Rabbi Hershel Schachter: “If the army is going to give away Yerushalyim [Jerusalem], then I would tell everyone to resign from the army - I’d tell them to shoot the Rosh Hamemshalah [Prime Minister],” which prompted laughter from his audience
March 9, 2008 7:56 am National Religious (Religious Zionists), Israeli Religious RightThe Jewish Week News, March 5, 2008
Rabbi Hershel Schachter, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva University’s rabbinical school, issued an apology today for a statement he made that appeared to advocate shooting the Prime Minister of Israel should the government “give away Jerusalem.”
The statement, part of a 39-second clip posted on YouTube this week, is from a discussion the rabbi had in Israel with American students learning at Yeshivat HaKotel in Jerusalem. It is not known when the statement was made.
In what appears to be a response to a question about serving in the Israeli army, the rabbi, a leading decisor in the Orthodox community, says: “First you have to know what the army is going to do. If the army is going to destroy Gush Katif, there’s no mitzvah to destroy Eretz Yisrael.
“If the army is going to give away Yerushalyim [Jerusalem], then I would tell everyone to resign from the army - I’d tell them to shoot the Rosh Hamemshalah [Prime Minister],” which prompted laughter from his audience.