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.
Former Sephardi
chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu. Photo: Courtesy
Slideshow:Pictures of the
week
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."
