A major rabbi in Israel’s Charedi community has been widely condemned by political figures after a video emerged showing him claiming that Zionism “made Arabs hate us” and “brought physical disasters” upon the Jewish people.
Rabbi Dov Lando, the head of a prominent Bnei Brak yeshiva and spiritual leader of Degel HaTorah, one of two factions that make up the major Charedi political party United Torah Judaism (UTJ), made the remarks in a video aired by Channel 12 on Monday, which the network reported was recorded about 18 months ago.
In the clip, Rabbi Lando castigated Zionism, secularism, and the foundation of the State of Israel during a conversation with a group of aides gathered at his home.
Zionism, he claimed, “made Arabs hate us” and “brought the physical disasters, not just the spiritual ones, to the Jewish people”.
“The Arabs were never good, but you had to respect them… You can’t trust them anymore,” he went on.
“I don’t know what would have happened if, at the beginning of the state – if there had been no state and they would have installed the UN as sovereign. The situation would have been excellent.
“It’s possible, without a state [of Israel], to live well with the Arabs… to live, to respect the Arabs. It was pretty good when the Arabs were in charge. It was the best situation.
“We’d bring money to the Land of Israel. The Arabs like money, yes?”
Turning his attention to the Religious Zionist community, he said of its members who had fallen in combat for the IDF: “They’re killed because their rabbis teach them a distorted Torah.”
And, of secular Israelis, he added: “They have no connection to Judaism at all. It’s terrible.
“The Jewish people are the people of God, and they created a state of destruction and heresy.”
His comments were strongly condemned by figures from across the political spectrum who, amid an intensifying election campaign, demanded that UTJ be barred from the next governing coalition.
Gadi Eisenkot, whose Yashar party is leading the latest polls, said: “I forcefully condemn Rabbi Lando’s slanderous words. His remarks are the embodiment of antizionism."
Yair Lapid of Beyachad called Lando’s comments “a disgrace to every Jew,” while his co-leader, Naftali Bennett, said they were “antisemitic, anti-Zionist and against the IDF,” adding that, without the efforts of religious soldiers, “our enemies would slaughter us all, including Rabbi Lando’s yeshiva students”.
Meanwhile, Democrats leader Yair Golan used UTJ’s position in the current government to attack Prime Minister Netanyahu, adding: “These are Netanyahu’s natural partners. This is the face of his government.
“And Netanyahu is silent because without Rabbi Lando and his emissaries, he has no government.
“His political survival is more important to him than Zionism, more than equality in service, and more than the blood of our soldiers.”
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