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Criminal probe opened against rabbis who signed anti-Arab labor ads
By Tomer Zarchin and Nadav Shragai, Haarez Correspondent
Tags: racism, Israeli Arabs 

A criminal investigation for incitement to racism will be opened against 29 rabbis who signed two advertisements urging people not to hire Arabs, Deputy Attorney General Shai Nitzan decided Tuesday.

Both advertisements were issued following terror attacks in Jerusalem carried out by East Jerusalem residents: the shooting attack at Mercaz Harav Yeshiva last March and two rampages by bulldozer drivers in July.

"Again and again, it turns out that ostensibly cheap Arab labor exacts a price from us in blood, which is more dear than all," read the ad published after the bulldozer attacks, which appeared in the right-wing newspaper Kommemiyut and was also distributed as a flier. "The murderous tractors driven by Arabs from East Jerusalem are only the tip of the iceberg of a national problem that has long since become an existential danger that threatens the welfare of the nation that dwells in Zion: from taking over of sources of livelihood and pushing Jews out of every place, through a creeping takeover of Jewish neighborhoods, chutzpah and effrontery, growing verbal and physical violence and systematic and deliberate injury to the honor of the daughters of Israel, to mixed marriages with Jewish women who fall into their nets."
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The ad then urged people to "stop employing the Arab enemy, at least in the spheres closest to us. We won't let enemies into our homes, we won't buy from enemies, we won't directly employ enemies."

Several of the signatories, who include Rabbis Shmuel Eliyahu (the chief rabbi of Safed), Yitzhak Ginzberg, Dov Lior (the chief rabbi of Hebron and Kiryat Arba), David Druckman (the chief rabbi of Kiryat Motzkin) and Yaakov Yosef, are state employees.

The other ad, published after the Mercaz Harav attack, urged people to "stop employing and supporting the Arab enemies and switch to Jewish labor and commerce with Jews."

Of the 29 rabbis, nine signed both ads, while the others signed only one.

One signatory, Rabbi Elyakim Levanon, responded that the ad was aimed at saving lives, and "if someone thinks he needs to investigate and try me for that... It will be to my credit."

Nitzan also ordered an investigation against a group of ultra-Orthodox kashrut supervisors in Jerusalem who tried to get the businesses they supervised to stop employing Arabs.

They were relying on a religious ruling by Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky that Jewish businesses should not employ Arabs. Nevertheless, Nitzan did not order a probe of Kanievsky, due in part to his old age.


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      1.   Despicable document, full of malice... 08:01  |  Esther 31/12/08
      2.   If phrased differently, wd ads be calls for affirmative action? 10:01  |  DJStahl 31/12/08
      3.   Racism or Patriotism? 10:11  |  Gary M. Cooperberg 31/12/08
      4.   Does this mean the haredim will be willing to work 10:15  |  Michel 31/12/08
      5.   Nothing to do with Racism. 12:57  |  Ariel 31/12/08
      6.   In Israel racism is a crime, in Gaza it is patriotism 13:11  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 31/12/08
      7.   Zionism is not Racism 18:02  |  J 31/12/08
      8.   While several Countries praise Pan-Arabism in their Anthems... 01:39  |  UsedToPostHere 01/01/09
      9.   re: Michel 01:45  |  UsedToPostHere 01/01/09
      10.   War footing 15:30  |  Motic 01/01/09
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