Israeli rabbi says politicians cooperating with Arab parties can be killed

Rabbi Gedalya Axelrod, a former head of the Haifa Rabbinical Court, has issued a handwritten ruling saying Jewish party leaders who support a government backed by Arab parties could be treated under a religious doctrine that permits lethal force. His statement frames political cooperation as a threat to Jewish people and matters because it invokes a doctrine previously used to justify the 1995 assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

The doctrine, din rodef, or “law of the pursuer”, applies to someone considered a threat to another person’s life and allows them to be stopped by any means necessary. Axelrod said collaboration with Arab parties posed a “terrible danger” to Jewish people in Israel and around the world. The article does not detail any response from the politicians or parties targeted by the ruling.