Jewish religious terrorism

Jewish religious terrorism is religious terrorism committed by extremists within Judaism motivated by religious rather than ethnic or nationalistic beliefs.^[1][2]

Terminology

Some researchers on ethnic terrorism distinguish between ethnic terrorism and religious terrorism, but admit that the distinction between these forms of terrorism is often blurred in practice. Daniel Bymen, in his study on "The Logic of ethnic terrorism", argues that Jews operate far more as an ethnic group than as a community motivated by and organized according to religious doctrine.^[3] As good examples of Jewish terrorism based on ethnic, not religious grounds, or Zionist political violence, the author cites Jewish underground groups Irgun and Lehi, which operated against British law during the British Mandate of Palestine before the Israeli declaration of independence in 1948.

History

Zealotry in the 1st century

According to Mark Burgess, the 1st century Jewish political and religious movement called Zealotry was one of the first examples of the use of terrorism by Jews.^[4] They sought to incite the people of Judaea Province to rebel against the Roman Empire and expel it from Israel by force of arms. The term Zealot, in Hebrew kanai, means one who is zealous on behalf of God.^[5][6] The most extremist groups of Zealots were called Sicarii.^[4] Sicarii used violent stealth tactics against Romans. Under their cloaks they concealed sicae, or small daggers, from which they received their name. At popular assemblies, particularly during the pilgrimage to the Temple Mount, they stabbed their enemies (Romans or Roman sympathizers, Herodians), lamenting ostentatiously after the deed to blend into the crowd to escape detection. In one account, given in the Talmud, Sicarii destroyed the city's food supply so that the people would be forced to fight against the Roman siege instead of negotiating peace. Sicarii also raided Jewish habitations and killed fellow Jews whom they considered apostates and collaborators.

Since 1948

According to a study by the political scientist Noemi Gal-Or, after the creation of Israel, Jewish terrorism has been assessed in Israel as "far less significant" than Arab terrorism.^[7] It lasted a few years during the 1950s and was directed at internal Israeli-Jewish targets, not at the Israeli Arab population.^[7] There was then a long intermission until the 1980s, when the Jewish Underground was exposed.^[7] However, some argue that in the modern era Jewish religious extremism has been greatly underestimated. The phenomena of price tag attacks began around 2008. These are hate crimes done by extremist settler Jewish Israelis usually involve the destruction of property or hateful graffiti, particularly targeting property associated with Arabs, Christians, secular Israelis, and Israeli soldiers. The name was derived from the words "Price tag" which may be scrawled on the site of the attack — with the allegation that the attack was a "price" for settlements the government forced them to give up and revenge for Palestinian attacks on settlers.^[8] They have been variously called terrorism, particularly when they result in death. Another modern phenomenon is "revenge" attacks, motivated by a desire for "revenge" against Palestinian terrorism. A particularly egregious example of this phenomenon was the Kidnapping and murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir, in which a Palestinian teenager was burned to death by an Israeli man and two teenagers. Their declared motive was vengeance for the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers. In July 2015, two attacks suspected to be by religious Israeli Jews occurred a day apart, the first a stabbing attack at a Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade and the second a price-tag arson attack against a Palestinian house in Duma. Shortly after the two terror attacks, one of which killed an Israeli girl and another a Palestinian infant, Israel came under criticism, including from within its government and from the Jewish community in the U.S., for not doing enough to address the threat of terrorism by Jewish extremists. Those saying Israel should be more proactive in addressing Jewish extremism included the ADL and AJC.

It has been suggested that a similarity between Jewish religious terrorists and jihad networks in Western democracies is their alienation and isolation from the values of the majority, mainstream culture, which they view as an existential threat to their own community. Other similarities between these groups are that their ideology is not exclusively religious, as it attempts to achieve political, territorial and nationalistic goals as well, e.g. the disruption of the Camp David accords. However, the newer of these Jewish groups have tended to emphasize religious motives for their actions at the expense of secular ones. In the case of Jewish terrorism most networks consist of religious Zionists and ultra-orthodox Jews living in isolated, homogenous communities.^[9]

The following groups have been considered religious terrorist organizations in Israel:

• Brit HaKanaim (Hebrew: בְּרִית הַקַנַאִים, lit. Covenant of the Zealots) was a radical religious Jewish underground organisation which operated in Israel between 1950 and 1953, against the widespread trend of secularisation in the country. The ultimate goal of the movement was to impose Jewish religious law in the State of Israel and establish a Halakhic state.^[10]
• The Kingdom of Israel group (Hebrew: מלכות ישראל, Malchut Yisrael), or Tzrifin Underground, were active in Israel in the 1950s. The group carried out attacks on the diplomatic facilities of the USSR and Czechoslovakia and occasionally shot at Jordanian troops stationed along the border in Jerusalem. Members of the group were caught trying to bomb the Israeli Ministry of Education in May 1953, have been described as acting because of the secularisation of Jewish North African immigrants which they saw as 'a direct assault on the religious Jews' way of life and as an existential threat to the ultra-Orthodox community in Israel.'^[11]
• Gush Emunim Underground (1979–84): formed by members of the Israeli political movement Gush Emunim.^[12] This group is most well known for two actions. Firstly, for bomb attacks on the mayors of West Bank cities on June 2, 1980, and secondly, an abandoned plot to blow up the Temple Mount mosques. The Israeli Judge Zvi Cohen, heading the sentencing panel at the group’s trial, stated that they had three motives, ‘not necessarily shared by all the defendants. The first motive, at the heart of the Temple Mount conspiracy, is religious.’^[13]
• Keshet (Kvutza Shelo Titpasher) (1981–1989): A Tel Aviv anti-Zionist haredi group focused on bombing property without loss of life.^[14][15]:101 Yigal Marcus, Tel Aviv District Police commander, said that he considered the group a gang of criminals, not a terrorist group.^[16]
• The "Bat Ayin Underground" or Bat Ayin group. In 2002, four people from Bat Ayin and Hebron were arrested outside of Abu Tor School, a Palestinian girls' school in East Jerusalem, with a trailer filled with explosives. Three of the men were convicted for the attempted bombing.^{[17][18][19][20][21][22][23]}
• Lehava, an anti-assimilation organization, professing to prevent integration of Jews and non-Jews, is considered by some to be a terrorist organization. It was referred to as an extreme religious minority trying through terror to implements their views of how the society should look.^[24] In January 2015 Channel 2 reported that Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon may be preparing to categorize Lehava as a terrorist organization. Ya'alon was reported to have ordered the Shin Bet and the Defense Ministry to assemble evidence required for the classification.^[25] Former Justice Minister Tzipi Livni stated that Ya'alon's move to name anti-assimilation group Lehava a terrorist organization should have been made months before. "This organization works from hatred, racism and nationalism and its goal is to bring an escalation of violence within us," she said.^[26] Tamar Hermann, a sociologist and pollster with the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI), reports that government action against Lehava has only come following months of petitioning by "left-leaning Israelis and media commentators." ^[27][28] Israeli rabbi Binyamin Lau, warned that: "Lehava wants to implement a reign of religious terror."^[29]
• Sikrikim, a radical group of ultra-Orthodox Jews based mainly in the Israeli ultra-orthodox neighborhoods Meah Shearim in Jerusalem and in Ramat Beit Shemesh. The anti-Zionist group is thought to have roughly 100 activist members.^[30] The Sikrikim gained international attention for acts of violence they committed against Orthodox Jewish institutions and individuals who would not comply with their demands.^[31] They are loosely affiliated with Neturei Karta.^[32][33]
• Kach and Kahane Chai, a banned far-right party in Israel. Today both groups are considered terrorist organisations by Israel,^[34] Canada,^[35] the European Union^[36] and the United States.^[37] The groups are believed to have an overlapping core membership of fewer than 100 people.^[38][39] The Jewish Defense League in America, founded by Kahane, is also considered terrorist. FBI statistics show that, from 1980 to 1985, 15 terrorist attacks were attempted in the U.S. by JDL members.^[40] The FBI’s Mary Doran described the JDL in 2004 Congressional testimony as "a proscribed terrorist group".^[41] The National Consortium for the Study of Terror and Responses to Terrorism states that, during the JDL's first two decades of activity, it was an "active terrorist organization."^[42][43]
• Terror Against Terror (Hebrew: Terror Neged Terror, "TNT") was a radical Jewish militant organization that sponsored several attacks against Palestinian targets. The group was founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane's Kach organization, and took its name from Kahane's theory that Arab terrorism should be met with Jewish terrorism.^[44][45]

Shin Bet has complained that the Israeli government is too lenient in dealing with religious extremism of Jewish extremists who want the creation of a Jewish land based on halacha, Jewish religious laws. Says Haaretz:"The Shin Bet complained that the courts are too lenient, particularly in enforcement against those who violate restraining orders distancing them from the West Bank or restricting their movement. The Shin Bet supports the position of Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, who has called for limited use of administrative detention against Jewish terrorists." ^[46] Israeli agencies keeping tabs on the religious terrorist groups say they are "anarchist" and "anti-Zionist," motivated to bring down the government of Israel and create a new Israeli "kingdom" that would operate according to halacha (Jewish law).^[46] A week after the July 2015 attacks, administrative detention was approved for Jewish terror suspects.^[8]

Individuals

Several violent acts by Jews have been described as terrorism and attributed to religious motivations.The following are the most notable:^[47]

• 1979 religious motivated murder of Philoumenos (Hasapis) guardian of Jacob's Well, who was then made a saint by the Greek Orthodox Church.^[48]
• Yaakov Teitel an American-born Israeli, was arrested in the aftermath of the 2009 Tel Aviv gay center shooting for putting up posters that praised the attack. Although Teitel confessed to the gay center shooting, Israeli police have determined that he had no part in the attack.^[49] In 2009 Teitel was arrested and indicted for several acts of domestic terror, namely a pipe bomb attack against leftist intellectual Zeev Sternhell, the murders of a Palestinian taxi driver and a West Bank shepherd in 1997, and sending a booby-trapped package to the home of a Messianic Jewish family in Ariel.^[50][51][52] A search of his home revealed a cache of guns and parts used in explosive devices.^[53] As of January 2011, the case was still pending trial.^[54] On January 16, 2013 Teitel was convicted of two murders, two attempted murders, and several other charges.^[55][56]
• Eden Natan-Zada killed four Israeli Arab civilians on August 4, 2005. His actions were criticized by then prime minister Ariel Sharon, as "a reprehensible act by a bloodthirsty Jewish terrorist", and author Ami Pedhzer describes his motivations as religious.^[2]:134[57]
• Baruch Goldstein an American-born Israeli physician, perpetrated the 1994 Cave of the Patriarchs massacre in the city of Hebron, in which he shot and killed 29 Muslim worshipers inside the Ibrahimi Mosque (within the Cave of the Patriarchs), and wounded another 125 victims.^[58] Goldstein was killed by the survivors.^[59] Goldstein was a supporter of Kach, an Israeli political party founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane that advocated the expulsion of Arabs from Israel and the Palestinian Territories. In the aftermath of the Goldstein attack and Kach statements praising it, Kach was outlawed in Israel.^[60]
• Yigal Amir's assassination of Yitzhak Rabin on November 4, 1995 has been described as terrorism with a religious motivation.^{[2]:98–110[61][62]} Amir was quoted as saying he had "acted alone and on orders from God." and that "If not for a Halakhic ruling of din rodef, made against Rabin by a few rabbis I knew about, it would have been very difficult for me to murder."^[15][63]:45 A former combat soldier who had studied Jewish law, Amir stated that his decision to kill the prime minister was influenced by the opinions of militant rabbis that such an assassination would be justified by the Halakhic ruling of din rodef ("pursuer's decree").^[63]:48 This Jewish religious concept allows for an immediate execution of a person if that person is "pursuing", that is, attempting immediately to take your life or the life of another person, although the characterization of Rabin as din rodef was rejected as a perversion of law by most rabbinic authorities.^[15]:255 According to Amir, allowing the Palestinian Authority to expand on the West Bank represented such a danger.^[63]:48Amir was associated with the radical Eyal movement, which had been greatly influenced by Kahanism.^[63]:53
• Duma arson attack: In July 2015, a Palestinian baby died and other family members were injured in what Israel prime minister termed a "terrorist" act. Perpetrators left graffiti in Hebrew on the gutted home saying "Long live the messiah!" or^[64] “Yechi Hamelech Hamashiach,” the motto of the messianist wing of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, which believes that Menachem Mendel Schneerson, a rabbi who died in 1994, "is the messiah and will return to rebuild the ancient kingdom and redeem the world."^[65] On August 8, the father of Ali Dawabsha, Saad Dawabsha, died of the burns he sustained in the attack.^[66]

See also

• Terrorism in Israel
• Christian terrorism
• Hindu terrorism
• Islamic terrorism
• Kahanism
• Religious violence

Footnotes

References

• Juergensmeyer, Mark, Terror in the mind of God: the global rise of religious violence, University of California Press, 2003
• Pedahzur, Ami; Perliger, Arie, Jewish terrorism in Israel, Columbia University Press, 2009
• Sprinzak, Ehud, Brother against brother: violence and extremism in Israeli politics from Altalena to the Rabin assassination, Simon and Schuster, 1999
• Stern, Jessica, Terror in the name of God: why religious militants kill, HarperCollins, 2003