Reply To: Capital Punishment

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daniela
Participant

Thank you, oomis, for your flattering words, but I have not been young (much less “very young”) since a long time.

I had already read you attribute the opinions to an Israeli cousin of yours. Two questions remain: why you decided not to challenge his position (possibly you agree with him, if it weren’t for the detail you do not believe it would be a “deterrent”? am I misunderstanding your clarification?) and why you decided to post such a statement in public, in fact, presenting it as an opinion shared by a sizeable number of Jews, including – according to you – some (unnamed) rabbis.

Torah allows killing either in immediate self-defence or, under precise conditions which nowadays it’s questionable if they ever can be fulfilled even for nonjews, within the framework of death penalty. The person condamned to death, gentile or Jew, is executed immediately to minimize their suffering and then the body is treated with the respect which is owed to every human body. I happen to find it very strange that a Rabbi would state something against Torah. Stating that “Jews” would approve, much less suggest, desecrating human remains, sounds to me eerily similar to a blood libel, if I may say.

You are correct however, it is not your cousin’s original idea. Large-scale desecration of deceased Muslims enemies was pioneered by mussolini and graziani in Libya and later adopted by hitler in his north african campaign. They even made sure to hang any enemies who were still alive or who were sentenced to death, before dirtying the deceased with pig’s carcasses, because according to Muslim beliefs, strangulation or hanging prevents the soul from exiting through the throat.