Rabbi Moshe Levinger, a hero of the settler movement and co-founder of its fundamentalist Gush Emunim group, who established Jewish communities in Hebron and throughout the West Bank, conducted armed takeovers of Palestinian homes, and was convicted of manslaughter, died on Saturday in the settlement of Hebron where he lived. Levinger was 80.
After his passing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lauded Levinger’s revitalization of the Jewish settlement of Hebron, one of the earliest outposts built in the occupied Palestinian territory after the June 1967 war. Posing as Swiss tourists, on the eve of Passover in April 1968 Levinger led 60-80 Israelis to a hotel in the Palestinian city. They brought with them suitcases, a refrigerator and a washing machine. Although the Israeli army issued eviction notices, Levinger’s group never left. Today Hebron is considered a stronghold for Israel’s right-wing settlers and supports a population of around 700.
“Rabbi Levinger’s name will be forever linked with the movement for renewed Jewish settlement in Hebron and other areas of the country where our patriarchs walked thousands of years ago. He was an outstanding example of a generation that sought to realize the Zionist dream, in deed and in spirit, after the Six Day War,” Netanyahu wrote in the letter to the Levinger family.
On Sunday Israeli President Reuven Rivlin traveled to Hebron to give an official eulogy to thousands of mourners. He said while Levinger was not a “man of consensus,” his ability to work across partisan divides to build the settlement movement made him one of Israel’s “most treasured sons.”
“Not for nothing the first donor to the Hebron Yeshiva, under your leadership, Rabbi Levinger, was David Ben-Gurion [Israel’s first Prime Minister], who donated 100 Israeli Lira (the old Israeli currency). Not for nothing were you very active with Yigal Alon, and members of the ‘Greater Land of Israel’ movement, who were mainly from the Labor movement, in rebuilding the Jewish community once again, here in Kiryat Arba, in Hebron,” Rivlin said.
Taking to Facebook, Likud’s Miri Regev, the new minister of culture and sports wrote, “Rabbi Moshe Levinger carried the banner for the revival of the Jewish settlement in the city of the Patriarchs in Hebron, and he was a trailblazer and a symbol for the Jewish settlement in Hebron and the West Bank.”
Born in Jerusalem, Levinger was a student of the father of modern religious Zionism, Zvi Yehuda Kook. The two made popular the “greater Israel movement” through Levinger’s group Gush Emunim, presiding over it during the decades the militant Jewish Underground was active. They believed a mass exodus of Israelis over the Green would further the cause of annexation. David Remnick dubbed the pair, “armed prophets and politicians” in the pages of The New Yorker.
During the 1980s Levinger’s use of violence in building settlements caught the attention of the United Nations. In 1985 he went on a three-month armed vigilante patrol of a Palestinian refugee camp near Bethlehem. The United Nations documented Levinger, “provoked the inhabitants of the camp by firing at them and invading their homes,” and, “reportedly ran along the camp alleys, together with a guard, and both men fired into the air in an indiscriminate manner.” That same year Levinger broke into a Palestinian house in Hebron and assaulted a six-year old. Like many of his arrests that decade, he was given a suspended sentence.
Later in 1988 Levinger was convicted for killing Kayed Sallah, 42, an unarmed Palestinian in Hebron. Levinger told the court he fired shots in self-defense against rock-throwers, but claimed the death was caused by the Israeli army. Palestinian and military witnesses both disputed this. Levinger was then released on “good behavior” after a short 92 days sentence, wire agencies reported. At the time he showed little remorse.
“If I’m in a situation of danger again, I’ll again open fire,” wire agencies reported Levinger said to Israel radio. “I hope that next time, I will be more careful and I won’t miss the target.”
Levinger continued to be arrested for acts of violence and provocation into the late 1990s.
I waited to remark on this hideous murderer until he was safely in the ground. I wasn’t surprised to see him praised and eulogized by so many… it’s further evidence of a deep rot.
Kate’s compilation yesterday included this bit of history:
…”He was also a prominent leader of the settler movement known as Gush Emunim, a violent group dedicated to the expulsion of Palestinians from the occupied territories and the establishment of a Talmudic kingdom. Levinger openly praised the perpetrator of the Hebron massacre of 1994, Baruch Goldestein, calling him a great saint. When reminded that 29 innocent human beings were murdered by Goldestein said “I am sorry for the death of 29 flies as well.” Levinger said on several occasions that Palestinians ought to be given three choices, either enslavement by Jews as water carriers and wood cutters, or expulsion, or physical extermination.” – See more at: https://mondoweiss.net/2015/05/abolish-jerusalem-settler#sthash.esmO9fCf.dpuf
No surprise that Daniella Weiss sang his praises, too.
“Daniella Weiss, former mayor of Kedumim in the West Bank and an activist in the settler movement, said, “The rabbi taught us not to leave a single piece of land without Jews. I met many people who tried to solve the riddle of the rabbi — whether he was a man of thought or a man of action. The answer is that he was both,” she said.”
http://www.timesofisrael.com/settler-leader-rabbi-moshe-levinger-buried-in-hebron/
I am sure that all of the illegal “settlers”~ especially the really violent/virulent ones like Daniella and Anat Cohen~ in Hebron and everywhere else in the Occupied Palestinian lands are grateful to him.
For more on Cohen, there’s this: “Go to Auschwitz!: Extremist settler confronts injured ISM volunteer in Hebron” – See more at: https://mondoweiss.net/2014/12/extremist-confronts-volunteer#sthash.tZ3y59to.dpuf
Thanks, Allison.
“If I’m in a situation of danger again, I’ll again open fire,” wire agencies reported Levinger said to Israel radio. “I hope that next time, I will be more careful and I won’t miss the target.”
A known murderer being praised by the Israeli president and prime minister. Did CNN or MSNBC happen to report on this (sarcasm)? This government is not holding back, hiding it’s true face or intentions. N’yahoo has drawn a line in the sand and is daring anyone to cross it. He has nuclear weapons at his disposal, thanks in part to the free pass from the United States. A monster, a “megalomanic” (from Dickerson) has hell to unleash if provoked. Could they reach the US? Is that the threat hanging over every US president for the past 40 years?
Are we really shocked that Netanyahu is praising the life of a racist murderer much like he did when Baruch Goldstein and Ariel Sharon both died? I wouldn’t be surprised if he also mourned the death of Zionist nutbag #1 Meir Kahane. Honestly, are did anyone expect anything different from Netanyahu? Hopefully Moshe Levinger burns in eternal damnation, that would be fitting for a scumbag murderer who justifies his killings by claiming he was “chosen by God.”
The settlers are definitely in high cotton, as they say, but they have hit a little bit of a snag. Yesterday, with much fanfare, Yaalon announced that the government would go ahead and start its “study” about segregating Palestinian workers from settlers in the West Bank. There he and all the usual lunatics were hailing this triumph against the reckless eyeballing of Jewish women.
And guess what, within hours Netanyahu rescinded the order.
Now why would the Butcher do that? Probably because (as Richard Silverstein suggests) the timing is bad, can you spell FIFA?
Yet another victory, albeit temporary, for BDS.
Peace and stability in Palestine and Israel