Audio and video recordings aired by Israeli Channel 13 revealed two senior rabbis at a military-linked religious academy in the occupied West Bank making racist remarks against non-Jews and Arabs, defending Jewish supremacy and expressing support for elements of Adolf Hitler's worldview.
Recordings published by Israeli Channel 13 have sparked outrage after exposing extremist remarks by two prominent rabbis affiliated with the Bnei David pre-military religious academy in the illegal settlement of Eli in the occupied West Bank.
In one of the recordings, Rabbi Eliezer Kashtiel, head of the academy, is heard describing non-Jews, particularly Arabs, as genetically inferior and advocating their enslavement under Jewish authority.
"Non-Jews want to be our slaves," Kashtiel tells an audience in the footage. "Being a slave to a Jew is the best thing. They are happy to be slaves; they want to be slaves."
He goes on to claim that Arabs possess "genetic problems" and are incapable of governing themselves.
"Ask an average Arab where he would like to be. He wants to be under occupation," Kashtiel says. "They have genetic problems; they do not know how to run a country."
In the same conference, Kashtiel openly endorses racist ideology.
"Yes, we are racists. We believe in racism," he says in the recording. "There are races in the world, and nations have genetic traits ... Jews are a more successful race."
Separate footage aired by Channel 13 showed another Bnei David rabbi, Giora Redler, discussing Adolf Hitler during a lecture on the Holocaust.
"First of all, let us determine whether Hitler was right," Redler tells students in the recording. He later adds: "He was the most correct person who ever lived, and he was right in every word he said ... he was only on the wrong side."
Redler also claimed that the "real Holocaust" facing Jews was not the Nazi genocide but pluralism, secularism and humanism.
"The real Holocaust was not when Jews were killed," he says in the footage. "Humanism and secular culture’s idea that ‘we believe in man'– that is the real Holocaust."
The recordings have intensified criticism over the role of some religious institutions in shaping nationalist and extremist narratives among segments of Israeli youth, particularly within academies linked to military preparation programs.
The controversy also renewed debate inside Israel over the spread of supremacist rhetoric and its impact on attitudes toward Palestinians and non-Jews.
