List of Jews-only businesses goes offline in wake of petition

The Avoda Ivrit ("Hebrew Work") Web site on Wednesday removed from the Internet its list of businesses that hire only Jewish workers, after two groups petitioned the Jerusalem District Court to instruct the site to shut down.

The Israel Religious Action Center and the Mossawa Center for Arab Rights in Israel said the site practices illegal discrimination against Arabs and other non-Jews.

The two parties came to an agreement, according to which the list went offline and the site published an apology for posting it in the first place.

The court gave the agreement the status of a court ruling, meaning that if Avoda Ivrit violates the deal, it has in effect violated a court order.

A short time after the agreement was made, however, the list was removed from its original location (www.jewsite.org/avodaivrit/) but was still available online, on the Avoda Ivrit server (www.jewsite.org). The list was removed following a Haaretz Web site article saying it was still online.

The apology posted on the Avoda Ivrit site said: "The managers and workers of the Avoda Ivrit Web site apologize for hurting feelings or human dignity or any damage that might have been caused to a person or the public from advertisements on the site."

The Web site was created in June 2002 by Adi Ginzburg, a private entrepreneur from Givat Shmuel who wanted to encourage the hiring of Jewish workers.

Some 200 businesses have added their names to the online list, declaring they do not employ Arabs. The list included names of taxi operators, construction companies and gas stations.

The Web site also offered a listing of Jews looking for work.