Dov Lior is an Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

i rabbi

Rabbi

In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...

, who currently serves as the Chief Rabbi

Chief Rabbi

Chief Rabbi is a title given in several countries to the recognized religious leader of that country's Jewish community, or to a rabbinic leader appointed by the local secular authorities...

 of Hebron

Hebron

Hebron , is located in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judean Mountains, it lies 930 meters above sea level. It is the largest city in the West Bank and home to around 165,000 Palestinians, and over 500 Jewish settlers concentrated in and around the old quarter...

 and Kiryat Arba

Kiryat Arba

Kiryat Arba or Qiryat Arba , lit. "Town of the Four," is an Israeli settlement in the Judean Mountains region of the West Bank on the edge of Hebron. Its settlers consist of a mix of Russian immigrants, American immigrants, and native-born Israelis numbering close to 10,000...

 in the southern West Bank

West Bank

The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...

. He is also the rosh yeshiva

Rosh yeshiva

Rosh yeshiva, , , is the title given to the dean of a Talmudical academy . It is made up of the Hebrew words rosh — meaning head, and yeshiva — a school of religious Jewish education...

 Kiryat Arba Hesder Yeshiva

Hesder

Hesder is an Israeli yeshiva program which combines advanced Talmudic studies with military service in the Israel Defense Forces, usually within a Religious Zionist framework...

, and also heads the "Council of Rabbis of Judea and Samaria

Yesha

Yesha is a Hebrew acronym for "Judea, Samaria Gaza" , and is one of a number of terms used to describe the areas military occupied by Israel after the Six-Day War of June 1967...

".

Biography

He was born to a Belz hasidic

Belz (Hasidic dynasty)

Belz is a Hasidic dynasty named for the town of Belz in Western Ukraine, near the Polish border. The town has existed since at least the 10th century, with the Jewish community being established during the 14th century. The town became home to Hasidic Judaism in the early 19th century...

 family, son to Moshe Leibland in Breslau, Silesia

Silesia

Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...

. He attempted to board the Exodus

Exodus (ship)

Exodus 1947 was a ship that carried Jewish emigrants, that left France on July 11, 1947, with the intent of taking its passengers to the British mandate for Palestine. Most of the emigrants were Holocaust survivor refugees, who had no legal immigration certificates to Palestine...

, eventually arriving on the Negba

Negba

Negba is a kibbutz in the northern Negev, Israel. Located near the cities of Kiryat Malakhi and Ashkelon, it falls under the jurisdiction of Yoav Regional Council...

a few weeks before the establishment of the State of Israel, where he changed his surname to the Hebrew

Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...

 Lior. In Israel he first studied at the Bnei Akiva

Bnei Akiva

Bnei Akiva is the largest religious Zionist youth movement in the world, with over 125,000 members in 37 countries. It was established in Mandate Palestine in 1929.-History:...

 Kfar HaRoeh

Kfar Haroeh

Kfar Haroeh is a religious moshav in central Israel. Located in the coastal plain between Hadera and Netanya, it falls under the jurisdiction of Hefer Valley Regional Council. In 2007 it had a population of 1,500....

 high school yeshiva

Yeshiva

Yeshiva is a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and Torah study. Study is usually done through daily shiurim and in study pairs called chavrutas...

, and then at Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook

Zvi Yehuda Kook

Zvi Yehuda Kook was a rabbi, leader of Religious Zionism and Rosh Yeshiva of the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva...

's Mercaz haRav

Mercaz haRav

Mercaz HaRav , more properly, Mercaz HaRav Kook ), is a national-religious yeshiva in Jerusalem, Israel, founded in 1924 by Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook. It has become synonymous with his teachings....

 yeshiva, where owing to Lior's being an orphan, the Rabbi treated him like a son. Lior married Bitya in 1960. She died of cancer in 1988. He later married Esther, widow of Rabbi Ephraim Shahor. Lior has 11 children, 55 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. Two of his brothers arrived in Israel after him and joined the Hashomer Hatzair

Hashomer Hatzair

Hashomer Hatzair is a Socialist–Zionist youth movement founded in 1913 in Galicia, Austria-Hungary, and was also the name of the group's political party in the Yishuv in the pre-1948 British Mandate of Palestine...

 kibbutz HaMa'apil

HaMa'apil

HaMa'apil is a kibbutz in central Israel. It is located near Ahituv within the jurisdiction of the Hefer Valley Regional Council. In 2006 it had a population of 499....

.

Rabbinic career

Lior is a Religious Zionist

Religious Zionism

Religious Zionism is an ideology that combines Zionism and Jewish religious faith...

 leader and student of Zvi Yehuda Kook

Zvi Yehuda Kook

Zvi Yehuda Kook was a rabbi, leader of Religious Zionism and Rosh Yeshiva of the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva...

, son of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook

Abraham Isaac Kook

Abraham Isaac Kook was the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of the British Mandate for Palestine, the founder of the Religious Zionist Yeshiva Merkaz HaRav, Jewish thinker, Halachist, Kabbalist and a renowned Torah scholar...

. In the late 1980s the Attorney General barred Lior’s election to the Supreme Rabbinical Council following a public outcry over his remarks that captured Arab terrorists could be used in medical experiments. After the Mercaz HaRav massacre

Mercaz HaRav massacre

The Mercaz HaRav massacre, also called the Mercaz HaRav shooting, was an attack that occurred on 6 March 2008, in which a lone Palestinian gunman shot multiple students at the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva, a religious school in Jerusalem, Israel, after which the gunman himself was shot dead. Eight students...

, he said it was forbidden by Jewish law to employ or rent homes to Arabs.

In 2007, Dov Lior attended the dedication of Beit HaShalom

Beit HaShalom

Beit HaShalom, , or the Al Rajabi House settlement is a four-story structure that housed a local Hebron Jewish community of 25 families, youth and yeshiva students. The structure is located on the main road linking Kiryat Arba to the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron...

 and gave his blessings to the local Jewish community.http://www.hebron.com/english/article.php?id=313 In 2008, Lior and other right-wing rabbis declared the government's policies on Israeli settlements to be "worse than the British Mandate

British Mandate

British Mandate may refer to:*British Mandate for Palestine*British Mandate of Mesopotamia...

's White Paper

White paper

A white paper is an authoritative report or guide that helps solve a problem. White papers are used to educate readers and help people make decisions, and are often requested and used in politics, policy, business, and technical fields. In commercial use, the term has also come to refer to...

."

In Israel's general elections, Lior supported the National Union

National Union

National Union may refer to one of many political parties:* Liberia National Union* National Union * National Union * National Union Party * National Union , Nasser's party in the United Arab Republic, 1957 - 1962...

 and was a key figure in the break-up of The Jewish Home

The Jewish Home

-External links:*...

, formed to create a united political front for all religious Zionists.

In 2009, he denounced the possible transfer of jurisdiction of Christian sites in Israel to the Holy See, saying it was "unthinkable to hand over to the Vatican any piece of our holy land".

in 2011, Lior was called in for interrogation by Israeli police about controversial statements attributed to him in a foreword written by him for the book of a colleague. He agreed to be questioned at his home but the police issued a warrant for his arrest which sparked wide condemnation in religious right wing circles.

Controversies

Lior has legitimized killing non-Jews during wartime. He asserted that Jewish women should not use sperm donated by a non-Jewish man and a baby born through such an insemination will have the 'negative genetic traits that characterize non-Jews' and that 'Gentile sperm leads to barbaric offspring'."

Leading rabbis have testified that Lior was the source of rulings labeling the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin

Yitzhak Rabin

' was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–77 and 1992 until his assassination in 1995....

 a "rodef" and a "moser" (a traitor who endangers Jewish lives ). Rabin's assassin was known to have visited Lior. Baruch Goldstein

Baruch Goldstein

Baruch Kopel Goldstein was an American-born Jewish Israeli physician and mass murderer who perpetrated the 1994 Cave of the Patriarchs massacre in the city of Hebron, killing 29 Palestinian Muslim worshipers and wounding another 125....

 also met with Lior. After he opened fire on Arab worshipers at the Cave of the Patriarchs, Lior described Goldstein as "holier than all the martyrs of the Holocaust."

In June 2011 Lior was arrested by Israeli police and questioned on suspicion of inciting violence. Lior had been summoned for questioning by authorities, but refused to appear. Spontaneous demonstrations erupted in and around Jerusalem as outraged supporters assembled in various parts of the city and on Route 1

Highway 1 (Israel)

Highway 1 , is the main highway connecting Tel Aviv with Jerusalem.-History:The section between Latrun and Jerusalem roughly follows an ancient path connecting Jaffa and Jerusalem...

 to protest Lior's arrest. Israeli chief rabbis Yona Metzger

Yona Metzger

Yona Metzger is the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel. His counterpart is Rabbi Shlomo Amar, the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel since their appointments in 2003.-Background:...

 and Shlomo Amar

Shlomo Amar

Rabbi Shlomo Moshe Amar has been the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel and the Rishon LeZion since his appointment in 2003. His colleague is Rabbi Yona Metzger, the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel....

 condemned the arrest as a "grave offense to an important rabbi's honor," and 25 members of Knesset signed a petition denouncing it as "shameful" and as having been orchestrated by Deputy State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan. Lior was released after an hour of questioning.

Both opposition leader Tzipi Livni

Tzipi Livni

Tzipporah Malkah "Tzipi" Livni is an Israeli lawyer and politician. She is the current Israeli Opposition Leader and leader of Kadima, the largest party in the Knesset. Raised an ardent nationalist, Livni has become one of her nation's leading voices for the two-state solution. In Israel she has...

 and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Benjamin Netanyahu

Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu is the current Prime Minister of Israel. He serves also as the Chairman of the Likud Party, as a Knesset member, as the Health Minister of Israel, as the Pensioner Affairs Minister of Israel and as the Economic Strategy Minister of Israel.Netanyahu is the first and, to...

called for a full judicial investigation of Lior's remarks and said that rabbis were not above the law.

In September 2011, he stated that Arabs are 'evil camel riders'.