CROSSING YOUR T'S:

One Shas MK says ban "Passion"; another says "Jews did kill Jesus" (Ellis Shuman February 26, 2004, Israeli Insider)

Shas Party head MK Eli Yishai said yesterday that Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ "repeats a blood libel from before the dawn of history." Yishai called on Education and Culture Minister Limor Livnat to use her influence with the film censorship board to ban the film's screening in Israel. Meanwhile, Yishai's Shas colleague MK Shlomo Benizri said there was no need to deny it, "The Jews did kill Jesus." [...]

"It is unthinkable that a movie whose sole aim is to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the Jewish people will be screened in the Jewish State," Yishai said. "The movie repeats a blood libel from the dawn of history."

Yishai also called for Gibson to be brought to trial, and he called on the Foreign Ministry to ask Jews in the U.S. to boycott the film.

Meanwhile, Yishai's colleague in the ultra-Orthodox Sephardic party, former minister of labor and social affairs Shlomo Benizri, told a Haredi pirate radio station a number of weeks ago that the Jews did, in fact, kill Jesus. "According to Torah law, they decided to hang Jesus."

Benizri, who confirmed the comments yesterday, said Jesus was put to death according to Sanhedrin (ancient Jewish court) tradition, Maariv reported. "They took him up to a high roof, and threw him crashing to the ground. Afterwards they hung his body on wooden beams in the shape of a "T," but not as the Christian legends say that he was crucified. That's nonsense."

Benizri told Maariv that Jesus' death was an internal Jewish affair. "What is there to deny? We're talking about a yeshiva student who left Judaism, and the Sanhedrim put him to death."

That clears things up...

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 26, 2004 12:12 PM