The home of radical Rabbi Yosef Elitzur – the co-head of Od Yosef Chai, a radical yeshiva in the West Bank founded and still headed by radical Chabad Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburg – was searched by police today after Elitzur and others were apparently linked to anti-Arab and anti-IDF and police attacks.
Rabbi Yosef Elitzur in handcuffs after an arrest in 2010
Police Search Home Of Radical West Bank Rabbi Linked To Chabad
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
Police searched the home of Rabbi Yosef Elitzur in the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar today, the Jerusalem Post reported based on a report on Army Radio.
Elitzur is the co-head of Od Yosef Hai, a radical yeshiva in Yitzhar founded and still headed by Chabad Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburg.
Elitzur and another Od Yosef Hai rosh yeshiva, Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira, wrote the notorious racist book Torat HaMelech (The King’s Torah) which called for the murder of Arab infants in times of war because “they will grow up to hate us [if we don’t murder them now].” The book’s authors define war to include Israel’s present political situation. The book is based on the teachings of Ginsburg.
Yitzhar is the arguably the most radicalized of all West Bank settlements. Its residents are overwhelmingly followers of Ginsburg and/or the late Rabbi Meir Kahane. Yitzhar residents are thought to be responsible for many anti-Arab and anti-IDF arson and vandalism attacks that have taken place in the West bank over the past several years.
Yitzhar residents also rioted earlier this month, attacking police and IDF soldiers while ransacking an IDF post earlier this month.
It is this riot that reportedly sparked today’s search of Elitzur’s home.
Police reportedly seized a computer during the search. Elitzur was reportedly not home during it.
In a statement, the Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva called the search "ridiculous" and claimed it was "another attempt by the regime to silence and intimidate, but the Torah cannot be silenced."
On April 11 the IDF and border police seized the Od Yosef Hai Yeshiva building as a response to the attack by Yitzhar residents and yeshiva students on the IDF outpost and other anti-IDF and anti-police attacks.
The IDF said at the time that the yeshiva building had been used by the settlers as a base from which to attack Palestinian villages and Israeli security forces.
In 2011, Israel's Internal Security Service (known as Shabak or the Shin Bet) urged the government to stop funding Od Yosef Hai due to its links to anti-Arab violence and terrorism. The government continued to fund Od Yosef Chai anyway.
Also in 2011, the IDF's GOC Central Command Avi Mizrahi said on Israel's Channel 2's Meet the Press program that the Od Yosef Hai Yeshiva should be shut down becuase Od Yosef Hai's leaders hold views that are not “consistent with democracy.”
Ginsburg holds no official position within Chabad, but is very popular among rank-and-file Chabad hasidim – especially Chabad messianists.
Ginsburg wrote a book, Baruch HaGever, in praise of Baruch Goldstein, who massacred dozens of Palestinians as they prayed in the Ibrahim Mosque in the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron on Purim 20 years ago.
That book was widely distributed among Chabad hasidim, West Bank settlers, and followers of Kahane.