ISRAEL
Jersusalem Post
The High Court of Justice froze the appointment of Rabbi Col. Eyal Karim to the position of IDF Chief Rabbi on Monday, and demanded to see a clear statement from the rabbi about his position on a contentious point of Jewish law.
The interim decision was issued in response to a petition by Meretz MKs against Karim’s nomination in July, who asked the court to halt the appointment owing to several statements and responses the rabbi had made on issues of Jewish law relating to the IDF and military service. Following the ruling, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman backed Karim during a Yisrael Beytenu Knesset faction meeting saying that Karim was a “worthy” appointment to IDF chief rabbi. …
In 2003, before Karim was serving in the IDF, he was asked on the national- religious news site and forum Kipa, in the context of an “Ask the Rabbi” column, how the Torah could condone the rape of non-Jewish women by Jewish soldiers during a time of war.
He explained the Torah’s rationale, but did not explicitly state that it is forbidden in modern times. This answer was seized upon by a blogger in 2012 and created a media stir at the time, with claims that Karim had given IDF soldiers sanction to rape women.
Karim then issued a clarification on Kipa stating explicitly that: “Obviously, the Torah never permitted the rape of women,” and saying that the Biblical verse in Deuteronomy about female captives was meant to prevent rape during war time.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.