An extremist rabbi who boasted about bulldozing Palestinian homes was selected to light a torch at an event celebrating the creation of the state of Israel on Tuesday.
Avraham Zarbiv, who has been condemned by rights groups and previously censured by Israel’s judicial watchdog for extremist statements, was honoured at the event held at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.
The Israeli military reservist, who serves as a rabbinical judge in civilian life, was introduced by hosts as a “bulldozer operator on the front lines of fire” at the ceremony, which was also attended by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Zarbiv dedicated the torch-lighting to “those who bring down the bulldozers and the pioneers who break through the enemy and dismantle the terrorist nonsense”.
The religious leader has previously drawn criticism, including a complaint to the International Criminal Court filed by the Hind Rajab Foundation in January 2025 for alleged war crimes.
His selection was condemned by Israeli rights group B’Tselem, Haaretz newspaper and the Israeli military also appeared to distance themselves from the choice.
B’Tselem said that accolade, offered to “exemplary citizens” and those who represent the “spirit of the nation”, should not have been given to Zarbiv. The group accused the country of risking “making genocide part of its official national ethos” through the dehumanisation of Palestinians.
Israel denies it is committing a genocide and calls such claims antisemitic.
Miri Regev, the ceremony’s planner, said that Zarbiv is a “paragon of deep commitment to the nation of Israel, the Torah of Israel and the Land of Israel”.
“Through his person we are saluting the men and women of the national religious community, who combine leading a life of Torah with service and contribution to the state, and continue leading Israeli society forward out of a deep sense of mission,” she said.
Zarbiv rose to prominence after sharing videos of himself enjoying the destruction of buildings in Gaza with levity and humour.
“We have crushed them. There are tens of thousands of dead,” he previously said on live television. In another voice over, he is heard saying: “You will have nothing left. We will flatten you and destroy you.”
His prolific social media presence has led “to Zarbiv” entering Hebrew slang as a phrase meaning to completely destroy something.
“A country that chooses to honour and esteem someone who has become a symbol of the flattening of Gaza is telling the world that it sees him and his values as deserving respect and as representing the state,” Haaretz paper said in an editorial criticising the appointment.
“Zarbiv indeed deserves to light an independence day torch: not because he is worthy of the honour, but because Israel has lost its way, its moral compass and its conscience.”
Dyab Abou Jahjah, cofounder of the Hind Rajaf Foundation told Al Jazeera that his selection was “revealing” and was “entirely consistent” with the historic “dispossession and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians”.
The Israeli military told a press conference last week that Rabbi Zarbiv was “not selected in coordination with the IDF”.
“He is not an IDF representative at the torch-lighting ceremony. Under the leadership of the head of the Personnel Directorate, IDF representatives to light a torch were selected through an orderly process. They are the IDF’s representatives,” a spokesperson said.
