabbi Eliyahu has consistently incited against courts, leftists, Arabs, the gay community, while providing support for the radical right and the 'hilltop youth.' Today, the High Court has waved a red card at Rabbi Eliyahu and all the other rabbis who incite."
Women of the Wall said, "Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu has never missed any opportunity to criticize anyone who does not share his narrow, isolationist, and exclusionary worldview. The rabbi has also made remarks about Women of the Wall, and called on an extremist group to continue recruiting people to come to the Wall for one purpose: to disrupt the Women of the Wall from praying at the Western Wall.
"We hope the decision to try Rabbi Eliyahu will deter other extremists from continuing to incide against entire sectors and individuals," Women of the Wall said.
