Israel upholds legality of Jews-only housing complex in Jaffa

[Donald Ian Rankin]

The Tel Aviv District Court rejected a petition this week against a decision to lease land in Jaffa's Ajami neighborhood for the exclusive use of members of the religious Zionist community.

The petition, filed by Jaffa residents and human rights groups, challenged a decision by the Israel Lands Administration and the Tel Aviv municipality to lease the land in question to B'Emuna, a company specializing in housing complexes for the religious Zionist community. Its plan is to build three apartment buildings at the site.

The petitioners said the decision was discriminatory, because it would exclude anyone other than members of the religious Zionist community from purchasing an apartment in the complex, which is situated in a neighborhood where a majority of the residents are Arab. This is especially unfair given the shortage of available housing in the neighborhood, they argued. But in his ruling on Wednesday, Judge Yehuda Zefet said the ILA had acted properly in deciding that the only consideration for selecting the winner of the tender would be financial, thereby ensuring that the lease would go to the highest bidder.

Attorney Gil Gan-Mor of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel said afterward that the petitioners will appeal to the Supreme Court.

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More at http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1149356.html

Does anyone still maintain that Israel is not an institutionally racist state?

[virgogal]

1. Racism would not be the problem----they are the same race. I

think religious discrimination would better describe the situation.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

2. I don't see racism here...other issues but not racism

Note also that liberal and secular Jews as also banned

[Ozymanithrax]

3. The issue is extreme religous intolerance...

Even we Jews who are not of the religous nut job persuasion are not allowed. Unfortunatly, Haaretz title for their article is misleading.