Israeli rabbi: ‘It would have been good if Arabs ruled here’

Rabbi Dov Lando, leader of Israel’s Lithuanian Haredi community, made controversial remarks on Monday about Zionism and the establishment of Israel state, saying that “it would have been good if Arabs ruled here”.

Israel’s Channel 12 reported on Monday evening that Lando said it would have been possible to live peacefully with Arabs without a state.

The channel said it had obtained rare footage of Lando during the war, although it did not specify when it was recorded. The footage was filmed at his home in Bnei Brak, central Israel, during a discussion with a small group of rabbis about the crisis over the military conscription of Haredi Jews.

“I don’t know what would have happened if there had not been a state in the first place. If a government under the United Nations had been established here, the situation would have been excellent,” he said.

“It would have been possible to live peacefully with the Arabs without a state, and it would have been good if Arabs ruled here as well,” he added.

On Zionism’s hostility towards the Arab world, Lando said: “They made the Arabs hate us and brought material disasters, not just spiritual ones, upon the people of Israel. Never in history have the Arabs hated [us] this much.”

Regarding the conscription of Haredi Jews into the Israeli military, Lando said: “The fighters are killed because their rabbis teach them a distorted Torah. They also carry out many acts not for salvation, but for the honour of the state.”

Haredi Jews make up about 13 per cent of Israel’s population of more than 10 million. They oppose military service on the grounds that they should devote themselves to studying the Torah, arguing that integration into secular society threatens their religious identity.