Israeli Settler Rabbi Authors Guidelines on Killing Gentiles

Published yesterday (updated) 09/11/2009 23:36

Bethlehem - Ma'an -

Jews have the right to kill non-Jews in just about any circumstance, Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira, the head of a religious school in the illegal settlement of Yitzhar, near Nablus.

"If we kill a gentile who has sinned or has violated one of the seven commandments... there is nothing wrong with the murder," Shapira wrote, according to Hebrew-language Israeli newspaper Maariv.

In his new book, The King's Torah, Shapira, who heads the Od Yosef Chai yeshiva, justifies the slaying of "non-Jews who demand the land for themselves," and for, among other transgressions, "hostile blasphemy."

"Those who, by speech, weaken our sovereignty" deserve to die, the book explains. "It is permissible... even if they are not responsible for the threatening situation."

According to Maariv, the book is a manifesto, "230 pages, no less, on the laws of the killing of gentiles, a guide to deciding whether and when it is permissible to take the life of non-Jews."

Shapira and his followers began selling the guide at Saturday's memorial in Jerusalem for Rabbi Meir Kahane, the Israeli Knesset member who urged the mass expulsion of Palestinians from Israel and the territories.

According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Shapira based the majority of his teachings on passages quoted from the Bible, to which he added his opinions and beliefs. Several prominent rabbis have recommended the book to their students and followers, the newspaper reported on Monday.

Shapira's book includes a chapter entitled, "Intentional Harm to Innocent People." The book explains it is permissible to kill civilians in other nations if the population "helps a murderer of Jews... Any case in which the life of the civilian endangers Israel - it is allowed to kill a gentile."

"The permit also applies when the persecutor is threatening to kill indirectly rather than directly," Shapira ruled. "If the civilian is aiding fighters it is permissibl