An Israeli rabbi has sparked fears of political assassination after invoking a Jewish religious doctrine permitting lethal force against politicians who support the participation of Palestinian parties in a future Israeli government.

Rabbi Gedalia Axelrod, a former head of Haifa’s rabbinical court and a prominent figure in the city’s Chabad community, issued a religious ruling declaring that Jewish party leaders who facilitate a government supported by Palestinian parties are subject to “din rodef”, or the “law of the pursuer”.

The doctrine, which can permit the killing of a person deemed to pose an immediate threat to others, was invoked by Yigal Amir to justify his assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995.