wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Rabbis forbid razing of Gaza synagogues

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ECUNET.ORG>]

Note #8874 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05449
Aug. 31, 2005

Rabbis forbid razing of Gaza synagogues  
 
by Michele Green
  
JERUSALEM - Israel's chief rabbis have banned the destruction of Gaza Strip
synagogues that Israel's government intended to raze as it withdrew from the
area, perhaps as early as next month. 

	The chief rabbinical council, headed by chief rabbis Shlomo Amar and
Yona Metzger, ruled on Aug. 25 that the destruction of the Gaza synagogues
could set a dangerous precedent. The council said Jewish law forbids the
destruction of vacated synagogues because such action could influence Jews
around the world to abandon their own synagogues.

	The government had decided to destroy the synagogues in Gaza and
parts of the West Bank that were to be handed over to the Palestinian
Authority, for fear that they would be desecrated or turned into mosques. 

	The rabbis called on the Israeli government to arrange international
guarantees that the Palestinian Authority will preserve the synagogues left
in Jewish settlements handed over to Palestinian rule.

	The rabbinical ruling contradicts a recent decision of Israel's High
Court of Justice that the synagogues in Gaza could be destroyed if efforts
were made to preserve their interiors and to move several synagogues in
prefabricated buildings.

	Meanwhile, the Israeli army began on Aug. 28 to exhume 48 people
buried in a cemetery in the Gush Katif Jewish settlement. The army's chief
rabbi will oversee the exhumations, which are being conducted to allay
Israeli concern that the graves might be desecrated when the area comes under
Palestinian rule. The coffins will be reburied in cemeteries in Israel.

	Jewish law usually forbids the transfer of bodies, but Israel's two
chief rabbis ruled that the risk of graves being desecrated by Palestinian
extremists is sufficient justification for uprooting the cemetery. 

	"The graves must be moved if Jews will no longer be there," Chief
Sphardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar told Israel Radio. 

	The exhumations will be difficult to carry out because most of the
bodies are those of civilians; only three are soldiers. Under Jewish law,
civilians are buried in shrouds, which means that gravediggers will have to
search the surrounding earth for remains.

To subscribe or unsubscribe, please send an email to
pcusanews-subscribe-request@halak.pcusa.org or
pcusanews-unsubscribe-request@halak.pcusa.org

To contact the owner of the list, please send an email to
pcusanews-request@halak.pcusa.org