Acts of terrorism committed in the name of Judaism
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According to Mark Burgess (a
Center for Defense Information research analyst), the 1st century Jewish political and religious movement called
Zealotry was one of the first examples of the use of terrorism by Jews.[3] They sought to incite the people of
Judaea to rebel against the
Roman Empire and expel it from Israel by force of arms. The term Zealot, in
Hebrewkanai, means one who is
zealous on behalf of God.[4][5] The most extremist groups of Zealots were called
Sicarii.[3] Sicarii used violent stealth tactics against Romans. Under their cloaks they concealed sicae, small daggers, from which they received their name. At popular assemblies, particularly during the pilgrimage to the
Temple Mount, they stabbed their enemies (Romans or Roman sympathizers,
Herodians), lamenting ostentatiously after the deed to blend into the crowd to escape detection. In one account, given in the
Talmud, Sicarii destroyed the city's food supply so that the people would be forced to fight against the Roman siege instead of negotiating peace. Sicarii also raided Jewish habitations and killed fellow Jews whom they considered
apostates and collaborators.
Jewish terrorism in Israel existed for a few years during the 1950s and was directed at internal Israeli-Jewish targets, not at the
Israeli Arab population.[6] There was then a long intermission until the 1980s, when the Jewish Underground was exposed.[6] The phenomenon of
price tag attacks began around 2008. These are
hate crimes committed by
extremist settler Jewish Israelis that usually involve the destruction of property or hateful graffiti, particularly targeting property associated with Arabs, Christians, secular Israelis, and Israeli soldiers. The name was derived from the words "Price tag" which may be scrawled on the site of the attack — with the allegation that the attack was a "price" for settlements the government forced them to give up and revenge for Palestinian attacks on settlers.[7]
Researchers Ami Pedahzur and Arie Perliger suggested that similarities exist between Jewish religious terrorists and
jihad networks in Western democracies, among them: alienation and isolation from the values of the majority, mainstream culture, which they view as an existential threat to their own community; and that their ideology is not exclusively "religious", as it attempts to achieve political, territorial, and nationalistic goals as well (e.g. the disruption of the Camp David accords). However, the newer of these Jewish groups have tended to emphasize religious motives for their actions at the expense of secular ones. In the case of Jewish terrorism in modern Israel, most networks consist of
religious Zionists and
ultra-Orthodox Jews living in isolated, homogeneous communities. However, unlike jihad networks, Jewish terrorists have not engaged in mass-casualty attacks, with the exception of
Baruch Goldstein.[8]
Shin Bet has complained that the Israeli government is too lenient in dealing with religious extremism of Jewish extremists who want the creation of a Jewish land based on
halacha, Jewish religious laws. Says Haaretz: "The Shin Bet complained that the courts are too lenient, particularly in enforcement against those who violate restraining orders distancing them from the West Bank or restricting their movement. The Shin Bet supports the position of Defense Minister
Moshe Ya'alon, who has called for limited use of administrative detention against Jewish terrorists."[9] Israeli agencies keeping tabs on the religious terrorist groups say they are "
anarchist" and "
anti-Zionist", motivated to bring down the government of Israel and create a new Israeli "kingdom" that would operate according to halacha (Jewish law).[9] A week after the July 2015 attacks, administrative detention was approved for Jewish terror suspects.[7]
Terrorist groups
The following groups have been considered religious terrorist organizations in Israel (in chronological order by establishment year):
Brit HaKanaim (בְּרִית הַקַנַאִים "Covenant of the Zealots") was a radical religious Jewish underground organization which operated in
Israel between 1950 and 1953, against the widespread trend of
secularisation in the country. The ultimate goal of the movement was to impose Jewish religious law in the State of Israel and establish a
Halakhic state.[10]
The
Kingdom of Israel group (מלכות ישראלMalkhut Yisrael) or Tzrifin Underground, were active in Israel in the 1950s. The group carried out attacks on the diplomatic facilities of the
USSR and
Czechoslovakia, and occasionally shot at
Jordanian troops stationed along the border in Jerusalem. Members of the group were caught trying to bomb the
Israeli Ministry of Education in May 1953, have been described as acting because of the secularisation of Jewish North African immigrants which they saw as 'a direct assault on the religious Jews' way of life and as an existential threat to the ultra-Orthodox community in Israel.'[11]
Jewish Underground (1979–1984): formed by members of the Israeli political movement
Gush Emunim.[12] This group is most well known for two actions: firstly, for bomb attacks on the mayors of
West Bank cities on 2 June 1980, and secondly, an abandoned plot to blow up the
Temple Mount mosques. The Israeli Judge Zvi Cohen, heading the sentencing panel at the group's trial, stated that they had three motives, "not necessarily shared by all the defendants. The first motive, at the heart of the Temple Mount conspiracy, is religious."[13]
Keshet (Kvutza Shelo Titpasher) (1981–1989): A
Tel Avivanti-ZionistHaredi group focused on bombing property without loss of life.[14][15]: 101 Yigal Marcus, Tel Aviv District Police commander, said that he considered the group a gang of criminals, not a terrorist group.[16]
Kach, a banned far-right party in Israel (officially registered 1971–1994), and its splinter group Kahane Chai (1991-1994), also banned. Today, both groups are considered
terrorist organisations by
Israel,[17]Canada,[18] the
European Union[19] and the
United States.[20] The groups are believed to have an overlapping core membership of fewer than 100 people.[21][22] The
Jewish Defense League in America, founded by Kahane, is also considered terrorist.
FBI statistics show that, from 1980 to 1985, 15 terrorist attacks were attempted in the U.S. by JDL members.[23] The FBI's Mary Doran described the JDL in 2004 Congressional testimony as "a proscribed terrorist group".[24] The
National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism states that, during the JDL's first two decades of activity, it was an "active terrorist organization."[25][26]
Terror Against Terror (Terror Neged Terror, "TNT"), active 1975–1984, was a radical Jewish militant organization that sponsored several attacks against Palestinian targets. The group was founded by
Meir Kahane's Kach organization, and took its name from Kahane's theory that Arab terrorism should be met with Jewish terrorism.[27][28]
The "Bat Ayin Underground" or
Bat Ayin group. In 2002, four people from Bat Ayin and Hebron were arrested outside of Abu Tor School, a Palestinian girls' school in East Jerusalem, with a trailer filled with explosives. Three of the men were convicted for the attempted bombing.[8][31][32][33][34][35][36]
Lehava (est. 2005), was referred to as an extreme religious minority trying through terror to implement their views of how the society should look.[37] In January 2015, Channel 2 reported that Defense Minister
Moshe Ya'alon may be preparing to categorize Lehava as a terrorist organization. Ya'alon was reported to have ordered the
Shin Bet and the Defense Ministry to assemble evidence required for the classification.[38] Former Justice Minister
Tzipi Livni stated that Ya'alon's move to name anti-assimilation group Lehava a terrorist organization should have been made months before. "This organization works from hatred, racism, and nationalism, and its goal is to bring an escalation of violence within us", she said.[39] Tamar Hermann, a sociologist and pollster with the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI), reports that government action against Lehava has only come following months of petitioning by "left-leaning Israelis and media commentators."[40][41]Israeli rabbi
Binyamin Lau, warned that: "Lehava wants to implement a reign of religious terror."[42]
Sikrikim (first appeared in 2005), a radical group of ultra-Orthodox Jews based mainly in the
Israeli ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods
Meah Shearim in
Jerusalem and in Ramat
Beit Shemesh. The
anti-Zionist group is thought to have roughly 100 activist members.[43] The Sikrikim gained international attention for acts of violence they committed against
Orthodox Jewish institutions and individuals who would not comply with their demands.[44] They are loosely affiliated with
Neturei Karta.[45][46]
"The Revolt" terror group: Members of the Jewish "Revolt" terror group claim the secular State of Israel has no right to existence; they hope to create a Jewish Kingdom in Israel, and that Arabs will be killed if they refuse to leave. Shin Bet says the "Revolt" group's ideology began to evolve in October 2013, shaped by veteran "
hilltop youth", including Rabbi
Meir Kahane's grandson,
Meir Ettinger, who was temporarily put under administrative detention. Before the Duma attack, the group's members had committed 11 arson attacks against Palestinians or Christian churches. 23 of their members were detained because of the Duma attacks.[47]
Individuals
Several violent acts by Jews have been described as terrorism and attributed to religious motivations. The following are the most notable:[48]
Baruch Goldstein, an American-born Israeli physician, perpetrated the 1994 what became known as the
Cave of the Patriarchs massacre in the city of Hebron, in which he shot and killed 29 Muslim worshipers inside the
Ibrahimi Mosque (within the
Cave of the Patriarchs), and wounded another 125 people.[49] Goldstein was killed by the survivors.[50] Goldstein was a supporter of
Kach, an Israeli political party founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane that advocated the expulsion of Arabs from Israel and the Palestinian Territories. In the aftermath of the Goldstein attack and Kach statements praising it, Kach was outlawed in Israel.[51]
Yigal Amir's
assassination of Yitzhak Rabin on 4 November 1995, has been described as terrorism with a religious motivation.[2]: 98–110 [52][53] Amir was quoted as saying he had "acted alone and on orders from God", and that, "If not for a Halakhic ruling of din rodef, made against Rabin by a few rabbis I knew about, it would have been very difficult for me to kill."[15][54]: 45 A former combat soldier who had studied
Jewish law, Amir stated that his decision to kill the prime minister was influenced by the opinions of militant rabbis that such an assassination would be justified by the Halakhic ruling of din rodef ("pursuer's decree").[54]: 48 This Jewish religious concept allows for an immediate execution of a person if that person is "pursuing", that is, attempting immediately to take your life or the life of another person, although the characterization of Rabin as din rodef was rejected as a perversion of law by most rabbinic authorities.[15]: 255 According to Amir, allowing the Palestinian Authority to expand on the West Bank represented such a danger.[54]: 48 Amir was associated with the radical
Eyal movement, which had been greatly influenced by Kahanism.[54]: 53
Eden Natan-Zada killed four
Israeli Arab civilians on 4 August 2005. His actions were condemned by then-prime minister
Ariel Sharon, as "a reprehensible act by a bloodthirsty Jewish terrorist", and author Ami Pedahzur describes his motivations as religious.[2]: 134 [56]
Yaakov Teitel, an American-born Israeli, was arrested in the aftermath of the
2009 Tel Aviv gay center shooting for putting up posters that praised the attack. Although Teitel confessed to the gay center shooting, Israeli police have determined that he had no part in the attack.[57] In 2009, Teitel was arrested and indicted for several acts of domestic terror, namely a pipe bomb attack against leftist intellectual
Zeev Sternhell, the murders of a Palestinian taxi driver and a West Bank shepherd in 1997, and sending a booby-trapped package to the home of a
Messianic Jewish family in
Ariel.[58][59][60] A search of his home revealed a cache of guns and parts used in explosive devices.[61] As of January 2011, the case was still pending trial.[62] On 16 January 2013 Teitel was convicted of two murders, two attempted murders, and several other charges.[63][64]
The
kidnapping and murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir occurred early on the morning of 2 July 2014, a day after the burial of
three murdered Israeli teens. Khdeir, a 16-year-old
Palestinian, was forced into a car by
Israeli settlers on an
East Jerusalem street.[65] Yosef Ben-David and two minors were arrested for the act. Preliminary results from the autopsy suggested that he was beaten and burnt while still alive.[66][67][68] He was beaten repeatedly with a crowbar, each blow accompanied by a recital of Jewish victims of terrorism. Khdeir was recognized by Israel as a victim of terrorism,[69] a move which entitled the family to compensation. The murders contributed to a breakout of hostilities in the
2014 Israel–Gaza conflict.[70]
Yishai Shlisel again stabbed and injured
six marchers at the Jerusalem gay pride parade on 30 July 2015. It was three weeks after he was released from jail.[71] One of the victims, 16-year-old Shira Banki, died of her wounds at the
Hadassah Medical Center three days later, on 2 August 2015.[72][73] Shortly after, Prime Minister Netanyahu offered his condolences, adding "We will deal with the murderer to the fullest extent of the law."[72]
Duma arson attack: On 31 July 2015, two Palestinian homes were firebombed by masked attackers, leading to the immediate death of a baby and the injury of other family members, in what Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu termed a "terrorist" act. Perpetrators left graffiti in Hebrew on the gutted home saying "Revenge!" and "Long live the messiah!", or[74] "Yechi Hamelech Hamashiach", the motto of the messianist wing of the
Chabad-Lubavitch movement, which believes that
Menachem Mendel Schneerson, a rabbi who died in 1994, "is the messiah and will return to rebuild the ancient kingdom and redeem the world".[75] The motive, as stated in the indictment, was revenge for the murder of the young Israeli Malachi Rosenfeld by Palestinians, near Duma, about a month earlier.[76][77][78] On 8 August, the father of Ali Dawabsha, Saad Dawabsha, died of the burns he sustained in the attack.[79] Amiram Ben-Uliel was convicted of murder and arson as part of a "terrorist act", and a minor who confessed and made a plea deal was convicted of membership in a terrorist organization and involvement in planning the murders; both were sentenced to time in prison.
^
abcPedahzur, Ami; Perliger, Arie (2009).
Jewish terrorism in Israel. Columbia University Press. p.
196.
ISBN978-0-231-15446-8. Our Jewish terrorism dataset consists of a list of terror incidents perpetrated by Jewish terrorists in Israel.
^"Terrorist Organization Profile: Kach". National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism. University of Maryland. 23 June 2015. Archived from
the original on 24 June 2015. Retrieved 4 August 2015.
^Bohn, Michael K. (2004). The Achille Lauro Hijacking: Lessons in the Politics and Prejudice of Terrorism. Brassey's Inc. p. 67.
ISBN1-57488-779-3.
^Tessler, Yitzchak (2006-12-14).
נפש יהודי הומייה [The Jewish soul stirs (quote from national anthem, "
Hatikvah")]. Ma'ariv nrg (in Hebrew). Retrieved 2011-11-07.
^Amoni, P. An Interview with Rav Shlomo Pappenheim. Ami Magazine, September 2011
Juergensmeyer, Mark (2003). Terror in the mind of God: the global rise of religious violence. University of California Press
Pedahzur, Ami; Perliger, Arie (2009). Jewish terrorism in Israel. Columbia University Press
Sprinzak, Ehud (1999). Brother against brother: violence and extremism in Israeli politics from Altalena to the Rabin assassination. Simon and Schuster
Stern, Jessica (2003). Terror in the name of God: why religious militants kill. HarperCollins