Albanian authorities are invited to arrest and try the country’s chief rabbi for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed within the framework of the Israel genocide in Gaza, A, can reveal exclusively.
On Wednesday, a case against Yoel Kaplan, an Israeli-American citizen, an active Israeli soldier and head of the small Jewish community in Albania, was submitted to the Attorney General in Tirana.
Kaplan divides his time between Israel, Albania and Thessaloniki, Greece, where he also runs a small Jewish community. He was photographed in Gaza and videos show it in uniform with the 55th battalion of the 98th division of the Israeli army.
The Palestinian International Center for Justice (ICJP), a UK-based rights group, said on Wednesday that it had “submitted an official opinion to the Albanian police concerning a member of the [Israeli army] suspected of participating in war crimes. »»
“We have reason to believe that this person is currently present in the Albanian jurisdiction and that the domestic police must investigate and arrest them urgently,” the statement said. ICJP did not appoint the suspect for legal reasons.
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Sources in Albania have confirmed to the Middle East Eye that the suspect is Kaplan. In March, the ICJP launched the Global 195 Coalition, an international legal network pursuing Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza.
‘I am very active [in the military] And I think it’s time to be active because if not in this war, when ‘
– Yoel Kaplan, the chief rabbi of Albania
The 98th division operated in Gaza around December 2023 until the least August 2024 and would have been active around Khan Younis, in the south of the band.
MEE pointed out dozens of civilian dead while the Kaplan unit operated in Khan Younis, and a large part of the city was destroyed or damaged before the redeploying of the 98th division in Lebanon in October 2024.
The Kaplan battalion was active in Khan Younis when Israeli forces shot children and targeted hospitals, ambulances and schools where thousands of civilians were sheltered.
The chief rabbi of Albania, which was appointed by the government in 2010 without the blessing of a large part of the small Jewish population of the country, is prosecuted under article 7 of the Penal Code of Albania, which covers foreign citizens who commit crimes abroad, including “crimes against humanity”.
As a signatory of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Albania is forced to investigate, according to the ICJP.
Rabbi’s mission in the Balkans
In September 2024, MEE revealed video sequences published on Kaplan’s social networks celebrating above a reservoir in the middle of the general destruction in Gaza.
“Rabbi Yoel Kaplan, a Chabad Shliach [representative] In Albania, who returned to Israel after October 7 and who has been fighting Hamas since the start of the war, blows the Shofar [ram’s horn] For the other soldiers in Gaza, ”says the legend.
After this revelation, Mee contacted Kaplan by phone about his role in Gaza.
“I am very active [in the military] And I think it’s time to be active because if not in this war, when? Kaplan said, saying that Israel was fighting “for Jewish families” in the world.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Kaplan and his family then emigrated to Israel, settling in the city of Safed.
He studied the Religious Seminary in Jerusalem and New York, completing his studies in 1998.
Rabbi is a member of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, one of the world’s largest Hassidic groups, with around 90,000 members.
Its ultra-Orthodox and Messianic ideology has often been linked to hard settlers’ policy. Kaplan aligned himself with this current, which supervises the occupation by Israel of the Palestinian lands and territorial expansion as a divine mission.
In the Balkans, the Chabad movement, which had no presence before the arrival of Kaplan in Albania, now has sites across the region.
Rabbi Kaplan left Albania after October 7, 2023 and told me that he had chosen to “introduce himself and be part of my [military] unit ”, in the next war in Gaza.
When Mee spoke to Kaplan in November 2024, he said he had just fighted in Lebanon, that Israel invaded on October 1 of the same year.
Kaplan on the battlefield
Information on open source shows that the 98th division was withdrawn from Gaza in August 2024 and redeployed north of Israel at the end of September, a calendar that corresponds to the Kaplan account.
In September 2024, the images of Channel 14 of Israel projected images of the Rabbi Yoel Kaplan Standing dressed in complete military equipment and a hung pistol over his shoulder, in front of a tank in Rafah, blowing the Shofar (a horn of ram).
Kaplan has seen his role as impregnated soldiers, whom he described as “all this powerful force”, with a messianic religious fervor before sending them in the battle and his appearance for them “the shofar of the Messiah, of the salvation that we all expect and hope that we will come”.
He explained that his main mission is to “strengthen the combat spirit”. Kaplan said it was “essential” to explain to the soldiers that “they are part of the full puzzle of the salvation of the people of Israel, the renewal of the people of Israel, and that each of them is a critical mission.”
Kaplan said that rallying soldiers for war had sent “chills” through him. After a meeting with his eldest son in Gaza, he declared that it was “a great pride for all Israel that the father and the son are at war”.
The brief war of Israel with Hezbollah, after months of clashes, ended with a cease-fire on November 28, 2024, although Israel has since launched other attacks against Lebanon which broke the ceasefire and by killing hundreds.
“It is a big effort that we [are putting in] – myself and some of the soldiers I work with, and my son. My eldest son is also an officer … We are doing a lot, “said Kaplan.” I’m very proud of that. “
“I know that some people will always look at him [the war] Not in the right way, but who cares? We are very focused on what we have to do and at the right time, we do it with a large and great privilege, “he said.
When he was asked to talk about his experiences in Gaza and Lebanon, Kaplan is suddenly hesitant.
‘I know that some people will always look at him [the war] Not in the right way, but who cares?
– Rabbi Yoel Kaplan
“It is better not to talk about details, you know. Especially not in the media. I prefer not to do it. It is better these days, especially for myself, since I travel-it is better not to indicate this part of my particular experience,” he said.
Kaplan may have been concerned because groups such as the Hind Rajab Foundation and the World Coalition of the 195 ICJP are targeting Israeli political and military figures accused of war crimes, cases for international courts.
In January, the Israeli soldiers limited soldiers in active service to publish on social networks in the midst of information concerns were used in judicial affairs abroad.
“I have the support of the Albanian government”
Israeli actions in Gaza also attracted demonstrations in Albania.
Kaplan laughed pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Albania as tiny and out of words, saying: “You know that we say like a joke … Bad advertising is always good advertising.”
“I have the support of [Albanian] government. I think that will not affect anything, ”said the rabbi.
When Mee asked if there were tensions between his participation in the Wars of Israel and his role as spiritual leader of the Jewish community of Albania and the wider Balkans, he simply retaliated: “No.”
On the state television of Albania RTSH, Kaplan describes himself as apolitical, a man of peace and interconfessional dialogue.
Kaplan has repeatedly asked MEE not to report the conversation of his role in the Gaza War, although he stayed in the file.
He repeated: “I prefer, you know, not to mention that … on your side. In order not to make a problem from this, from this idea … I ask you not to mention it and not to put this in the context of the interview. ”
Kaplan rather wanted to lead the conversation to Jewish life in Albania and the wider Balkans.
The day MEE spoke to the Rabbi, the ICC has expressed arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
“Each Jew, everyone should be upset about this [decision]”Said Kaplan.
‘I am not part of your interview’
Invited to respond to the disastrous humanitarian situation in Gaza, Kaplan has repeated discussion on the propaganda of the Israeli government, for a long time, that Hamas stole humanitarian aid.
Kaplan has grown and said he had held in his “ten fingers, babies who were [put] in the oven by the terrorists. There is no evidence for such complaints, which have been widely discredited.
Albania: the chief rabbi seen from the prayers of the Israeli army in Gaza faces calls for removal
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“I have no opinion on this subject,” said Kaplan, in response to a question of whether he believes in a two -state solution with a Palestinian state alongside an Israeli state.
Asked about the colonies in occupied West Bank, Kaplan proposed to put Mye in contact with the Israeli Embassy in Albania.
He also said that he had no comments and “idea” concerning the surveys of the ICJ and the ICC on Israeli leaders and military forces for alleged crimes in Gaza. He said he did not know that soldiers could be responsible under Albanian law.
When asked if there was a tension between serving as an Israeli reservoir and being the chief rabbi in Albania, Kaplan said: “No, many rabbis around the world are part of it.”
“I am not interested in talking about these problems, okay … I am not part of your interview,” said Kaplan. “The interview is over and that didn’t happen on my side. I have nothing to say about this problem and that’s it.”
At the time, the image of Kaplan’s Whatsapp profile showed him head troops in Gaza in prayer.
After the interview, Kaplan immediately deleted the photo. MEE sent the chief of Albania the Rabbi a request for comment on the legal affair which was now prosecuted against him. He did not respond to the time of publication.
