Yitzhak Shapira is an Israeli rabbi who in 2009 published a book (The King's Torah) in which he writes that it is permissible for Jews to kill non-Jews (including children) who threaten Israel.[1][2] The conditions under which this permission applies include presence of the assumption that a child will grow up to become an enemy of the Jewish people,[3] to put pressure on enemy leaders, or if they are "in the way".[4] The book was distributed by Yeshivat HaRaayon HaYehudi in Jerusalem, which adheres to the ideas of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane.[5]
The book contains an endorsement by Rabbi Zalman Nechemia Goldberg.[5] Ofer Pines, a member of the Israeli Knesset, called on the attorney general to open a criminal investigation against Shapira on account of the book.[6]
Shapira was arrested under suspicion of incitement in 2006 after having advocated expelling or killing all male Palestinians above the age of 13.[7] In 2008 he signed a "manifesto" in support of Israelis suspected of beating two Arab youths during that year's Holocaust Remembrance Day.[8] In January 2010, Shapira was arrested for his "alleged involvement in the torching of a Palestinian mosque in the village of Yasuf."[9][10] He denied any involvement, and was released due to lack of evidence.[11][12]
In October 2010, he urged Israel Defense Forces soldiers to use Palestinian civilians as human shields, claiming that it was against "true Jewish values" for a soldier to endanger his life for the sake of enemy soldiers or civilians.[13]
Shapira lives in the West Bank Israeli settlement Yitzhar[3] and is the head of the Dorshei Yihudcha yeshiva there.[14] According to Haaretz columnist Akiva Eldar, Shapira's yeshiva receives substantial funding from the Israeli government.[15] His intellectual influences include Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Hacohen Kook[16] and Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburg.[5]