IDF chief rabbi-designate: ‘I never wrote, said or thought soldiers can rape’

23 November 2016, 7:17 pm

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IDF chief rabbi-designate Rabbi Eyal Karim tells the High Court of Justice that he “never wrote, said or thought that IDF soldiers are permitted to rape women in war-time.”

Karim’s appointment as the IDF’s top chaplain is being held up by the court over revelations that he once wrote Jewish legal rulings that seemed to suggest Jewish law permits forced sexual relations with women on the battlefield, and that forbade relations between men.

Karim’s backers have argued that the rabbi’s comments were taken out of context, and were meant as reflections on the technicalities of ancient legal strictures related to war, not to permit or advocate illegal or immoral behavior on the part of IDF troops.