Ethics complaint filed against Independence Day torchlighter over his ‘illegally built’ West Bank home

The Kerem Navot organization, which monitors Israel’s land policies in the West Bank, has filed an ethics complaint against Rabbi Avraham Zarbiv, a rabbinical court judge selected as an honorary torchlighter at the Independence Day ceremony this year, alleging his home in the West Bank settlement of Beit El was built illegally.

According to Kerem Navot, a demolition order has been in effect against Zarbiv’s home since the year 2000 because it’s built on privately-owned Palestinian land, but has never been enforced.

The organization says it discovered the existence of the demolition order against Zarbiv’s home based on public statements he made about his house, as well as information it obtained from the Defense Ministry’s Civil Administration agency in a freedom of information request.

Zarbiv has become a controversial figure due to comments he has made celebrating demolitions that his IDF reserve bulldozing unit carried out in the Gaza Strip during the war there.

He has also called to “flatten Gaza,” establish settlements there, drive out Palestinians from the Strip’s north and “destroy” anyone who stays behind.

“Avraham Zarbiv chose a public career. In his position as a rabbinical judge, he decides [people’s] destinies and profoundly influences the lives of people who stand before him in court. It is appropriate that, like any person holding a judicial position, he be careful not to grossly violate the laws of the state, the laws of the Torah, and not to mention elementary moral principles,” Kerem Navot says after filing its ethics complaint to the state ombudsman for judges, who has authority over rabbinical as well as civil judges.

In February this year, State Ombudsman for Judges Asher Kula upheld another ethics complaint against Zarbiv, finding that he violated ethics rules incumbent on rabbinical judges by publicly expressing his views on controversial issues.