Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu told Israel's Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein that he did not make any of the racist and homophobic statements attributed to him. When Weinstein didn't believe him, Eliyahu responded by justifying those very same comments – the comments he first claimed not to have made.
Zionist Orthodox Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu told Israel's Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein that he did not make any of the racist and homophobic statements attributed to him. When Weinstein didn't believe him, Eliyahu responded by justifying those very same comments – the comments he first claimed not to have made – in part by insisting they were his halakhic rulings and therefore legally exempt from the government's scrutiny.
Israel HaYom reports:
…Last week, [Rabbi Shmuel] Eliyahu approached Weinstein and completely denied having made the various racist comments that were attributed to him.…
Weinstein did not believe him – largely because Eliyahu had written and signed (or written and posted) some of those statements.
So Weinstein sent Eliyahu 13 of those racist statements (here is one of them) and asked him to explain each one.
Eliyahu responded by, in effect, saying all were either taken out of context, were his halakhic (Orthodox Jewish legal) rulings and therefore exempt from any legal scrutiny, or a combination of both.
Weinstein rejected Eliyahu's answers, told him that his candidacy for chief rabbi was inappropriate, and said that if anyone petitions the High Court of Justice to block that candidacy, Weinstein would not be able to defend Eliyahu.
Eliyahu responded by having his close associates attack Weinstein personally and hurl ridiculous unsupported charges that Weinstein had overstepped his legal bounds.
To recap, Eliyahu first lied and denied making the statements he made, and then when pressed, parsed his words very finely and said that he may have said the words, but the words mean something other than their plain meaning or are protected speech because I, Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, say they are my halakhic rulings.
Even so, the right wing of the Zionist Orthodox movement, including Naftali Bennett's HaBayit HaYehudi Party, still supports his candidacy. And that, I think, is another in a long line of reasons why so many Israelis want nothing to do with any of them.