Former chief rabbi says man asked for his approval to kill AG; police arrest suspect
Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef informed authorities that a Jerusalem resident requested he issue a religious decree allowing him to murder Gali Baharav-Miara
Police on Wednesday arrested a 36-year-old man suspected of making threats on the life of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, after he allegedly asked former chief rabbi and current Shas party spiritual leader Yitzhak Yosef for halachic approval to kill her.
According to Hebrew media reports, Yosef told Religious Affairs Ministry Director-General Yehuda Avidan that a man had approached him with a request to issue a din rodef against Baharav-Miara — a religious decree applied to grave offenders giving halachic approval to stop them by any means, even if this requires killing them.
Avidan then contacted Jerusalem police regarding the matter, leading to the suspect’s arrest.
In a letter to Police Commissioner Daniel Levy cited by Hebrew media, he cautioned that Yosef’s office “warned about a threat that seems concrete and could endanger the attorney general’s life.”
Police said they had launched an investigation after being made aware of a letter “containing an explicit threat to harm a public figure.” Within hours, investigators located the suspect at his home in southern Jerusalem and arrested him on the spot, police said.
Officers plan to bring him to court on Thursday to request an extension on his remand, allowing them to continue their investigation.
Someone branded in Jewish law as a “rodef” is deemed to be an imminent danger to others, making it permissible to stop them through violence if necessary. The term has no standing in Israeli law.
The label became infamous in Israeli political history after Yigal Amir, the assassin of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, cited it as a religious justification for his murder in November 1995.
Baharav-Miara has come under regular attack by members of the current government, which voted earlier this month to dismiss her from her post, though the High Court immediately froze the move as it reviews it.
The legal official has also infuriated ultra-Orthodox leaders by increasing pressure on Haredi draft dodgers, requiring the military to send thousands of enlistment orders to yeshiva students, and pushing for the arrests of those who don’t comply.
The Times of Israel Community.