Non-Jews are forbidden by Jewish law to live in Israel, chief rabbi says

“According to Jewish law, it’s forbidden for a non-Jew to live in the Land of Israel – unless he has accepted the seven Noachide laws,” Yosef is heard saying in the sermon.“

JERUSALEM POST

Jewish law forbids “goyim” – or gentiles – from living in Israel, the country’s chief Sephardic rabbi, Yitzhak Yosef, told followers in his weekly sermon.

Audio from the sermon was obtained by Channel 10, which was the first to air its contents.

Yosef is the son of the late Shas spiritual leader Ovadia Yosef, who was also known to make incendiary remarks about non-Jews.

“According to Jewish law, it’s forbidden for a non-Jew to live in the Land of Israel – unless he has accepted the seven Noachide laws,” Yosef is heard saying in the sermon.

“If the gentile is unwilling to accept these laws, then they must be sent to Saudi Arabia,” the rabbi said. “When there will be full, true redemption, we will do this.”

Earlier this month, Yosef ignited a firestorm of criticism when he said that religious law mandates the killing of an armed terrorist who is trying to commit a violent attack, and shouldn’t be afraid of being tried in court over such an action.

The chief rabbi’s comments generated strong criticism from MKs and NGOs, who said he should leave such matters to the heads of the security services and political decisions makers.

Yosef is the latest in a list of rabbis who in recent months have advocated killing terrorists while they are murdering innocent people, on the basis of a precept in Jewish law that permits killing a person seeking to kill you.

“If a terrorist is advancing with a knife, it’s a mitzva [commandment] to kill him,” said Yosef.

“One shouldn’t be afraid that someone will petition the High Court of Justice or some [army] chief of staff will come and say something different. There is no need to be afraid. ‘He who comes to kill you, get up and kill him,’” continued Yosef, citing the rabbinic dictum of self-defense.

“This also deters them. When a terrorist knows that if he comes with a knife he won’t return alive, it deters him, so therefore it’s a mitzva to kill him.”

Yosef stressed, however, that a murderous attacker who no longer has a weapon should not be killed, but rather put in prison for the rest of his life.

In mentioning the chief of staff, Yosef was referring to recent comments by Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, who said in February the military should not operate according to this precept, adding that “a soldier should not empty a magazine of ammunition into a girl holding scissors.”

This was a reference to a controversial incident in November when two Palestinian teenage female attackers stabbed a 70-year-old Arab man (who they thought was Jewish) in the head with scissors and wounded another in downtown Jerusalem before security officers shot them. One of the terrorists was killed and the other critically wounded.