Rabbis OK Israeli police plan to use pig lard to ward off suicide bombers
By Ellis Shuman February 12, 2004
web.israelinsider.com;
Muslim tradition holds that any Muslim who comes in contact with a pig before dying will be denied access to heaven.
Israeli police are considering using bags of pig lard in buses and other places to deter Muslim suicide bombers, Maariv reported today. The proposal received the Jerusalem rabbinate's approval.
The police's suggestion is based on the fact that strict Muslim tradition holds that any Muslim who comes in contact with a pig before dying will be denied access to heaven.
Previously, Minister without portfolio Gideon Ezra (Likud) and others suggested burying the corpses of suicide bombers wrapped in pigskin as a deterrent. The proposal never got serious consideration in Israel, with opponents suggesting that it would only serve to encourage suicide bombers, egged on by clerics stating that Jews were defiling Islamic burial rites.
Russian security forces reportedly buried Chechen terrorists in pigskin last year in attempts to end their suicide bombing attacks.
Israeli police have considered using pigs, or pig products to ward off terrorism in the past, but needed a rabbinical permit to carry it out, as Judaism, like Islam, regards the pig as an unclean animal, Maariv reported.
Rabbi Eliezer Moshe Fisher, of the Jerusalem Rabbinical Court, ruled yesterday that "there is no Halachic ban on using bags of lard in buses and other places" when saving lives is concerned. The Halachic permit says bags of lard may be used in any place that might be a target for suicide bombings, such as schools, shopping malls and railway stations.
The rabbi also said that if the police do not use pig fat in buses, tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews will arm themselves with toy water pistols filled with liquid lard to be used against terrorists, Maariv reported.
"If bags of pig lard will prevent zealous Moslem terrorists from carrying out attacks, I'm all for it," said Deputy Internal Security Minister Ya'acov Edri (Likud) in response to the plan.
In October, former Chief Rabbi Mordehai Eliyahu and Kiryat Arba's Chief Rabbi Dov Lior gave their endorsement to a proposal to test the use of wild pigs in detecting terrorist infiltrators and explosives in West Bank communities.
"Boars could be better than dogs in finding mines and explosives," said a former trainer of sniffer dogs.
"The prohibition of raising the pig is known," said Rabbi Daniel Shilo of Kedumim, who serves as chairman of the rabbinical committee of the Yesha Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip. "But because we are dealing with pikuach nefesh, the saving of lives, it is permissible to have the animal." |
