Israeli officials should be ‘judged and jailed’ in The Hague for Gaza crimes: Jewish rabbi

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) – Israeli government officials responsible for war crimes in Gaza should be “judged and jailed” in The Hague, according to Orthodox Jewish rabbi Haim Sofer.

Israeli officials should be given “punishments which they deserve,” Sofer said in an interview with Anadolu as The Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) gears up to start hearings this Thursday on a case filed by South Africa accusing Israel of genocide.

“We’re talking about 23,000 men, women, children and old people that were killed. Most of these people that were killed are innocent people. And the destruction in Gaza is enormous. It reminds us of the destruction of the German city of Dresden in World War II,” he said.

Some 75% of all buildings have already been either damaged or completely destroyed, whileIsraeli officials are promising to destroy the rest to achieve their objective of ethnic cleansing and to expel the entire 2.5 million people of Gaza, he said.

“My appeal to the world nations is not to allow these war crimes. Zionists are war criminals,” he said.

This genocide in Gaza has been conducted by all members of this Zionist government, not an individual, he said, adding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his ministers, and the head of the army and air force should “bear responsibility for the war crimes that they conducted.”

“It’s very important to put them in jail, these war criminals, in order to show that there is justice,” said Sofer.

- ‘This land was stolen from Palestinians’

Sofer, a staunch anti-Zionist living in London, was born to parents that came from Iraq and lived for some time in Palestine.

The rabbi said he was forced to leave the country by the “Zionist government” that suppressed his activities and even handed him a prison sentence.

“I grew up with the feeling that this land was stolen from the Palestinians unlawfully because according to the Jewish law … the Jews were expelled from Palestine 2,000 years ago,” he said.

Sofer stressed that Jews can only live “as guests” among Arab nations or as part of the Palestinian people.

The rabbi said he is hopeful of a peaceful end, which could be done by the UN and world powers by “peacefully dismantling” the state of Israel and giving back the land to the Palestinians.

“Give them (Palestinian people) reparations for all that they have suffered from the Zionists,” he said.

“I’m sure the Jews will be welcomed back to live under the Palestinian-Muslim jurisdiction. They were going to be welcome to live with them with full religious rights.”

He stressed that “peaceful dismantling” is indeed possible, citing the abolishment of the apartheid regime in South Africa.

The end of the state of Israel “clearly will come … because rebelling against Almighty God will not succeed,” he added.

He pointed out that there are hundreds of thousands of Jews in the UK, US and other parts of the world who are not interested in any sort of “Zionist protection.”

- Muslims protected Jews

Sofer said all Palestinian leaders and groups have repeatedly said they have nothing against Jews, with whom they lived in harmony for thousands of years.

Going into history, the rabbi said Jews had their “best time spiritually, economically and politically” when they lived among Muslims.

Muslim rule in Spain is known as a “golden era” for Jewish people, he said, when they “enjoyed amazing rights – political, spiritual and religious rights.”

When Christians took over Spain, they forced 300,000 Jews to either leave or convert to Christianity, Sofer said.

“Where did they leave to? China, Japan, Australia? No. They left to Türkiye, they left to Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco. Mainly Türkiye and Palestine,” he said.

“The Turkish sultan gave a ‘ferman,’ which means an order, that the Jews will have political, economic and full religious rights … All the Jews in this empire enjoyed the same full rights, so we didn’t suffer any religious repression.”

During World War II, Jews in Muslim countries were protected from Nazis by the Muslim populations, he added.

“Albania, in World War II, was a small Muslim country with a few thousand Jews there … Nazi Germany occupied Albania, but not a single Jew was killed in Albania,” said Sofer, stressing that it was Muslims who gave Jews refuge in places like mosques.

It was the same case in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya, he added.

Jews will have no problems co-existing with others as long as they stay true to the teachings of their holy book, the Torah, and “don’t have any aspirations to take over land, Palestine or other,” said the rabbi.

- Praise for Türkiye

Coming back to the current crisis, Sofer lauded Türkiye’s efforts to stop Israel’s deadly assault on Gaza, saying it has “tried to do their best to stop this genocide.”

“We are seeing huge demonstrations in Türkiye, millions of people going to the streets to protest against this genocide,” he said.

Sofer said he would “like to give a special thanks to President (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan for protecting the Jews.”

“Thousands of Jews live in Türkiye without any problems. They are enjoying all religious, political and economic rights, and (are) secured and protected by the government and President Erdogan,” he said.

“Thank you very much, Mr. President. I hope that God will give you a long life and success in all your job to bring prosperity in Türkiye and all over the Middle East.”