Two residents of the northern Israeli city of Tzfat were arrested by
police on Sunday for posting racist anti-Arab campaign posters that
police first thought called for the murder of the city’s mayor, Ilan
Shochat.
2 Arrested For Posting Racist Campaign Posters Allegedly Calling For Mayor’s Murder
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
Two residents of the northern Israeli city of Tzfat were arrested by police on Sunday for posting racist anti-Arab campaign posters that police first thought called for the murder of the city’s mayor, Ilan Shochat.
Before 1948, Tzfat was a heavily Arab city and today it has many Arab citizens. It also has a recent history of anti-Arab racism promoted by the city’s racist chief rabbi, Shmuel Eliyahu. The racism has not been triggered by Arab violence. Instead, it has been triggered primarily by Arab-Jewish sexual relationships and marriages.
The arrested men believe Shochat is responsible for bringing more Arabs into the city.
The campaign posters say that “a united Tzfat will select a trustworthy mayor, one who is above reproach and one whose main goal in office and in this world will be יתגדל ויתקדש שמיה רבא.” Yeshiva World reported. The last four words, yitgadal v’yitkadash shemay rabba, are the opening four words of the Kaddish prayer said for the dead. The words literally mean “May [God’s] great name be made even bigger and holier [in the world at large].” This call to sanctify and enhance God’s standing, combined with its exclusive use in the Kaddish prayer, the call to remove the mayor and the fact that acts of zealotry and martyrdom are described in similar terms in rabbinic literature together lead police to believe the posters are meant as incitement to murder the mayor.
However, intervention from one of the city’s chief rabbis (left unnamed by Yeshiva World) and the right wing Honenu organization’s attorney Adi Kedar reportedly persuaded police that the signs were not meant as incitement to murder.