Settler rabbis recorded preaching Jewish supremacy, lauding Hitler's ideologies

Two rabbis at a pre-military religious academy in a West Bank settlement were recorded touting themselves as self-proclaimed racists, promoting Jewish supremacy, and lauding Adolf Hitler’s ideologies.

A series of undated recordings broadcast by Israel’s Channel 13 news on Monday showed Rabbi Eliezer Kashtiel, the head of the Bnei David academy in the settlement of Eli, calling for the enslavement of non-Jews including “stupid and violent” Arabs.

“The gentiles will want to be our slaves. Being a slave to a Jew is the best. They’re glad to be slaves, they want to be slaves,” Kashtiel is heard telling pupils in one of the videos. “Instead of just walking the streets and being stupid and violent and harming each other, once they’re slaves, their lives can begin to take shape.”

“All around us, we are surrounded by peoples with genetic problems. Ask a simple Arab ‘where do you want to be?’ He wants to be under the occupation. Why? Because they have genetic problems, they don’t know how to run a country, they don’t know how to do anything. Look at them.”

Kashtiel is heard boasting that “yes, we’re racists, we believe in racism” and says that “Jews are a more successful race” and must “try to help” the other races of the world.

In another clip from the same religious seminary, a second rabbi, Rabbi Giora Redler, can be heard praising Adolf Hitler as “the most correct person there ever was.”

“Let’s just start with whether Hitler was right or not,” he is heard telling students. “He was the most correct person there ever was, and was correct in every word he said… he was just on the wrong side.”

He adds that the real genocide against the Jewish people was not the one perpetrated by the Nazis, but rather by “humanism, and the secular culture.”

The recordings drew sharp condemnation from Israel’s opposition lawmakers, but Kashtiel defended his comments saying he was “pained” that his “lesson on human rights” was misinterpreted and claimed that he had been advocating “social responsibility and caring for the weak.” 

This particular yeshiva has in the past sparked controversy for espousing radical views. 

The co-founders and a number of teachers at the academy have been recorded preaching to students against the education of women and their inclusion in Israel’s military.

In 2016, the co-founder of the yeshiva was recorded calling gay people “sick and perverted.”

At attempt by then-defense minister Avigdor Liberman to de-fund the academy in 2017 was blocked by Israel’s attorney general for legal reasons.