Dozens of top Israeli rabbis sign ruling to forbid rental of homes to Arabs
The religious ruling comes just months after a group of 18 prominent rabbis, including the chief rabbi of Safed, signed a call to that effect.
By Chaim LevinsonDozens of Israel's municipal chief rabbis have signed on to a new religious ruling that would forbid the rental of homes to gentiles in a move particularly aimed against Arabs, Haaretz has learned.
The religious ruling comes just months after a group of 18 prominent rabbis, including the chief rabbi of Safed, signed a call urging Jews to refrain from renting or selling apartments to non-Jews.
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The Arab neighborhood of Dahiyat al-Salam. |
| Photo by: Olivier Fitoussi |
Most of the signatories to the letter are from Safed, a city that has seen an increase in its Arab student population that is enrolled at the town's local college. Safed chief rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, who has been criticized in the past for incendiary remarks against Arabs, is the most prominent figure to sign the letter.
The group to sign on to the religious ruling includes the chief rabbis of Ramat Hasharon, Ashdod, Kiryat Gat, Rishon Letzion, Carmiel, Gadera, Afula, Nahariya, Herzliya, Nahariya and Pardes Hannah, among a number of other cities.
The signatories also called on the religious community to voice support Rabbi Eliyahu, who could face trial for incitement against Arabs. Minority Affairs Minister Avishay Braverman has also asked Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman to begin the process of suspending Eliyahu immediately from his post as municipal rabbi.
Politicos from the national religious sector believe that the mass of prominent figures who signed on to the ruling – all of whose salaries are paid by public funds - will send a message to the attorney general to take Eliyahu's position seriously.
The rabbis' letter, which was first published months ago and reprinted in October, urges Jewish owners of apartments to reconsider renting their properties to Arabs since it would deflate the value of their homes as well as those in the neighborhood.
"Their way of life is different than that of Jews," the letter stated. "Among [the gentiles] are those who are bitter and hateful toward us and who meddle into our lives to the point where they are a danger."
The rabbis also urge neighbors of anyone renting or selling property to Arabs to caution that person. After delivering the warning, the neighbor is then encouraged to issue notices to the general public and inform the community.
"The neighbors and acquaintances [of a Jew who sells or rents to an Arab] must distance themselves from the Jew, refrain from doing business with him, deny him the right to read from the Torah, and similarly [ostracize] him until he goes back on this harmful deed," the letter reads.
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Read Abbas comments that he will never recognize israel as a jewish state and all his rubbish ranting(
This is absolutely unacceptable. We are Jews, that is a holy thing and it is our job to be the light unto the world. I ask, can those Rabbi's be proud of what they have done??? I certainly cannot.
Now these rabbi's have come full circle. This is sad.
The behaviour of those rabbis is completely unacceptable and they should be immediately removed from their position.However,it is very funny how all those who are outraged at this "don't rent to Arabs" statement by Jews use it to justify their own "kill the Jews" statement.....
Yeah, I remember this slogan from my history books. No, wait.. I think it was something similar.
What a pathetic double standard - how many Jews live in Ramallah, Shechem. Bethlehem , or any of dozens of Arab villages in the Galil. Why is that ok ?
All those who -justly- criticize the rabbis who urge Jews to not rent or sell to Arabs have nothing to say about the fact that no Arabs accept any Jew to live in their villages.....
All Jewish Israelis live in what used to be Arab villages. Arabs don't have many left. But we know, you want those as well. It's called 'settlement expansion' and 'peace talks'
Jews living in the occupied territory are doing do at the behest of the Israeli government, in direct contradiction of the international legal principle that an occupying power has no right to move its citizens into the occupied area. There is a fundamental legal and moral difference between them and Arabs who are citizens of Israel trying to move to Safed, or any other Israeli town. Moreover, there are many Jews who have lived and spent time in Arab villages in Israel without problems. Read up please.
The problem with Israelis is that they want to have their cake and eat it too. Without excusing excesses by Arabs and others against Jews, the majority of Israelis hypocritically would ethnically cleanse both Israel and Palestine of Palestinian Arabs (forgetting that Jews once were Palestinians also), except for fear that the world would rise up against them. It doesn't take a psychic to know what Israelis are thinking. The devil knows first and foremost. So declare a one state solution. You are pushing Abbas to do just that. And Argentina has voted for that in recognizing Palestine within the 1967 borders, according to the Saudi Plan, Israel's last and best hope for any kind of future at all.
Disgusting! Have these rabbis no shame?
I find this hard to accept, Rabbis making such statements? Shameful, disgusting and revolting. This is what happens when the religious element in any society attains too much power and influence. These rabbis are a bunch of hypocrites! Don't they remember what happened to us in Europe 70 years ago? Shame on them for saying such things and shame on us for allowing them to keep their jobs.
It's just like 1933 all over again isn't it? Except this time it is the rabbis not the SS.
the world believes their state is racist and an Apartheid state? Jewish only settlements, Jewish only roads, Jewish only schools, Jewish only neighborhouds, Jewish only rentals, jewish only rule, Jewish only right of return...Jewish only democracy is NOT a democracy it's called a racist state.
but like smoking, anyone can quit religion too. and both should be banned.
How many tears can one shed, Tania cannot be buried in a jewish cemetery, her mother is not jewish only the father, don't rent to Arabs, because they have one God and we have another, don't do this or don't do that, everythings with threats, it reminds me of post war Germany, can't people ever learn from history???
between this racist act and the "don't buy from Jews" slogan in Nazi Germany?
.from the prime minister, "chief rabbi etc"or or culture vulture Livnat.
This kind of ruling is outright racism and should be immediately outlawed. How long can we Zionists give support to our ancestral homeland with rulings such as this!!
I can only imagine the outcry if a similar thing happened here in Europe with a bunch of vicars signing a letter to their parishioners telling them not to rent to Jews..... Utterly disgusted with this, & organised religion in general - seems to be the cause of most strife & war in the World....
In the bastions of the left Ashkenazi there aren't many arabs renting there
In the bastions of the left Ashkenazi there aren't many arabs renting there
Oh, but when it comes to using the Arabs so they can eat during the ridiculous shmitta and selling of "hametz" and so on, that's kosher. Decent-minded Jews dismiss these narrow-minded bigots with the contempt they deserve.
Seems the spiritual leaders of the Jews are active practitioners of apartheidism. In a purported to be civilized democracy no less. Why does this not surprise me.
and Judaism.
Unbelievable. The 2nd world war is only 70 years ago and they start copying the behaviour of a certain party during that war that inflicted a lot of sorrow on the jewish people and the world population. Let's hope that a political party takes issue with these statements and the salaries of these people paid for out of taxes. Sack them all I would say. Racists!!
How would you feel if read this: "Their way of life is different than that of the Gentiles," the letter stated. "Among [the Jews] are those who are bitter and hateful toward us and who meddle into our lives to the point where they are a danger." Yakk! how can a country like Israel accept such racist words? How can you as a nation accept these people as your religious leaders. How can municipalities still pay the wages of these people?
So as to enable these people to easily identify me when I go about my business in a country I am a CITIZEN of...
"antisemitism"... how can anyone NOW seriously question what its roots are? Seriously! In any case it would be totally illegal.
and we had to endure this thing from 80 to 65 years ago. HOW PROUD SHOULD WE BE WITH OUR SPIRITUAL LEADERS. They should be thrown in jail for racial incitation
which one of you remembers 1936 and the few following years? recreating the history.... I am so sorry for their g-d, he must be crying, or maybe actually they have no g-d, they're their won gods simply, little bitter minds
Do you approve mr whataboutery---do "They do it too". You support a racist bigotted nation and that is just the tip of the iceberg.
Absolute disgrace, it makes me ashamed to be Jewish when I hear such things. Why is it the most religious amongst us tend to be the most bigoted. But as the saying goes :- "With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."
By its patent moral bankruptcy, the Judaism that these rabbis represent is not the Judaism of the Tanach, which includes completed or fulfilled post-Messianic Judaism. Both the seventh-day Saturday Sabbath, and the first messianic prophecy (of the child of the woman being wounded in the heel (crucified to rise again), but fatally crushing the serpent's (representing the arch-angelic arch heretic Lucifer) head by that same heel) were given to all humanity through Adam and Eve, the first created humans, long before Abraham, Moses, or the first Jew. The Jews crucified their Messiah because they rejected his patent and confessed Messianic Divinity, primarily because Jesus' issue was not liberation of the Jews from the Romans, the restoration of their Temple OR LAND whose desolation He predicted, or the restoration of their land, the loss of which Moses also predicted along with the coming of their Messiah - 15 The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken. Rather Jesus' issue was humanity's liberation from the author of SIN through Adam and Eve, the fallen archangelic spirit Lucifer. Therefore, He taught "by their fruits ye shall know them", and 43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. 44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? 47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others ? do not even the publicans so? 48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
Amen brother. Baruch HaShem.
these words and this attitude was same one nazis deployed against Jews. These false poskim and this clown naming himself after false moshiach Shabbtay Tsevi should all get cherem. This is not Jewish way. This is nazi way.
What kind of a religion do these rabbis practise? The same as those religious pastors and priests and indeed rabbis in the US who in the 50s-60s didn't want blacks living in their neighbourhoods. When religion becomes a reason to treat individuals as lesser people it isn't religion anymore. What kind of a God do these rabbis worship? It's certainly not the God who said, love thy neighbour as thy self. But from killing people on the high seas, to bombing un compounds to practising apartheid in their own backyard israel has become the ultimate pariah state, and perhaps for all of the pious talk , more and more Godless.
When will these people finally look in the mirror and realize they have turned the star of David into a Swastika?
There is a law that you can't say that someone is a nazi. A pity! It was the nazis that banned letting houses to jews. How would Amirican jewry react if American priests called on A mericans not to sell or rent to jews. As I have mentioned before, if I want to live in a true demogracy, I would have to return to Germany, from which I escaped 72 years ago. If Englands priest had been like our rabbis 10,000 jewish children would not have been saved
These rabbis are scum. But, more important, doesn't the government have a responsibility to protect the rights of people to live where they want? What kind of democracy restricts where people can live? Israel is in serious danger of being taken over by a bunch of religeous fanatics and bigots.
I WOULD LIKE TO SEE HOW ANY OF THE ABOVE WOULD REACT IF THEIR NEIGHBOURS WOULD RENT OR SELL TO ARABS. EVERYTHING IS ALLOWED BUT NOT IN MY BACK YARD.
... sure do know how to get bad publicity for world Jewry!
Then you tell us that Israel is a democracy where minorities enjoy equal rights. Don't make us laugh. Israel is a segregated society, just as Southern US in the 50s.
Very soon they will sign a ruling asking the Arabs to wear a green crescent moon and they will paint it on their shops.... I have a sensation of Deja Vu.....
Well, in the eyes of most people " to forbid rental of homes to ... people of specific ethnic or religious origin" is purely racist. What if I was to put -black or jew in the sentence?
The flexing of the muscles by these leaders of modern day ghettos is another chapter in the steps of ultra-orthodoxy to grab at the political levers of control in our democracy. The emergence of the Chardal spells the end of that democracy - Haredi+Dati+Leumi. Already it has a leading role in Yesha and its younger generation live in W Bank settlements and reject the laws of the state for the higher authority they believe is theirs. We can kiss goodbye to a 2 state solution - we already have 2 states, the state of Israel and the state of Chardal. Soon we will have lost the frail democracy we were once so proud of but rarely did we nurture it or behave as if we knew we had responsibility for it. We somehow need to save our country, but somehow isn't enough anymore. Our young people seem to live in a daze and have not a clue about this new Israel, edging closer and closer to a Nationalist Theocracy. Add our nuclear not-so-deterrent and we are likely to end up like Iran.
Its a racist country by all means
Everyone got so upset with Carter's book indicating that many in Israel have set up their own version of Apartheid. This is clear evidence that Carter was right. It is pure racism and is despicable.
I as a G-d fearing and observant Jew do not support this in any way and will never abide by their ruling. Disgusting.
I applaud your position. The "burning question" is, however, how many folks in Israel feel as you do--and how many folks have now shouldered their pitchforks and torches--and are marching behind the rabbis?
Unfortunately the pseudo zionist-religious forces are very strong in Israel as well as in Jewish communities abroad, participially in North America. This mentality sickens me, I never back away from a chance to express my views to these zionist racists. Unfortunately not much can be done when you have Rabbis spreading such nonsense.
- badly behaved and uncontrolled kids, dirty and disrepectful - So there are no Jews that are badly behaved, have uncontrolled and uncontrollable kids, are dirty and disrespectful? I wonder why there is any social problems in Jewish communities... even court cases...
It's rather similar really. It started small and slow at first, but it's gathering pace and spreading across the country. And what's the government's reaction so far? Try to ignore it basically. "Minority Affairs Minister Avishay Braverman has also asked Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman to begin the process of suspending Eliyahu immediately from his post as municipal rabbi." That was some weeks ago. Anything actually happened? In the meantime the fire spreads and grows. There are ways and means of stopping it, but nobody's doing anything much at the moment and if they don't , then eventually, as with the fire lives will start to be lost.
who in their right minds would want to live next to an arab .badly behaved and uncontrolled kids, dirty and disrepectful .
arab countries feel living next to isreal
Hey shabtai, you should read a few books on WWII. I'm reading Richard Evans' "The Third Reich at War". Evans quotes German soldiers and officers writing home to their wives of the filth and depravation they witnessed of Poland's Jews. They were prejudiced, racist and liable to ignore the fact that poor Germans lived in similar conditions. So what are we to make of your comment?
to hear a jew use the same language as the racists...
And some abroad say that about Israelis in general. People in glasshouses should not throw stones.
Everybody knows that Israel was formerly the Palestine where Arabs live. You should not stay in a place where you hate its indigenous people.
...I bet 100 USD that none of these Rabbis are Holocaust-survivors. Jews who remember the horrors of the 30s in Europe or even the second generation from that time, would NEVER get into this kind of segregation-activities.
This is exactly the same kind of "thinking" that made my ancestors to such abominable things to others declared sub-human. In Germanys case it was jews and Easterners, in this racists case it's fellow semites from another religion.
this is NOT Jewish way. this is NAZI way. fire them all, they endanger lives of all Jews worldwide, they disgrace and endanger both Klal Yisroel and State of Israel
that they would NEVER get into this kind of segregation-activities. I personally have been bullied by one of them here in Berlin recently.
that they would NEVER get into this kind of segregation-activities. I personally have been bullied by one of them here in Berlin recently.
Most elderly Jews who have been through the hell of the Holocaust and survived, are truly non-racist, altruistic and void of bigotry.
The only thig Ihave to add is that the Orthodox rabbinica monopoly makes life miserable for us seculars in Israel.
It exists among the secular, it exists among the religious. The first step to hitting a target is determining where it is.
racial discrimination in all senses of the word. Time to arrest them.
"Their way of life is different than that of Jews," the letter stated. "Among [the gentiles] are those who are bitter and hateful toward us and who meddle into our lives to the point where they are a danger." "The neighbors and acquaintances [of a Jew who sells or rents to an Arab] must distance themselves from the Jew, refrain from doing business with him, deny him the right to read from the Torah, and similarly [ostracize] him until he goes back on this harmful deed," the letter reads. Reading this - I just can find these words: welcome back in Nazi-Germany - have those so-called "rabbis" nothing learnt from our very own history??? What will be the next consequence? Arab Israelis forced to live in a ghetto??? Jewish Israelis dealing with Arab Israelis declared as criminals? When will we wake up?
They already are until the 'chosen' can steal that land too! cf. E. Jerusalem
They already are until the 'chosen' can steal that land too! cf. E. Jerusalem
Rabbis and Imams are supposed to promote understanding and tolerance. Anyone doing other than that does not deserve to be called neither. They should be called "Inciters" and "Hate promoters".
...in our time we are seeing "religious" Islamic preachers on Satelite TV and on the internet inciting totally UNACCEPTABLE garbish about Jews and Judaism. Not to forget how all the Jews of the Arab world once upon a time were harrassed and kicked out - WITHOUT any reason at all. We have to say stop to that too !
Genuinely religious people know the difference.
...purely from by basic conviction that Incitement, hatred and bigotry is a great contradiction to any religion - my own included. There are fanatic preachers in all camps, and they disgust med utterly
Rabbi's indeed? God fearing men? They should be VERY afraid - doesn't sound like an action of which God would approve!
...comit the same bigotry ? No, on the contrary - we should rise above all of that, and - IF there will be a Palestinian state - offer the Jews of the WB Palestinian citicenship and TOTAL protection. I think you are thinking in the wrong direction PB.
Put them all on trial, oust the religious from politics. Enough is enough.
It's not the religious who are at fault, it's the bigots.
Rabbi Froman is a great example of a good and in the same time religious Rabbi - free of bigotry and racism. A truly honorable man.