Dov Lior, Kiryat Arba's chief rabbi and a leader of the West Bank’s most radical Jewish settlers, called for collective punishment against “rioters” he blames for the deaths of Hillel Palmer and his one-year-old son Yonatan, who were killed Friday in car accident settlers believe and the army suspect was caused by Palestinians throwing stones.
Rabbi Dov Lior
West Bank Rabbi Calls For Collective Punishment
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedeMessiah.com
Dov Lior, Kiryat Arba's chief rabbi and a leader of the West Bank’s most radical Jewish settlers, called for collective punishment against “rioters” he blames for the deaths of Hillel Palmer and his one-year-old son Yonatan, who were killed Friday in car accident settlers believe and the army suspect was caused by Palestinians throwing stones.
According to the Jerusalem Post, Lior said “There are murderous rioters around us. According to the Torah, there is a need for collective punishment, and the IDF must carry this out against the rioters. The are no innocent people in war.’
The IDF does not know the names of each rioter or which rioters participated in the stone throwing and the names of those who did not, which means, Lior is advocating indiscriminate retaliation against all Palestinian males of a certain age group and geographic location.
Lior has previously been detained by police for questioning on charges of incitement to violent racism over his endorsement of the racist book Torat HaMelech, published by students of Rabbi Yitzchok Ginsburg, a prominent Chabad follower who has himself been in trouble with the law over similar charges – including a book he wrote praising Baruch Goldstein, who massacred dozens of Arabs while they prayed at the Ibrahim Mosque in the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron.