HaGaon HaRav Dov Landau on Sunday evening instructed the Degel HaTorah members to vote against the death penalty bill for terrorists, which will be brought on Monday for a vote in the Knesset plenum.
The bill is being advanced by the Otzma Yehudit party, with the support of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
HaRav Landau stated, “There is a concern of ‘rodef’ because if the Arabs around the world see that we’re doing such a thing, it could cause bloodshed. In any case, there is no chance that a court would approve the death penalty, and therefore this is provocation for its own sake.”
Agudas Yisrael MKs are expected to absent themselves from the vote. It is still unclear how the Shas party will act regarding the bill.
As is known, the Rishon LeTzion, HaGaon HaRav Yitzchak Yosef, previously spoke out against legislating a death penalty for terrorists, saying, “Beginning from the verdict until the execution—what an uproar there will be in the world. The Jews in France, in Spain, and in all places will be in danger. And how much benefit is there in it anyway? All security officials say there is not much gain. That is why the great Chachamim were always against this law. It is not about left or right.”
HaRav Yosef was also opposed to the bill due to potential halachic issues, expressing concern that the Supreme Court could decide that the bill also applies to Jewish terrorists—such as Amiram Ben-Uliel, who was indicted for the deaths of three Arabs in Duma—saying that only the Sanhedrin has the power to sentence a Jew to death.
The report about the Degal HaTorah party’s intention to vote against the bill elicited angry responses from Otzma Yehudit chairman Itamar Ben-Gvir and the Choosing Life Forum, a right-wing organization which represents hundreds of families of fallen IDF soldiers and victims of terror attacks.
(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)
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13 Responses
They have a good point. And when have the srugim every been on the side of charedim in anything, all they do is bad mouth them to the media all day long. So now screw their lawmaking
Really working on my emunas chachomim rn….
You know what else the security experts say? that they need 12,000 more soldiers to man all the very active borders we have.. food for thought..
Obviously it’s a political move, only an idiot would think such a big Rabbi doesn’t approve a death sentence for a terrorist. But there’s a bigger agenda here
Its all based on the rebbe zy”a (satmar) since we’re not allowed to rule over a country we’re not allowed to put terrorists on trial therefore we cant give them a punishment. and btw it makes sense for the same reason. The 3 shvuos are here to protect us from unnecessary harm in galus but what can we do a bunch of low lives thought they can outsmart chazal. oy lanu ki chatanu… (we’re still paying the price)
Vote against?
Or abstain?
Makes a difference…
By this logic, the IDF should never kill any Arab terrorists because “if the Arabs around the world see that we’re doing such a thing, it could cause bloodshed”.
Editor, please do not post comments which denigrate our Gedolim! למען כבוד שמים, please exercise your powers and don’t post then.
They go through all that effort to get past the sign-in process just to be מזלזל. Don’t be מסייע them לדבר עבירה
Almost every country has the death penalty for terrorist, how would any country make an uproar if Terrorists in Israel get the death penalty? and if there was a question of RODEF, why would it matter if the court doesn’t allow death penalties?
I don’t know what information the people around Hagoan Hagodol Rav Landau Shlita
Are feeding him… we have seen these false statements with the covid shots, claiming it was a real vaccine, when it wasn’t….
I suspect this is more about politics, trying to pressure the government to pass a Giyus law for the Yeshiva world
@RebEmes. How dare you lump everyone together and be malshin a whole segment of Klal Yisrael. There are tons of “srugim” who hold Torah learners in the highest esteem. Somehow that has not seem to have been reciprocated with the slightest bit of hakaras hatov, that they are dying to protect everyone in Eretz Yisroel.
>>>There is a concern of ‘rodef’ because if the Arabs around the world see that we’re doing such a thing, it could cause bloodshed.
Anyone who would kill Israelis because they have the death penalty for murderers would kill them even without such a law, Djibouti (did you ever hear of it?) is the only Arab country in the world that does not have the death penalty.
>>> In any case, there is no chance that a court would approve the death penalty, and therefore this is provocation for its own sake.
There are many countries that have the death penalty on the books but no court would ever approve it. Among the reasons they keep it on the books is because it’s mere existence and the theoretical possibility of it’s use is believed to be a deterrent to murder.
Just imagine if Israel had the death penalty. Imagine how many lives would have been saved had people like Sinwar received the death penalty instead of being around to be released in the next terrorist exchange. I don’t see Rabbi Landua even addressing that point. Which is from the main impetuses behind Ben Gvir proposing the death penalty for such people.
I’m glad the YWN idiot commenters are smarter than Gedolei Yisroel shlita and know when to tell them they’re wrong.
Everyone knows the terrorist Supreme Court won’t let their friends be killed for committing terrorism, any law they don’t like gets thrown out like a tissue. As usual the same instigators like when Trump was there they tried to have their stupid symbolic West Bank annexation just to piss him off, these are not our friends it’s enough with bengvirs stupidity already