In mid-October 2010, Shmuel Eliyahu, the chief rabbi of the city of Safed, Israel, held a conference titled "The Quiet War – Fighting Assimilation [between Jews and Arabs] in the Holy City of Safed," at which he called on Jews not to rent or sell apartments to non-Jews.[1] Following the rabbi's call, clashes broke out between Arab students and Orthodox religious residents of the city.[2] A month later, Rabbi Eliyahu elaborated on his extremist position, saying: "As soon as there are more than three Arabs in a neighborhood, from the perspective of Jewish law, this means that the Jews are yielding [the dominant position] to [the Arabs]. A Jew should not flee from the Arabs. He should make the Arabs flee...
"The Arabs bring their norms [with them]. A study by a professor at Haifa University has shown that Arabs are the source of most of the violence in Israeli society. With my own eyes I have seen Arab students who came to Safed, and after two days they were already hitting on [Jewish] girls from the [girls'] seminary. Modest girls who had come to study in a religious atmosphere were forced to turn their backs and flee... I have nothing against Arabs. I am in favor of strengthening our daughters and the religious family..."[3]
On December 7, 2010, fifty chief rabbis of Israeli cities joined Shmuel Eliyahu's campaign, and issued a petition calling on Jews not to rent or sell homes to non-Jews, on the grounds that this leads to mixed marriages, causes apartment prices to drop, and could even endanger the lives of Jews: "The Torah forbids [us] to sell a house or a field in the Land of Israel to a non-Jew. The Torah warns us on several occasions that one who does so causes harm and leads the public to sin the sin of mixed marriages... One who rents or sells an apartment to them in an area inhabited by Jews inflicts great harm upon his neighbors, for [the Arabs'] lifestyle differs from that of the Jews, and some of them are hostile to us and persecute us to the point of endangering [our] lives... And it is [also] a well-known [fact] that if one apartment is sold or rented [to Arabs], the value of all the neighbors' apartments drops, even if the [Arab] buyers or renters are nice at first."[4]
The petition was soon signed by 300 rabbis.[5]
The document sparked criticism in Israel among Jews and Arabs alike, manifest in protests and in calls to fire the rabbis who had signed the petition. Condemnations were also voiced by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres.[6] Former Knesset speaker Avraham Burg said at a demonstration in Jerusalem: "Don't say these are [just a few] 'wild weeds.' They are rabbis... They are malevolent and they are the gardeners [who plant the weeds]. They teach Torah, and their students zealously follow their lead... We have come here today to utter the hard and painful truth, the heartbreaking and shameful truth: racists are upon you, Israel. Israel is gravely ill, and the cancer of racism is threatening the life of [our] society."[7]
The petition was also condemned by prominent rabbis, including Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the spiritual leader of the Shas movement, and Rabbi Aharon Leib Steinman, a prominent leader of the Ashkenazi Orthodox community, which prompted some of the signatories to withdraw their names from the petition.[8]
The Israeli Arab community responded to the petition with outrage. The High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel urged the Government Attorney to investigate the rabbis who had signed it, prosecute them, and dismiss them from their posts.[9] The Israeli Arab press called for a campaign against the growing racism in Israeli society and in Israel's political and religious establishments.
Following are excerpts from two articles:
Israeli-Arab Weekly: The Rabbis' Petition – A Prelude to the Expulsion of the Israeli Arabs
The weekly 'Kul Al-Arab, which comes out in Nazareth, stated in an editorial that it was Israel's official policies against the Arabs that had encouraged the rabbis to issue this racist ruling, and that Israel's racist laws made it similar to "the darkest regimes that human history has known." The daily called to launch a global campaign against Israel's anti-Arab measures, which were aimed, it said, at expelling Israel's Arab citizens, and urged the readers to join the local and international struggle against the Israeli "apartheid."
"Hundreds of rabbis are circulating a petition these days demanding to ban the rent or sale of houses and apartments to Arabs. This despicable and shameful campaign has met with some opposition in many Jewish circles, but [the opposition was] not strong enough to keep it from continuing. This blatantly racist and antisemitic propaganda against the Arabs amounts to persecution on religious and [ethnic] grounds, and is banned by Israeli [state] law. [The petition] is part [of the efforts] to delegitimize the presence of Arabs in the country, and part of the incitement to [continue] their forced expulsion, which began in 1948.
"The racist [character] of the Israeli governments is nothing new, nor is the complicity of [non-government elements in this racism]. However, [today] it is gaining momentum and taking the form of actual Knesset laws. The rabbis would never have signed such a petition had the Knesset not hurried to carry out actions that are [even] worse. These laws and petitions mean [that we are] hurtling down a one-way road – the same road taken by the darkest regimes that human history has known.
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"Today, Israel is the world's last remaining occupation state and also the last remaining apartheid state – after the South African apartheid [regime] collapsed thanks to the struggle of the South African people and thanks to the isolation [of this regime] by the international [community], which eventually led to its downfall. It should be mentioned that [this regime's] last allies were the U.S., Britain, and Israel.
"The strange thing is that [Israel] pursues these policies in the full sight of the world, yet the Arab countries that have [diplomatic] relations with it keep silent, as do the European countries and [all of Israel's] allies and rivals. It's as though this behavior is natural and anything is permissible. We have grown accustomed to hearing frequent condemnations from rational Jewish voices, but these voices quickly grow feeble or silent. Their condemnations are nothing but lip service aimed at covering up their shame and [giving the impression] that there is no unanimity [in Israel over these matters] – until the worst racist crime comes along [and exposes the truth]. Israel's government, its institutions, and its rabbis that do not belong to this fascist and racist [circle] must come out against this petition and prosecute its signatories for inciting racism that is bound to lead to violence. One who does not want an Arab living in his town or walking in his streets shortens the way to [a reality in which] Arabs are physically attacked or lynched.
"This open, blunt, and fascistic outburst of racism obliges us to harness all the means and channels of communication in order to inform the world about what is happening. [These developments] are paving the way to something much more dangerous than a mere [ban on] renting apartments and selling homes. They constitute a large step towards expelling as many Arab citizens [as possible from Israel]. Along with this incitement, [Israel] continues to limit the expansion of Arab villages, and at the same time diligently pursues a policy of demolishing [Arab homes]. It's a well-known [fact that], since its establishment, [Israel] has not built a single [new] Arab village or city. This is no less racist than the [behavior] of those fascist and racist rabbis.
"It's time to declare the Israeli regime an apartheid [regime], and everyone must rally to the struggle against it, by all legal means, in the local arena and the global one."[10]
Kamal Khatib: "The Racism Flu Bug" is Rampant in Israel
In an article in the weekly Al-Sinara, Kamal Khatib, the deputy of Read Salah, head of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, warned against the spread of the "racism flu bug" in Israeli society and among its leadership and religious establishment. He stressed that the struggle between the Israeli Arabs and the administration was religious and cultural in nature, and that the Arabs, who would launch a new phase in this struggle, would eventually gain all their rights:
"The deadly virus of racism infected the Rabbi of Safed [who in October 2010 was the first to issue a ruling against renting homes to Arabs], and then spread, with amazing rapidness, to other parts [of the country], infecting 50 rabbis who signed the famous document. [Then the epidemic] spread like wildfire... to 300 other rabbis who signed the petition calling to ban the rent and sale of homes to Arabs and Palestinians...
"[The epidemic] spread to the point where over 46% of Jews said they would not tolerate having Arabs as their neighbors, and nearly 40% were in favor of placing [the Israeli] Arabs in detention camps should a war break out in the region. Apparently, the camps that the Nazis built for the Jews are still stuck in their minds – but this does not prompt them not to fight [the notion of such] camps and anyone who proposes it, but rather to use them against others...
"Why should this epidemic not spread, causing noses to run with its hideous stench? Why shouldn't it become the norm, and anything else become an anomaly, when the rabbis [themselves] become the emblems of racism, beating its drums and setting its pace?... The current Israeli leadership likewise nurtures and encourages this virus... by means of its racist and aggressive policies towards our people and ummah. [This is evident from] the draft laws dealing with loyalty [to Israel], with [Israel as] a Jewish state, and with population exchange, and [from] the ongoing [policy of] encouraging and protecting the invasion of the Blessed Al-Aqsa mosque and of devoting million-dollar budgets to [the cause of] changing the geography and history of Al-Aqsa and of noble Al-Quds [i.e., Jerusalem]. These and many [other] racist Zionist measures [carried out] under the supervision of the Netanyahu-Lieberman government create a nurturing environment and fertile ground for the flu of racism, [allowing it to] thrive and spread rapidly in Israeli society.
"It seems as though Israeli society is rapidly revealing its true shape and character, under its two racist leaderships, the political and the religious – and this surely won't be to its advantage. And if this behavior of the 50 rabbis turns each [Arab] into a new Ali Baba,[11] each of them will surely discover the magic words – not for opening the cave but for launching a new phase in the struggle that will inevitably end with our people gaining all its rights. The [essence of the] magic words is that this struggle is a religious and cultural one, which the Israeli administration has been waging against us for 62 years. Our people and our nation will [fight back] by returning to their roots – to Islamic religion and culture. Faced with this reality, the Israeli administration will surely lose, and those responsible for its defeat are the 50 rabbis and those who assisted them – and not Ali Baba!"[12]
[1] Haaretz.com, October 20, 2010.
[2] Nrg.co.il, October 24, 2010.
[3] Nrg.co.il, November 19, 2010.
[4] Kipa.co.il, December 7, 2010.
[5] Inn.co.il, December 9, 2010.
[6] Ynet.co.il, December 8, 2010.
[7] Ynet.co.il. December 8, 2010.
[8] News.nana10.co.il, December 16, 2010.
[9] Kul Al-'Arab, December 17, 2010.
[10] Kul Al-'Arab (Israel), December 10, 2010. The weekly's December 17, 2010 editorial dealt with the same issues. It condemned the persecution of Arab public figures, including the calls to assassinate 'Azmi Bishara (that were voiced by some MKs during a debate on revoking his pension); the policy of demolishing houses in Arab areas, and the rabbis' petition, saying: "It will be a tragedy of the leaders of this state, who are dragging it towards the abyss, do not wake up... We will not let this hectic activity [against the Arabs] lead to a new Nakba. We are not going anywhere, and this demon of extremism will end up devouring the head of the one who created it."
[11] In Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, the poor and honest Ali Baba discovers the magic words that open the thieves' cave, and steals their treasure.
[12] Al-Sinara (Israel), December 17, 2010.
