Officials in the Justice Ministry on Tuesday evening 24 Tammuz 5773 indicated Justice Minister (The Movement) Tzipi Livni may exercise her ministerial authority to disqualify the candidacy of Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu.
Tzfas Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu is a candidate to become Israel’s next Rishon L’Tzion. Livni and others in the political left feel Rav Eliyahu has made too many racist statements against Arabs to be considered for the position of chief rabbi. Earlier in the week MK (Labor) Eitan Cabel called for the disqualification of the rav’s candidacy.
It appears that Livni has already turned to Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein to learn if she has the ministerial authority to take disciplinary action against Rav Eliyahu to disqualify him. At present, Rav Eliyahu is the leading candidate for the post of Sephardi Chief Rabbi.
The momentum is already in motion as MK (Yesh Atid) Dr. Aliza Lavie sent a letter to Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett, calling on the dati leumi party not to back Rav Eliyahu due to his racist statements and policies. Lavie feels that piskei Halacha of the rav opposing the sale or rental of homes in Tzfas to Arabs is racist, while Rav Eliyahu explained numerous times there is a fierce battle taking place for control of the holy city, and therefore, Jews may not sell their homes to non-Jews.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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2 Responses
BLACK AND WHITE
Some like being jewish and some
(despite all hot air to the contrary) hate it
i did not know he was the top candidate he definitely was the favorite
the son of
rav mordechai eliyahu a gaon and a simple jew and a feirce lover of the grains of eretz yisroel a close friend to many gedolim and much more respected after his death
his son is very passionate about torah and i pray that the evil forces dont hold him back! the pragmatism of a person like rav stav and the zeal of rav eliyahu is a potent mix