Israel's legal establishment silent amid uproar over 'racist' rabbis

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A group of public figures, intellectuals and academics have asked Justice Ministry to suspend any signatories to religious ruling calling for people not to rent homes to non-Jews.
By Yair Ettinger and Tomer Zarchin

The heads of Israel's legal establishment have yet to express a public position on a religious ruling signed by dozens of prominent rabbis calling for people not to rent homes to non-Jews.

Neither Justice Minister Ya'akov Ne'eman nor Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein has responded to a petition calling for legal action, and while aides have indicated that the matter will be dealt with, their stance on the matter remains unclear.

A group of public figures, intellectuals and academics have asked Weinstein to immediately suspend any public servants among the rabbis who signed the document, those "who trample underfoot the pledges of the Declaration of Independence on which Israel was founded, turn Judaism into racism and openly break the law prohibiting incitement to racism."

The group of signatories, which includes professors Yaron Ezrahi, Chaim Gans and Joseph Agassi, playwright Joshua Sobol and authors Sefi Rachlevsky and Yoram Kaniuk, approached Weinstein several weeks ago about taking action against Safed Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu for issuing the same type of call.

"Because of dawdling, negligence and a feeble response to the breaking of the law, the fire has jumped from one coal, from rabbi to rabbi, and threatens to burn the whole forest," they wrote in their petition.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israel-s-legal-establishment-silent-amid-uproar-over-racist-rabbis-1.329675

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1. Israel's AG has decided to look in to letter tosee if it's criminal

Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein on Thursday stated that his office would check if the behavior of state-employed rabbis, who signed a letter against renting to non-Jews, was "criminal."

Forty-seven state-employed rabbis signed a statement, made public Tuesday, which quotes the halachic stance against renting or selling a house or plot of land to a non- Jew in Israel.

“In response to many people’s questions, we hereby reply that it is prohibited by the Torah to sell a house or a field in the Land of Israel to a gentile,” the letter begins before proceeding to quote Maimonides, the Shulhan Aruch and other sources. The letter notes the danger of intermarriage, the potential damage to the religious beliefs of Jewish neighbors who might be influenced by non-Jews, and the damage to the value of real estate in the area.

Weinstein's letter about the rabbis' statement said that, "The Attorney General believes that the comments attributed to the rabbis are seemingly problematic in a number of ways and are not emblematic of proper public behavior,"

"The legal aspect of the incident is more complicated. The attorney general has instructed the relevant parties in his office to check the criminal and disciplinary aspects raised by the rabbis' statements."

http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishNews/Article.aspx?id=198787