Yitzhak Rabin In recent years, a number of rabbis have allegedly suggested that various public figures could qualify as
rodfim, arguably encouraging one to kill. Perhaps most notoriously, former Israeli Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin was branded a
rodef by some for the
Oslo Accord, an agreement for which he
was assassinated in 1995. The assassin,
Yigal Amir, subsequently justified his actions partly on the basis of
din rodef, under the assumption that making concessions to the Palestinian Authority would endanger Jewish lives. The
Oslo Accords were controversial within Israel, and divided the population due to the extensive change in government policy regarding negotiations with then Israeli-designated terrorist organizations, such as the
PLO. According to Rabbi
Arthur Waskow, Yigal Amir's interpretation of
din rodef is a gross distortion of Jewish law and tradition. First of all, the law of the pursuer only applies to a spontaneous act, whereas Yigal Amir planned this assassination for two years. Secondly, the law of the pursuer is only intended to save a potential victim from imminent death. There is absolutely no proof that withdrawing from certain territories will directly lead to the death of any Jews. On the contrary, Prime Minister Rabin, over half the
members of the Knesset, and over half the population of Israel believe exactly the opposite – that it will save Jewish lives. Lastly, this law does not refer to elected representatives, for if Yitzhak Rabin was really a pursuer, then so are all his followers, and that would mean that Amir should have killed over half the population of Israel! In other words, even according to the law of the pursuer, this act was totally futile and senseless, since the peace process will continue.
Avigdor Nebenzahl Other instances have occurred. In 2005, for instance, prominent Israeli Rabbi
Avigdor Nebenzahl stated that "it should be known that anyone who wants to
give away Israeli land is like a
rodef", triggering an outcry and a special debate in the
Knesset.
Geoffrey Alderman In 2009, Jewish historian
Geoffrey Alderman engaged in another controversy when he argued that, according to Jewish religious law, every
Palestinian in
Gaza who voted for
Hamas was a legitimate target. He articulated his position in a debate with rabbi David J. Goldberg in
The Guardians commentary section. He argues that according to the
Halakha, "it is entirely legitimate to kill a
rodef – that is to say, one who endangers the life of another – and this is true, incidentally, even if the
rodef has not yet actually taken another life". Furthermore, he argues that It seems clear to me from a common-sense reading of this passage [Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin, folio 73a] that the concept of a
rodef encompasses those who advocate or incite the murder of Jews. Every Gazan citizen who voted for
Hamas must – surely – come within this category, because Hamas as a movement is explicitly committed to the destruction, not simply of Israel, but of the Jewish people. ==References==