Second Israel Rabbi Questioned Over 'Racist' Book

[Purveyor]

AFP - Israeli police briefly detained a rabbi on Sunday over his endorsement of a controversial book that justifies the killing of non-Jews in certain circumstances, a police spokesman said on Sunday.

News of the brief detention and questioning of rabbi Yaakov Yosef, son of one of Israel's leading religious leaders, prompted his supporters to take to the streets in parts of Jerusalem, burning tyres and blocking the city's light railway.

Later about 1,000 of his supporters took to the streets, setting rubbish bins on fire and blocking a main Jerusalem road before being dispersed by horse-mounted police and water cannons, an AFP photographer said.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said police moved against the demonstrators after they started throwing stones at the officers.

MORE...

http://www.france24.com/en/20110703-second-israel-rabbi-questioned-over-racist-book

[Loudmxr]

1. Throwing stones...that sounds vaugely familiar.

My SO's priest once said that if Joseph had been an observant Jew he would have had Mary stoned to death.

Religious rebel saves Christianity.

You won't hear that from a fundie.

[Mosby]

4. your so's priest is an anti-semite.

Fyi.

[Violet_Crumble]

2. Religious extremists always see themselves as above the law...

Supporters of these ugly and bigoted people behind that book who block roads and trains who are clearly enemies of Israel...

[Scurrilous]

3. Israel's probe of radical Jewish text puts rabbis in spotlight

<snip>

"The police questioning of two prominent rabbis over their endorsement of a controversial book that authorities claim condones killing Arabs and other non-Jews is pushing the debate over whether Israel should be ruled as a religious state or as a secular one to the fore once again.

Thousands of the rabbis' backers have demonstrated nightly since Thursday, after Israeli police detained the first of the rabbis for questioning about his support for the controversial text, "The King's Torah." A second rabbi was taken into custody over the weekend. Both have been released while authorities determine whether they can be charged with a crime.

The author of the book is an obscure West Bank rabbi, but the support of high-profile clerics has lent it credibility and popularity with many of Israel's Jewish factions, particularly the country's ultra-Orthodox.

Police said they'd questioned prominent clerics Yaacov Yosef and Dov Lior as part of a larger investigation into whether the book is an illegal incitement to violence. Israeli security officials said Jewish settlers could use the book as justification for "price tag" or retributive attacks on Palestinians. The book argues that killing non-Jews, including women and children, is acceptable as part of a religious war.

Whether that constitutes a violation of Israeli law is hotly debated. Israel prohibits "publishing incitement to an act of violence or terrorism, or praise of, support of or encouragement of an act of violence or terrorism," but it limits the infraction to cases in which the publication creates a "viable possibility of causing violence or an act of terrorism."

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/07/05/2300762/israels-probe-of-radical-jewish.html#ixzz1RHSHiEvc