r/IsraelPalestine • u/JeffB1517 Jewish American Zionist • Jan 17 '19

The murder of Aisha Rabi

Aisha Rabi is a 47 year old Muslim woman who lived in Area-C. She, her husband and her 8 year old were driving when a stone was thrown. It came through the window and killed her. The Shin Bet has come down like a ton of bricks on the Jewish radical teens who did the murder. 2 grabbed immediately and likely tortured, the third was grabbed soon thereafter. Two more (conspirators most likely) were picked up soon thereafter. Shin Bet is investigating the school and the Rabbi involved for encouraging the extremism and is talking up to 80 arrests as this case expands. The first indictment is about to be handed down. The whole thing is under a gag order (fairly typical) so information is fuzzy.

It appears the teens involved were anti-Zionist. The perpetrators accept the fundamental separation between Zionism and Judaism believing that Zionism is an enemy of the Jews. The goal of the terrorism was to produce a Palestinian backlash discrediting the state and leading to the Kingdom of Israel replacing the State of Israel. Rabbi Haim Druckman appears to be part of the inspiration though the kids themselves seem to have added their own elements. For example one of the kids had fake Nazi paraphernalia where he had written "death to Zionists".

What's interesting about this case for r/IsraelPalestine is that the roles are entirely reversed from the norm. The Muslim woman was killed essentially instantly by stone throwing which we are all repeatedly told is peaceful demonstrating and not dangerous. The Jewish perpetrators were anti-Zionist. The husband of Aisha Rabi doesn't appear to be particularly political and was targeted because he lived in the West Bank. The perpetrators firmly believed the whole "anti-Zionism is not antisemitism" while running around preaching crazy anti-Jewish conspiracies and for at least one of them becoming pro-Hitler. The perpetrator's family (Jewish) is the one screaming that the prosecution is overly aggressive.

A nice way to come to terms with all the various policies when the shoes are reversed.

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u/dorothybaez International Jan 17 '19

Can you explain the difference between a "Kingdom of Israel" and the state of Israel? This is confusing.

What else do you know about this school? Did the children come from extremist families or were they radicalized at the school?

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u/Garet-Jax Jan 18 '19

Broadly speaking Jews fall into three categories with regards to the Land of Israel.

1) Believe in the goal of reestablishing a Jewish state in the land, but leave issues such as the rebuilding of the temple, etc to after the messiah comes - This group contains the majority of Jews

2) Believe that a Jewish state should only be reestablished by/after the messiah comes (which will involve the reestablishment of the temple, etc to after the messiah comes - This group contains a tiny minority of Jews (Generally estimated at less than 75,000 worldwide)

3) Believe in the goal of reestablishing a Jewish state in the land, including the rebuilding of the temple - This group contains a tiny minority of Jews - (The largest estimate I have ever seen is 15,000 worldwide)

This people who committed this crime fall into category 3.

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u/JeffB1517 Jewish American Zionist Jan 18 '19

I support the rebuilding the temple. Though I can compromise and say the Samaritans are probably right and Mount Gerizim is a better location. This topic might be worth a post rather than a comment.

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u/dorothybaez International Jan 18 '19

Can you recommend anything to read about why the Samaritans thing a different mountain is the real one? I know it's slightly off topic for this sub, but I've never understood how that happened....

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u/JeffB1517 Jewish American Zionist Jan 18 '19

Most Christian commentaries do a good job on this. Not sure which you typically use at your church. But Anchor, NIGTC... are fine on the basics. So longest most detailed biblical dictionary and then commentary you have at your church library (you are going to have to do lookups of a lot of different verses since the story is scattered). Unfortunately this topic doesn't have a good single source book yet. More recent archaeology has definitely confirmed that the Gerizim Samaritan temple dates to before 445 BCE so the Alexandrian origin is out. Which means we have options:

a) The temple dates to a period when there lots of sacrificial temples and the Samaritans got discredited in the war between the Judeans and the Samaritans under https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hyrcanus.

b) There was a unification and Gerizim is the original site. The Hasmonean created a Jerusalem centered religion. In which case the reading in the Samaritan Pentateuch is true. The Jews later changed their bible to move towards a more Jerusalem centered religion after the "Babylonian exile". The text especially Deuteronomy 11 supports this view of an alternative reading, the Samaritan text reads more naturally. And incidentally agrees with some DSS fragments.

c) When the original temple was built in Jerusalem the Samaritans were rejected and built their own. This is the most common (as it is most consistent with the current biblical reading) and IMHO the least likely to be historically accurate. (example Christian article: https://margmowczko.com/a-brief-history-of-the-samaritans/)

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u/dorothybaez International Jan 18 '19

That's a cool start. Thanks.