Suspect in plot to kill AG identified as British man residing in Jerusalem

A man accused of seeking rabbinic permission to assassinate Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara has been identified as a British national studying in a yeshiva in Jerusalem.

The suspect, named as Israel Ezagui, 36, was indicted on Friday for making threats against Baharav-Miara’s life. A gag order on his identity was lifted on Sunday, and his detention was extended indefinitely.

Ezagui is accused of sending a letter on Wednesday to former chief rabbi Yitzhak Yosef requesting permission to kill the attorney general, a largely unpopular figure among Israel’s right-wing and ultra-Orthodox populations.

A photo of Ezagui from security footage, published by the Walla news site, shows him in what appears to be traditional Haredi garb. Reports said he studies in a yeshiva linked to Yosef.

He is suspected of asking Yosef to issue a “din rodef” against Baharav-Miara — a religious decree applied to grave offenders thought to be an imminent and lethal danger to others. In Jewish law, one is permitted to stop a rodef by any means, including by killing them.

“The erev rav desecrate the name of the heavens with their actions against the Torah world, I am ready to kill the attorney general if I receive approval for such from the three elders of the generation. Without approval, I will not do it,” the suspect’s letter read, using a term referring to non-Israelites who joined the biblical Exodus from Egypt.

ישראל אזגווי, אזרח בריטי שלומד בכולל בירושלים הוא הנאשם באיומים כלפי היועצת המשפטית לממשלה. "בסיפור הזה של הגיוס יש צער גדול לציבור החרדי, הבעתי את הצער ומדי פעם עלתה לי מחשה שאני רוצה לעשות משהו", כך הוא אמר היום ביהמ"ש השלום בירושלים. מעצרו הוארך pic.twitter.com/z3oCHCnvuF

— גלעד כהן | Gilad Cohen (@GiladCohenJR) August 24, 2025

Upon receiving the letter, Yosef reportedly 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. Avidan then contacted Jerusalem police regarding the matter, leading to the suspect’s arrest within hours.

In a letter to Police Commissioner Daniel Levy cited by Hebrew media, Avidan cautioned that Yosef’s office “warned about a threat that seems concrete and could endanger the attorney general’s life.”

The category of rodef has no standing in Israeli law. The label became infamous in Israeli political history after Yigal Amir, the assassin of then-prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in November 1995, cited it as a religious justification for his act.

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. She 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 do not comply.

At a hearing in the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court on Thursday, Ezagui’s lawyer forcefully argued his client’s case, claiming he had no intent to murder Baharav-Miara since he never received Yosef’s permission to do so.

“Even if this is an act that is loathsome on a moral and ethical level, we are still within the realm of criminal law,” said attorney Idan Butbul. “He contacted the rabbi via a sealed envelope and not with direct intent, and asked him a question. Under these circumstances, the act does not amount to a criminal threat.”

However, police argued that the suspect’s letter constitutes a credible threat to Baharav-Miara’s life.

“The suspect came to the home of Rabbi Yosef and asked to speak with him. When he was turned away, he handed over a letter in which he expressed the desire to kill the attorney general,” the police representative said during Thursday’s hearing, per Ynet. “The writing is on the wall.”