Non-Jews should be expelled from Israel: chief rabbi
Yosef said that should gentiles who obey the Noahide laws would be permitted to remain as servants to Jews
Non-Jews should be expelled from Israel, according to the country's Sephardic Chief Rabbi, particularly if they don't follow the seven Noahide laws.
Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef's comments, reported in the Times of Israel, were made during a sermon he gave on Saturday.
"According to Jewish law, gentiles should not live in the Land of Israel. If a gentile does not agree to take on the seven Noahide laws, we should send him to Saudi Arabia.
"When the true and complete redemption arrives, that is what we will do," Yosef continued.
"If our hand was firm, if we had the power to rule, that's what we should do. But the thing is, our hand is not firm, and we are waiting for the Messiah," he said.
Yosef is the son of former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yosef Ovadia, who died in 2013 at the end of 1993.
The Noahide laws revolve around religious codes such as banning blasphemy, murder, theft and saying that God does not exist.
Yosef said that should gentiles who obey the Noahide laws would be permitted to remain in Israel as servants to Jews, the Times of Israel says.
Yosef recently caused a minor media storm in Israel when he said that it was a "mitzvah" (commandment) to kill a terrorist who threatens someone with a knife.
"If a terrorist shows up with a knife, it is commanded [by Jewish law] to kill him," Yosef said at a Jerusalem synagogue, according to the Times of Israel.
"You shouldn't be afraid: He who comes to kill you, arise to kill him [first]," Yosef continued.
"Don't start worrying that someone will take you to the High Court of Justice or that some chief of staff will say otherwise."
Yosef's comments followed the controversy whipped up by IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot, who last month said that he didn't want to see soldiers "emptying a magazine on a girl with scissors." Eizenkot was fiercely criticized by politicians on the right for his remarks.
Nonetheless, Yosef did caution against killing an attacker who is no longer a threat, according to the Times of Israel.