Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu
Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahupicture used with permission of photographer

Safed Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu on Wednesday addressed the claims by multiple female soldiers that they were sexually assaulted by convicted terrorists while serving at the Gilboa Prison.

"One of the girls who was hurt asked me if she should sue the officer who hurt her and made her go several times into the cell of the terrorist whose hands are stained with Jewish blood and who did such horrible things to her. I answered her that of course he should be in prison for the rest of his life and give compensation from all of his property," Rabbi Eliyahu said.

He explains that the warden stated that her question was due to the fact that "there was an atmosphere in the prison that no matter what, silence would prevail."

"I told her: not only is the officer guilty, but the whole system is guilty. The state attorney who closed these cases in the past and abandoned the children of Israel. This is a crime which should shake the earth," adds Rabbi Eliyahu.

According to him, "Every Hebrew mother who wants to send her daughter to the army will know in whose hands she entrusts her daughter's honor. Then they wonder about the sexual harassment in the army. If the leaders of the system degrade the girls' honor, what will the officer in the Israel Prison Service think? If you want your daughter to contribute to the people of Israel, she should do it in a healthy system and not in a place that treats girls in such a manner."

"If thousands of girls cancel their conscription as a protest for the honor of the female prison guards who were conscripted soldiers, it might straighten out the system and the girls will contribute to the people of Israel, to a cleaner IDF and a cleaner society," concluded Rabbi Eliyahu.