A prominent Israeli has rabbi urged his government to avenge the shooting attack that killed eight Jewish yeshiva students earlier this month, saying members of the Palestinian gunman's family should "hang ... from a high tree." Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, chief rabbi of the northern town of Safed and son of a former chief rabbi of Israel, issued the call in a newsletter distributed to synagogues around the country.
"A country that really cares about its citizens should hang the 10 sons of the terrorist from a high tree," he wrote, quoting the biblical Book of Esther. The original text referred to the book's villain, Haman, who plotted to kill all the Jews in Persia before he was foiled. In an interview with the “Associated Press”, Eliyahu said he was using the reference as a "metaphor," but said he supported taking revenge against people who attack Jews. "I don't apologize for anything and stand behind everything I wrote," he said. There have been several calls for revenge since the attack on 6 March, in which a Palestinian gunman entered the library of the Mercaz Harav seminary and opened fire, killing eight young students and leaving a scene of bloodstained holy books.
