Senior Israeli rabbi praises Jewish terrorist for 'stopping great danger'

Rabbi Meir Mazuz, a senior Israeli Sephardi haredi rabbinic authority figure and a spiritual leader of the Shas Party, described Jewish Israeli terrorist Baruch Goldstein as someone who "prevented a very great danger" by massacring 29 Palestinian worshipers in Hebron's Cave of the Patriarchs in 1994, Walla reported Sunday.

During his Shabbat lecture, Mazuz said that the Palestinian worshipers "hid axes, guns, knives under the prayer rugs... [but] thanks to this Jew, the danger was avoided."

The lecture in question was given before the holiday of Purim, a day when Goldstein's supporters commemorate his actions.

Mazuz noted that at the time, then-prime minister Yitzhak Rabin criticized Goldstein's actions. "Rabin called him a 'dirty Jew.' When they [Palestinian terrorists] kill so many of us, they stay clean.... but a Jew is dirty. Why?"

Rabbi Mazuz isn't alone in supporting Goldstein's actions, with a recent survey from Breaking the Silence indicating that 10% of all Israeli Jews view Goldstein as a hero.

Rabbi Meir Mazuz's previous controversial statements

Mazus is a very influential figure in the Sephardi haredi world, heading the Kisse Rahamim yeshiva, and is considered by many to be the spiritual leader of all Tunisian Jewry. 

He is known to have far more extreme right-wing views compared to the mainstream haredi world and has been visited by right-wing political figures like Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir for blessings and advice, Walla reported.

This isn't the first controversial statement the 78-year-old Mazuz has said.

Back in 2021, he claimed most Russian Jews are "heretics," specifically sitting Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman, who isn't Russian but Moldovan. He also accused Reform Jews of trying to "destroy Judaism."

In 2020, Mazuz blamed the LGBTQ+ community for the COVID-19 pandemic. 

"We are strict about the words of the Torah by washing hands and the rest of the commandments," Mazuz said at the time. "This pride parade is a parade against nature, and anyone who does something against nature, the one who created nature takes revenge on him. When you do things against nature, you place your hand in the fire and pray that the fire doesn't burn you? It burns you! Here they are doing [something] against nature in impertinence: the pride parade. What are you proud of?"