Yaffa Rabbi: ‘According to Jewish law, all Gaza residents must be killed’

The head of the Shirat Moshe Hesder Yeshiva in Yaffa, Rabbi Eliyahu Mali, incited his students, who are serving in the Israeli army after graduating from the yeshivah, to commit massacres against the residents of Gaza. He stated that according to Jewish law, all residents of Gaza must be killed. When asked about the elderly and children, he replied: “The same applies to them.”

According to reports by Ynet News on Friday, the rabbi’s statements came during a conference held in the Yeshivah yesterday and focused on dealing with the civilian population in Gaza during the war.

Mali described the war waged by Israel on Gaza as a “religious war”. He said: “The basic law in a religious war, and in this case in Gaza, is that ‘you shall not leave alive anything that breathes’ (Deuteronomy), and if you do not kill them, they will kill you. Today’s saboteurs are the children in the previous military operation whom you kept alive and the women are the ones who produce the saboteurs.”

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He added: “It is either you or them. No soul can live on the basis of: ‘If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first’ (Babylonian Talmud). This applies not only to the 14- or 16-year-old boy, or the 20- or 30-year-old man who points a gun at you, but also to the future generation. This also applies to those who produce the future generation as well, because in reality there is no difference.”

In response to a question about the killing of elderly people in Gaza, Mali claimed: “There is a difference between a civilian population elsewhere and a civilian population in Gaza. In Gaza, according to estimates, 95-98 per cent want to annihilate us.”

When asked, “Children too?”, the rabbi replied: “It’s the same thing. You can’t embellish with the Torah. Today, he’s a child, tomorrow he’s a fighter. There are no questions here. Today’s terrorists were 8-year-old children in the previous military operation. So, you cannot stop there. Therefore, the ruling concerning Gaza is different.”

This rabbi indicated at the beginning of his speech: “Since this is a sensitive issue, and they informed me that it would be published on the Internet, I want to keep it brief and say in conclusion that only the Israeli army’s decrees should be implemented.”

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