Attorney-General Elyakim Rubinstein has decided to charge Rabbi Yitzchak Ginzburg with incitement to racism. Ginzburg, the former head of the Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva in Shechem, wrote a book two years ago in which he allegedly made inflammatory claims regarding Jews and Arabs. A letter from the State Prosecutor's office invited the rabbi, or his lawyer, to discuss the charges that may be leveled against him. Before the rabbi responded to the letter, according to his attorney, the Ministry of Justice, under Minister Yosef Lapid (Shinui), leaked to the press that Rabbi Ginzburg was to be charged with incitement.
Rabbi Ginzburg's attorney, Atty. Naftali Wertzburger, in an interview with Arutz-7, questioned the timing of the letter, the publicity given to it by the Justice Ministry, and the content of the potential charges against the rabbi. Wertzburger stated that the charges, in conjunction with other recent anonymous media stories suggesting right-wing rabbinical threats to the life of the prime minister, raises "more than a suspicion that there is a directed wave [of such stories], whose objective is to back up the process led by the prime minister with a crusade of intimidation - including legal intimidation involving the state prosecutor's office, the Shabak [Israeli secret service] - to crush any sign of resistance, including democratic resistance." To that end, attorney Wertzburger suggested, the Justice Ministry saw Rabbi Ginzburg as a weak link among right-wing rabbis, and decided to test the waters with an issue that they had inexplicably not raised for two years.
As for the content of the book in question, Wertzburger told Arutz-7 that it contains theological answers to questions in many areas, including that of the character of a Jewish State. If Rabbi Ginzburg's book is considered racist incitement, the attorney said, then anyone who believes in the concept of a Chosen People is a racist and the book in question will be on a "very respectable list" of traditional theological texts. Furthermore, and perhaps for that reason, Wertzburger said that he has yet to receive a document from the prosecutor's office detailing what exactly in the book is objectionable or illegal.
Rabbi Ginzburg's attorney, Atty. Naftali Wertzburger, in an interview with Arutz-7, questioned the timing of the letter, the publicity given to it by the Justice Ministry, and the content of the potential charges against the rabbi. Wertzburger stated that the charges, in conjunction with other recent anonymous media stories suggesting right-wing rabbinical threats to the life of the prime minister, raises "more than a suspicion that there is a directed wave [of such stories], whose objective is to back up the process led by the prime minister with a crusade of intimidation - including legal intimidation involving the state prosecutor's office, the Shabak [Israeli secret service] - to crush any sign of resistance, including democratic resistance." To that end, attorney Wertzburger suggested, the Justice Ministry saw Rabbi Ginzburg as a weak link among right-wing rabbis, and decided to test the waters with an issue that they had inexplicably not raised for two years.
As for the content of the book in question, Wertzburger told Arutz-7 that it contains theological answers to questions in many areas, including that of the character of a Jewish State. If Rabbi Ginzburg's book is considered racist incitement, the attorney said, then anyone who believes in the concept of a Chosen People is a racist and the book in question will be on a "very respectable list" of traditional theological texts. Furthermore, and perhaps for that reason, Wertzburger said that he has yet to receive a document from the prosecutor's office detailing what exactly in the book is objectionable or illegal.