Israel – Rabbis “Outlaw” Renting Houses to Arabs

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    Israeli Rabbi Mordechai Nagari who recently signed a religious ruling barring Jews from selling or renting homes to non-Jews, takes a book from his cabinet in his office as he poses for a photo, in the Jewish West Bank settlement of Maaleh Adumim near Jerusalem, Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2010. Three dozen of Israel's top rabbis have thrown their support behind a religious ruling barring Jews from selling or renting homes to non-Jews - testifying to a growing radicalism within the rabbinical community at a time when frictions between Israeli Arabs and Jews are mounting. (AP Photo/Tara Todras-Whitehill)Israel -Three dozen top Israeli rabbis threw their support Tuesday behind a religious ruling barring Jews from selling or renting homes to non-Jews — an indication of growing radicalism within the rabbinical community at a time of mounting friction between Israeli Arabs and Jews.

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    The action by the clerics — who are chief rabbis in some of Israel’s largest cities and influential among the devout — quickly fueled charges of racism. It was also likely to deepen the feelings of alienation growing between Israel’s majority Jews and minority Arabs, and widen the schism between secular and religious Jews.

    The religious opinion first became a focus of controversy last year when the chief rabbi of Safed — a town in northern Israel that has a large concentration of devout Jews — urged that it be applied specifically to Arabs.

    Nitai Morgenstern, an aide to Safed’s chief rabbi, Shmuel Eliahu, said the town has “a problem of a lot of people renting and selling to Arabs, and that destroys the city’s social fabric.”

    Recently, a group of ultra-Orthodox Jews asked other chief rabbis to express their support for the ruling to prove it has widespread backing, Morgenstern said Tuesday. Thirty-seven rabbis signed it and The Associated Press obtained a copy of the ruling with their signatures attached on Tuesday.

    Morgenstern said he understood how this attitude could cause friction with the Arab minority, which accounts for one-fifth of Israel’s population of 7.6 million.

    “But people have to see the other side,” he said.

    Amit Cohen said he and other Safed residents led the campaign to win other rabbis’ support because clerics are “simply fed up with the fact that rabbis have to fear issuing or discussing religious rulings.”

    “Rabbis rule on the basis of existing texts,” Cohen said. “But lately, rabbis are afraid to rule on the basis of what is written because they are afraid of the reaction from the media and the government.”

    The director-general of Israel’s chief rabbinate, Oded Weiner, said the rabbinate hadn’t seen the rabbis’ action and wouldn’t comment on it.

    The Association for Civil Rights in Israel called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “condemn the incitement expressed by the rabbis and take disciplinary action against those who are employed by the state. ”

    “It is unthinkable that they would use their public status to promote racism and incitement,” the group said in a statement. Taxpayers pay the salaries of Israel’s 126 municipal chief rabbis.

    A Netanyahu spokesman wasn’t immediately available for comment.

    Arab-Jewish relations took a major turn for the worse 10 years ago at the outbreak of the second Palestinian uprising against Israel. Thousands of Israeli Arabs rioted for days in solidarity with the Palestinians, and Israeli police killed 13 Arab citizens while trying to quell the unrest.

    Israel’s ultranationalist foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, led his Yisrael Beitenu party to large gains in last year’s parliamentary elections by playing on the perceived disloyalty of Israel’s Arabs. He and other lawmakers have proposed a series of bills seen as discriminating against Israeli Arabs, including one that would allow small communities to exclude them.

    Israeli Jews have increasingly been questioning the loyalty of Arab citizens, who legally enjoy the same rights but tend to be poorer and discriminated against in state funding and job opportunities.

    Meanwhile, some members of the Arab minority have become radicalized by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and are openly speaking about turning the Jewish state into part of a binational state that would be home to Israelis and Palestinians both.

    Salah Mohsen, spokesman of Adalah, an advocacy group for Arabs in Israel, said the rabbis’ action was “not surprising” and blamed Lieberman’s Israel Beiteinu party, which wants to redraw Israel’s borders to exclude large Arab communities.

    Rabbi David Rosen, the interfaith adviser to Israel’s chief rabbinate, described the rabbis’ action as “disturbing” but said he did not think that the majority of the country’s rabbis would agree and called it a product of the lingering conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

    “The rabbinate as a whole isn’t xenophobic or hostile to Arabs,” Rosen said. “As long as the conflict goes on here, it’s logical to assume that the attitudes of all sides will harden, which is deeply regrettable.”

    Sociologist Menachem Friedman suggested the ruling could also be applied against impoverished African migrants, such as Eritreans and Sudanese, whose influx has raised concern of many in Israel.

    The government estimates that about 13,000 Africans will illegally enter Israel this year, joining more than 20,000 others who came between 2006 and 2009. Some are economic migrants and others are asylum-seekers.

    Their growing numbers have created a great dilemma here with some saying that a state founded in the wake of the Holocaust shouldn’t turn away people escaping persecution. Officials say they threaten to dilute the country’s Jewish character and are working to stem the influx.


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    14 Comments
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    JerusalamiKugel
    JerusalamiKugel
    13 years ago

    What a disgrace!! Im not surprised from the daily lunacy coming out of Israel- next will be not allowing to rent to non-haredi Jews

    cantoresq
    cantoresq
    13 years ago

    Anyone ever hear of the Heter Mechira?

    charliehall
    charliehall
    13 years ago

    Well, we can’t really complain any more about Arab rulers who ban Jews from their domains.

    13 years ago

    Comeon, where are the anti chareidi jews. Lets hear it. This is your greatest fodder to blast the frum. Go at it. Before you make your coments do you roll up your sleeves and say “Lets Roll”?

    oygevault
    oygevault
    13 years ago

    There is a difference between (1) not renting to non-jews which is essentially self-preservation, and (2) not renting to arabs… which will be attacked as racist. But even if we say lets not rent to non-Jews, it will be in the headlines as ‘Jews say don’t rent to Arabs’ to sound more attention-grabbing

    Kanaim
    Kanaim
    13 years ago

    They should rent, at double the price they charge to Yidden. Bedbugs included at no extra charge.

    silenthocker
    silenthocker
    13 years ago

    this is clear cut halacha that you cant sell to non jews. all you anti frum like jerusalamikugel jump on decisions made in the parameters of halacha and turn it into anti frum bias. yes anti chareidi eguals anti frum

    13 years ago

    Before commenting, please review Maseches Avoda Zara, Daf 21.

    gertoshav
    gertoshav
    13 years ago

    This brings great damage on the House of Israel and is a desacration of the Torah in the eyes of the nations. If we should be concerned with lessening hatred, contempt and tension between us and the nations, this does just the opposite. It will cause profound shaking of faith in Israel among many Jews.

    itzik18
    itzik18
    13 years ago

    even with their black hats and frocks, these are not “Haredim” nor “Ultra-Orthodox” making such rulings, but Religious Zionists from the Rabbanut.

    to the one quoting the Gemara in Avodah Zarah, we are in Galus and cannot follow those halachos openly today – when Moshiach comes it will be different but we will also be living in peace and harmony with our neighbors – at this juncture it is pure hisgaros b’umos and a sakanah to klal Yisroel every where in the world

    MrsCharlie
    MrsCharlie
    13 years ago

    Seriously, where is everyone’s common sense? is it Phillipinos or Russians who commited terrorist activities? No, it was Arabs! So DUH, don’t rent to Arabs, don’t help increase the population of Arabs in the Jewish State. And hello, Yiddin in Chutz La’aretz, time to move to Eretz Yisrael and starting renting and buying those homes yourselves! It’s you who belong in Eretz Yisrael, not the Arabs!!!