The spotlight has also fallen on Israel’s religious leaders. Rabbi Eliyahu Mali attracted attention after he gave a talk in March at a conference for Israel’s Zionist yeshivas – Jewish religious schools with a strong belief in the State of Israel. Rabbi Mali is the head of a yeshiva that is part of a network that receives funding from Israel‘s Ministry of Defence. Its students mix Torah study with military service.
He described the talk as being about the “treatment of the civilian population in Gaza during the war”.
A clip of it was shared online. After citing a 12th Century Jewish scholar on holy wars, Rabbi Mali said: “[And if so] the basic rule that we have when we are fighting a mitzvah war, in this case Gaza, according to the scriptures, ‘You shall not let a soul remain alive,’ the explanation is very clear – if you don’t kill them, they will kill you.”
In Judaism, a mitzvah war is one which includes defending Jewish life and sovereignty and is considered obligatory as opposed to one of choice.
We contacted Rabbi Mali and a response, sent on his behalf, said that his words had been “grossly misrepresented by excerpts being taken out of context”.
It said that he had set out what the position was in ancient times but that he had “made it very clear that anyone following the Biblical commandment today would be causing the army and the nation extreme harm” and that under national law “it is forbidden to harm the civilian population from a child to an old man”.
We watched the full talk and on a few occasions he reminded the audience of those points, including in the conclusion, and also saying at the start: “You need to do exactly what the army orders say.”
However, during the talk, he specifically mentioned the people of Gaza saying: “I think there is a difference between the civilian population in other places and the civilian population in Gaza,” adding an unsubstantiated claim that “95% to 98% are interested in our demise, that’s a majority, that’s stupefying.”
When an audience member asked about babies he replied: ”The same… The Torah is saying: ‘You shall not let a soul remain alive’… Today he’s a baby, tomorrow he’s a boy, tomorrow he’s a warrior.”
In the talk, the rabbi also recounted what he said to his son, who went to fight after the 7 October attacks. He said he should “kill everything that moves”. He explained his position by adding that his son’s commander had told him the same thing and that he instructed his son to ”listen to the commander’s orders”.
Later, he reiterated that he did not expect soldiers to do what was laid out in the Torah. He said that if the laws of the state contradicted the laws of the Torah, it was the state law that should be followed and “the laws of the state only want to kill the terrorists and not the civilian population”.
Eitay Mack, a lawyer from the Israeli group Tag Meir that campaigns against racism and discrimination, says he has asked police to investigate the rabbi on suspicion of incitement to commit genocide, violence and terrorism.
He says he is still waiting to hear if the investigation he requested will be carried out.
