Slippery Slope

Arab students from Safed College who rented an apartment in town were asked to leave their apartment on the same day they moved in.  According to their landlord, local Haredis threatened to harm the new residents and the apartment.

(Hebrew)

Dozens of Arab students who registered to the College of Tzefat can not rent an apartment in the city, because Jewish landlords refuse to rent to Arabs. Estate agents in the city do not help them out of fear of a boycott imposed on them by the city’s Jewish residents.

(Hebrew)

Attorney General, Yehuda Weinstein, had not yet decided whether to open a criminal investigation against rabbis who called not to rent apartments to non-Jews, although it had been six months since he announced that he was looking into the issue.

(Hebrew)

Approximately 150 people took part in a conference held yesterday in the South Tel Aviv Qiryat Shalom neighborhood protesting the government’s impotence in handing the refugee problem. Rabbi Michael Aravov, who lives in the neighborhood, said “there is no place in the world where refugees have human rights and residents to not.” Another resident said that “the first rain will be here soon, the sewage will overflow, and all of the diseases the Africans brought with them will float up.” City Council member Binyamin Babayof (Shas) called on residents to refrain from renting apartments to refugees. (Hebrew)

Rabbi Yosef Sheinin, Chief Rabbi for the city of Ashdod, said that he signed the rabbis’ letter prohibiting the rental of apartment to Arabs because” “racism comes from the Torah. Eretz Yisrael is meant for the people of Israel. That’s what He of Blessed Name designated, and that is also how Rashi interpreted it.” He argues that this was not racism but separateness. Rabbi Shlomo Aviner of Beit El, who is also one of the signatories, said that a Jew should be given preference over a non-Jew and that he does not think that Arabs need to be given “reasons to take root in the country.” (Hebrew)

A senior officer of the Religious Services Ministry criticized the media and the Zohar Rabbis, after the latter condemned the rabbis who had issued a religious verdict prohibiting rental of real estate to non-Jews. He said that “the great majority of rabbis who have signed onto the letter are enlightened, nationalist-religious rabbis who are military veterans, just as they love and worship them. They don’t mention that. These are selective morals.” (Hebrew)