Peace Now Secretary General Yariv Oppenheimer has requested Israel’s Attorney General open an investigation into statements made by an extremist far-right Chabad settler Rabbi Dov Wolpe, the head of the right-wing movement Eretz Yisrael Shelanu (Our Israel). JPost:
On Saturday evening, SOS Israel chairman Wolpe, 63, said in a radio interview that following last week’s events at the Gilad Farm outpost in Samaria, where border police fired plastic bullets on settlers, “we need to fire rubber bullets [which are more dangerous than plastic ones, but still less dangerous than metal ones] back at them. If they come to beat us – we need to beat them back.”
Ynet cites more of Wolpe’s inflammatory verbiage including:
“These terrorists clad in black – their faces concealed, without tags or names – how should we know if they are Jewish or Arabs or terrorists? If they come to fight me, I will fight them back. We are not talking about a normal police or normal army…there’s no one to talk to – the special police unit beat us as if we were Nazis“
The SOS Israel chairman harshly criticized Israel’s leaders and institutions, calling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak “oppressors,” and referring to the High Court of Justice as “low” and the “foreign agent of terrorists.” During the interview, Wolpo claimed that given Israel’s current judges and leaders, there is no need for Hamas and other enemies. “The country is crumbling and will end up like Libya and other places,” he warned. “It will probably come down to a war between Jews, to our great dismay – and it’s not the settlers who are initiating it – it’s the army that is fighting them and wants to inflict on them the same fate as was inflicted on the residents of Gush Katif. We will not let this happen,” he said.
Rabbi Wolpe has now walked back his statement claiming his words were taken out of context.
“What I said in an interview with the Moreshet radio station was shortly after taking part in a protest in support of an IDF soldier whose home [at Gilad Farm] was demolished,” he wrote. “My words were said amid a storm of emotion, and expressed my fear and forewarning over a civil war that could break out in light of the atrocious acts of Netanyahu and Barak, who for personal reasons of rating and popularity in the eyes of the Left, and succumbing to pressure from Obama, ordered masked soldiers to shoot rubber bullets at Jews, whose sole sin was their love for the Land of Israel.”
Arutz Sheva report on the ‘protest’ includes a video. Wolpe makes a speech in which he says “If you destroy my dwelling place there are no more soldiers. Destroying the people of Israel’s dwelling places, destroying homes in the land of Israel means there are no army subordinates and no one enlists“
Singing and Dancing in Support of Havat Gilad Soldier
A positive atmosphere of music and dancing was felt on Saturday night outside Prison Six in northern Israel, as residents of Gilad Farm (Havat Gilad) and dozens of activists arrived at the road adjacent to the prison for a post-Shabbat “Melave Malka” event. The group came to show support for Israeli soldier Shimon Weizman, who was sentenced to 30 days in prison after announcing that he does not intend to return to the army until his house in Gilad Farm is rebuilt.
Oppenheimer and Wolpe have a history. In ’08 Wolpe told Army Radio Oppenheimer should be “jailed for treason” after Oppenheimer filed a petition detailing Wolpe’s incitement during Hebron’s “House of Contention” rampage. It also is not the first time Wolpe has called on IDF insubordination:
during the disengagement from Gaza in 2005, Wolpe called on Israel Defense Forces soldiers to disobey orders to evacuate settlers, compared Sharon’s regime to Nazi Germany, and said that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert “has Jewish blood on his hands.”
Hat tip Shmarya Rosenberg @ Failed Messiah:
Wolpo is the most popular rabbi with Chabad followers in Israel. While it is true that he does not represent Chabad official public positions, it is also true that a very large percentage of Israeli Chabad followers does not agree with or represent Chabad’s official public positions on this and on several other matters and instead agree with Wolpo. Indeed, many Chabad institutions in Israel are headed by men who agree with Wolpo.
Shmarya reported earlier Wolpe is a messianist who believes the late Chabad-Lubavitch rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson is the messiah.
(*my bold in blockquotes)
