By World Israel News Staff
A senior rabbi in Iran castigated Israel and pointed to opposition to military service among Israeli ultra-Orthodox Jews, days after calling for those responsible for the death of former Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to be killed.
Rabbi Younes Hamami Lalehzar, a leader of Iran’s Jewish community, made the latest remarks to Iranian media while discussing Judaism, justice and the distinction he draws between the Jewish religion and Zionism.
Hamami said monotheistic religions were founded on compassion, kindness and divine mercy, but argued that mercy must be accompanied by justice.
He cited the biblical account of Cain and Abel and said the deliberate killing of an innocent person was among the gravest possible sins. A person who unjustly takes a life, he argued, must face a fair trial and could be subjected to the death penalty.
Hamami also asserted that the spilling of innocent blood could be atoned for only by imposing justice on the person responsible.
“Mercy and justice are two principles that complement one another,” he said, warning that emphasizing mercy without enforcing justice could allow wrongdoing to spread.
Hamami then accused the State of Israel of committing crimes against civilians and sought to separate Judaism from Zionism.
He described Zionism as a political movement that has faced Jewish opposition since its emergence and claimed that resistance grew after the establishment of Israel.
“A group of ultra-Orthodox Jews opposes the policies of the Zionist regime and is not willing to serve in its army,” Hamami said.
Most ultra-Orthodox opposition to IDF service is rooted in demands to preserve exemptions for full-time yeshiva students and protect the community’s religious way of life. While some small ultra-Orthodox groups are explicitly anti-Zionist, Israel’s major ultra-Orthodox factions participate in the Knesset and have served in numerous Israeli governments.
The remarks came shortly after Hamami participated in an Iranian conference titled “Fulfilling the Promise of Revenge,” which focused on retaliation for the killing of Khamenei.
Khamenei was killed on February 28 in the opening US-Israeli strikes of the 2026 Iran war. His death was confirmed by Iranian state media.
At the conference, Hamami invoked Torah passages concerning bloodshed and punishment while calling for the deaths of those he blamed for the operation.
“The murderers of Supreme Leader Khamenei must be killed,” Hamami said.
He cited a verse from the Book of Numbers stating that land polluted by bloodshed cannot be cleansed except through the blood of the person who spilled it.
Hamami said he preferred to describe Iran’s promised response as “blood vengeance,” arguing that the phrase was more precise than the general term “revenge.”
Iranian state coverage of the conference presented his remarks as an argument that retaliation should be understood as the pursuit of justice rather than an emotional act of anger.
Homayoun Sameh, the representative of Iran’s Jewish community in parliament, has made similar calls for retaliation against Trump and Netanyahu.
Sameh said those who ordered the operation against Khamenei should be punished and urged Tehran to move beyond speeches and slogans by carrying out successful operations against those it held responsible.
“I expect those who ordered the killing of Ali Khamenei to receive their punishment soon,” Sameh said.
He added that Iran’s enemies should understand that the governing principle would be “an eye for an eye and blood for blood.”
Sameh said Iran should cause the people of the US and Israel to “regret and suffer” over the killing of the country’s leader. He described revenge as a legitimate right and argued that failing to retaliate would expose Iran to further attacks and casualties.
At the Tehran conference, Sameh also accused Western governments and international news organizations of applying a double standard to violence carried out by the US and Israel.
“For years, the Islamic Republic of Iran was accused of supporting terrorism,” he said. “Today, they remain silent in the face of attacks by the United States and the Zionist regime against Iranian commanders, officials and civilians.”
Sameh sought to ground Iran’s threatened retaliation in Jewish tradition, referring to the Torah’s demand that punishment correspond to the offense committed.
Iran’s Jewish community is the largest remaining Jewish population in the Middle East outside Israel. Estimates generally place its current population at between 10,000 and 15,000, down from roughly 100,000 before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
