An eminent rabbi has told colleagues that anyone who removes Jewish settlements from the West Bank and Gaza Strip would be subject to the death penalty under biblical Jewish law.
Rabbi Avigdor Neventzal did not mention Prime Minister Ariel Sharon by name in his remarks, broadcast Wednesday on Israeli TV. Sharon is determined to withdraw troops and 7,500 Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip in 2005, as part of a "unilateral disengagement" from the Palestinians.
Neventzal, who oversees Jewish affairs in Jerusalem's Old City, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
His statements drew harsh criticism from across the political spectrum.
In the mid-1990s, extremist rabbis expressed similar views regarding then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated by an ultra-nationalist Jew in 1995. The rabbis' statements at the time were seen as a tacit license to kill anyone who transfers land to the Palestinians -- as Rabin was doing in interim peace deals.
The rabbis' statements at the time are believed to have strengthened the resolve of Rabin's assassin, Yigal Amir, to kill the prime minister.
In his recorded comments to a rabbinical conference in a West Bank settlement outpost, Neventzal said: "It should be known that anyone who wants to give away parts of Israeli land is considered condemned to death."
Religious insiders describe Neventzal as a man little known by the general public but highly respected in rabbinical circles.
Neventzal said the actual issuance of a death sentence -- or "din rodef" in Hebrew -- is not possible in modern times, since the biblical council of rabbis that ruled on Jewish law no longer exists. But some believe extremists could view his ruling as legitimizing the murder of politicians who back a Gaza withdrawal.
"The fact that this religious term is still used is scandalous," said Matan Vilnai, a lawmaker from the opposition Labor Party, to which Rabin belonged.
Labor lawmakers demanded Wednesday that police investigate Neventzal on suspicion of incitement against Sharon and his ministers.
"This is the kind of thing that we need to stand up and prevent from every direction," Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Israel Radio Wednesday.
Netanyahu -- opposition leader at the time of Rabin's killing -- was severely criticized at the time for not speaking out against incitement against Rabin.