The leaders of World Bnei Akiva said they will hold an emergency meeting on whether or not to remove the movement’s secretary general following his call for avenging the murder of three Israeli teens with blood.

The governing body of the worldwide religious Zionist youth movement will hold the meeting in Israel within the next two weeks on the future of Rabbi Noam Perel, Haaretz reported Sunday. Perel apologized for his inflammatory statements for the second time on Sunday.

“The call for the Israeli government to look after the lives of our children must not be confused in any way with any suggestion of revenge, words which should not be used by any person, and certainly not educators and leaders,” Perel said in a statement, according to Haaretz. “I cannot express to you how badly this error has caused me to feel, and especially its unintended consequences.”

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Bnei Akiva, which has approximately 30,000 members, operates separately from Bnei Akiva of Israel.

Perel deleted and had apologized earlier for his Facebook post, in which he wrote, “The travesty will be atoned for with the enemy’s blood, not with our tears. A whole nation and thousands of years of history demands revenge. The government of Israel is convened for a meeting of vengeance that is not a mourning sitting. Leaders have gone crazy at the sight of the bodies of our sons, a government that would make the army of searchers into an army of avengers.”

The post came hours after the bodies of the three Israelis were discovered in a field north of Hebron, 18 days after they were reported missing. Following the teens’ funerals, a Palestinian teen was kidnapped and murdered in what is likely a revenge killing.

Norway’s Jewish community has called for Perel’s ouster.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’re near the end of our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we have a very ambitious goal of $127,000 by April 21.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Make a Passover Gift Today!

$90 $180

$360

Other amount