Rabbi Leo Dee, who lost his wife and two of his daughters in a Palestinian terror attack in April, has condemned vigilante actions by Jewish settlers against Palestinian villages in response to a wave of new Palestinian attacks.
Dee and his family were driving in two cars to the city of Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee when Palestinian gunmen ambushed the second car. Two of Dee’s daughters died at the scene; his wife died several days later.
Mourners carry the body of Lucy Dee, a British-Israeli woman who died of her injuries three days after a suspected Palestinian gun attack, in which two of her daughters were also killed, during her funeral at the Kfar Etzion settlement cemetery in the occupied West Bank, on April 11, 2023. – On April 7, two British-Israeli sisters were killed, and their mother Lucy Dee seriously wounded in a West Bank shooting attack, and Israel’s army said it had launched a manhunt for the perpetrators. (Photo by Menahem KAHANA / AFP) (Photo by MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP via Getty Images)
Dee reacted in a statement, reaffirming Israel’s permanence in the disputed territories of Judea and Samaria (also known as the West Bank), but condemning vigilantism as a “chilul Hashem” (desecration of God):
Rabbi Dee related to the recent riots perpetrated by Jewish activists: “Jewish violence against innocent Arabs is a Chilul Hashem which only creates darkness in the world.”
“The elimination of terror is essential, but this must be done by professionals”, he added, “The IDF is the most experienced army in the world. Leave it to them.”
“Killing terrorists is humane and a Kiddush Hashem, a sanctification of God’s name”, Rabbi Dee concluded, “Terrorising innocent Arabs is a crime against humanity, a Chilul Hashem (a desecration of God’s name) and cannot be atoned for in a lifetime.”
Last month, CNN’s Christiane Amanpour apologized for saying that the Dee family members had been killed in a “shootout,” implying that Israelis had been shooting at the Palestinians, and had not been innocent victims.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.