Rabbi Faces Incitement Charges Over Religious Ruling on Political Alliances

A religious ruling by Rabbi Gedalia Axelrod in Haifa, a prominent figure in the Chabad community and former head of the local rabbinical court, has sparked outrage and led to a formal complaint. The Center for Assistance to Victims of Racism has filed a complaint with the police, the attorney general, and the state prosecutor's office, seeking an investigation into Axelrod for incitement to violence, solicitation to murder, and incitement to racism. The complaint stems from a religious opinion published this week, in which the rabbi stated that party leaders who support forming a government with Arab party representatives, or who abstain from voting to allow such a government, pose a grave danger to the Jewish people. The rabbi invoked the concept of "din rodef," a principle in Jewish religious law that permits lethal force under specific circumstances to protect someone from imminent death. The complainants argue that applying this principle to elected officials based on their political stances could be interpreted as a license to harm them. Former officials from the Shin Bet, Mossad, and the army have also urged the police to investigate. Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav condemned the rabbi's statements as "grave and dangerous" and called on Chabad leadership to disavow them. He drew a parallel to the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin 31 years ago, warning of the potential consequences of inciting political violence.