Israel Honors Rabbi Avraham Zarbiv at Independence Day Torch Ceremony Months After Ethics Censure and ICC Complaint

Rabbi Avraham Zarbiv, a serving rabbinical-court judge whose own conduct has been formally censured by Israel's judicial ethics commissioner and who is the subject of a January 2025 International Criminal Court complaint over alleged war crimes in Gaza, lit a torch on Tuesday evening at Israel's 78th Independence Day ceremony at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem — the country's most prominent civic honor.

The nomination came from Transport Minister Miri Regev, who chaired this year's torch-lighter selection. Regev's official justification described Zarbiv as a father of six who "continues to serve in reserve duty and combines in his life an inspiring way between the book and the sword — between Torah and the army," adding that he "represents a generation." Twelve torches are lit each year by individuals chosen to symbolize "exemplary citizenship" in different fields of national life. This year's other lighters included Argentine President Javier Milei, hostage-and-missing-persons coordinator Gal Hirsch, and the mother of a Gaza hostage.

What Israel's own institutions have already said about him

Months before the nomination, Israel's Public Complaints Commissioner for Judges — retired Supreme Court Justice Asher Kulla — issued a formal ruling against Zarbiv in his role as a dayan (rabbinical-court judge) at the Ariel Regional Rabbinical Court. The commissioner found that videos and statements Zarbiv distributed during reserve service in Gaza, calling for settlement and large-scale destruction, violated the ethics rules binding judges. Kulla wrote that Zarbiv had "failed to adhere" to those rules and "gave full expression to his worldview on issues that are subject to public debate in a manner that is unbecoming to his status as a judge." The commissioner rejected Zarbiv's preliminary argument that his conduct in uniform fell outside the office's jurisdiction.

The Israel Defense Forces, asked about Zarbiv's selection, said publicly that he "was not selected in coordination" with the military and was not representing it, despite his ongoing reserve service in the Givati Brigade.

The ICC complaint

On January 23, 2025, the Brussels-based Hind Rajab Foundation filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court demanding an arrest warrant for Zarbiv. The filing cites three Rome Statute war-crimes provisions (Articles 8(2)(b)(i), 8(2)(b)(iv), and 8(2)(e)(i)) and Article 7 on crimes against humanity, charging individual criminal responsibility under Article 25(3)(a). The evidence base, drawn entirely from material Zarbiv himself published or that aired on Israeli television, includes:

• Video footage dated February 7, 2024, showing Zarbiv and his unit throwing grenades and firing in Khan Younis;
• A January 22, 2025 televised interview on Israel's Channel 14 in which Zarbiv described destroying roughly 50 buildings per week in Gaza, including private homes, schools, hospitals, and aid facilities;
• His own circulated videos demolishing buildings in Gaza and southern Lebanon, and sermons from the ruins of Rafah promising "victory and settlement."

The Israeli human-rights NGO Kerem Navot has separately filed a complaint over Zarbiv's home in the Beit El settlement, which the group says was built on private Palestinian land.

The framing offered, and the response

Regev's defenders have argued that the selection honors a serving combat reservist and educator. Zarbiv himself, addressing the controversy on Channel 14 earlier this year, said: "I am one soldier among many. I am a soldier of the Givati Brigade." He has also described the post-war state of Gaza in stark terms: "There are tens of thousands of dead. The dogs and the cats ate them because no one collected them. Tens of thousands of families — they have not a piece of paper, no childhood photo, no IDs, they have nothing."

B'Tselem, the Israeli information center for human rights in the occupied territories, said the nomination amounted to "a state-level endorsement of the complete dehumanization of Palestinians and the systematic destruction of Palestinian life," adding that the choice signals that "genocide, ethnic cleansing, and war crimes" are now treated as "the spirit of the nation" — moving from fringe positions into the official identity of the state.

The ceremony — held under the theme "Powers of Renewal" — proceeded as scheduled on Tuesday evening at Mount Herzl, broadcast live on Israel's public channels. Zarbiv lit his torch in the rotation alongside the other 11 honorees.