The Knesset convened Wednesday to discuss a ruling issued by 50 rabbis against selling or renting apartments to Arabs, and heard harsh condemnations from Arab lawmakers.
Knesset Member Ahmad Tibi said during the discussion, “I am certain that the number of rabbis will rise. Since the Arabs are a Semitic people – this is anti-Semitism. These rabbis are skinheads acting against the Arabs.”
Tibi’s remarks enraged many right-wing and religious lawmakers who called on him to take back his harsh remarks.
Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin removed MK Talab El Sana from the hall after he referred to the rabbis as “scum of the earth”, claiming that “they are not rabbis but racists.”
El Sana turned to Interior Minister Eli Yishai who was addressing the Knesset and asked him why he had failed to condemn the rabbis. Yishai responded that the Palestinian Authority executed people who sold houses to Jews. El Sana replied, “We are in Israel and the law forbids incitement to racism.”
“Any rabbi in Israel is authorized to rule what he believes in according to Jewish law,” Yishai said. “The Israeli Knesset does not approve halachic rulings, so it’s not my job to tell a rabbi what to rule and what not to rule. I, as interior minister, am not supposed to enforce rabbis’ rulings.”
Knesset Speaker Rivlin asked to transfer the meeting’s protocol to the attorney general, who would examine whether it includes any illegal incitement.
Minister Avishay Braverman called on Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein to launch a criminal investigation against the rabbis, saying that “as a minister and a proud Jew – any refusal to rent apartments is wrong. I am ashamed.”
President Shimon Peres said earlier Wednesday that “the rabbis’ statement creates an ethical and fundamental crisis in Israel relating to Israel’s essence as a Jewish and democratic country.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the rabbis on Tuesday. “If someone had said, ‘Don’t sell apartments to Jews,’ we would protest,” Netanyahu said. “Such things must not be said, not by Jews and not by Arabs.”
The prime minister added that “the State of Israel rejects such things out of hand.”
(Source: Ynet)
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8 Responses
Tibi and his clan are the RACIST skin heads, who will NOT rent or sell me an apartment in Shechem, Ramallah, Abu Dis, or any other Arab area.
Arabs are imprisoned or killed upon selling to Jews so therefore they do not have to condem the action at all.
Haaretz is now reporting that Rav Steinman is publicly opposing the edict, as are RZ rabbis Ariel and Gilad.
#1, I’ve frequently blasted the hypocrisy of the Arabs for their ban of Jews living in PA territory. It makes the Palestinian apologists uncomfortable, especially on dailykos. Now here come these rabbis making a similar proclamation — but even going further and justifying it on religious grounds (when in fact it is at BEST a machloket). What do the banners propose that the Druze who have been left homeless as the result of the fire do? Live in tents for eternity? This is looking more like midot Sedom than Torah!
Was the rabbis’ ruling specifically against renting apartments to arabs, or to any non-Jews?
Are there any Jewish arabs, or Jews from arab countries, who have been denied any apartment rentals by Jewish owners simply because of their arab genetics or arab country origins? Is this as widespread problem?
Have there been, for example, more Jewish reservists murdered for walking into an arab police station within Israel simply for being Jewish than there have been arabs denied apartment rentals because of this rabbinic ruling?
Housing discrimination is a big problem in Israel, and not just against Arabs.
Shkoyach Charliehall for telling it like it is.
charliehall, although halchikly you have a leg to stand (there are valid shitos on both sides) however, worry about the jews who nebach are left homeless and not the druze
yechezkel,
I do worry about the Jews as well and tonight am contributing to the OU relief fund.
It should be pointed out that the discussion in the talmud (at the end of the first chapter of Avodah Zara) regarding the prohibition against leasing or selling land to non-Jews is referring to idol worshipers. A monotheist has the right under Torah law to settle in Eretz Yisrael as a ger toshav — and both Muslims and Druze are unquestionably monotheists. (Christians might be, too — that is another machloket.) Rav Herzog z’tz’l pasken’d that there is no prohibition of non-Jews living in E”Y and that has been the accepted halachah until now.
charliehall,
while you are correct in your assertion that monotheists may reside in ארץ ישראל as geri toshavim, that is only when they follow the sheva mitzvot the muslims and the druze both commit acts of murder i.e. all the terrorist attacks and violence that they constantly preform.