'Don't rent to non-Jews,' Israeli rabbis warn

Fifty Israeli rabbis have signed an open letter warning Jews not to rent or sell property to non-Jews, saying

'Supremely racist'

Fifty mostly state-employed Israeli rabbis say Torah forbids selling property to non-Jews, 'anyone who sells must be cut off'.

By Sara Hussein - JERUSALEM

those who do should be "ostracised," a copy of the letter showed on Tuesday.

"In answer to the many questions, we say that it is forbidden in the Torah to sell a house or a field in the land of Israel to a foreigner," says the letter, referring to the Pentateuch -- the first five books of the Bible.

The letter, which was signed mostly by state-employed rabbis, warns that "he who sells or rents them a flat in an area where Jews live causes great harm to his neighbours."

"After someone sells or rents just one flat, the value of all the neighbouring flats drops... He who sells or rents (to non-Jews) causes his neighbours a big loss and his sin is great," the letter said, in what was largely understood to refer to Israel's Arab minority.

"Anyone who sells (property to a non-Jew) must be cut off!!"

According to the Israeli news website Ynet, the letter is to be published in religious newspapers and distributed in synagogues across the country later this week.

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel slammed the letter as "racist."

"Rabbis who are civil servants have an obligation to the entire public, including Israel's Arab citizens. It is unthinkable that they would use their public status to promote racism and incitement," the group said in a statement.

The organisation called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take disciplinary action against state-employed rabbis who signed the document.

Mohammed Barakeh, an Arab-Israeli member of parliament, said the letter was "supremely racist" and called for the government's legal adviser to investigate the rabbis behind it.

"It seems that the signatories realise that the Israeli establishment is complicit in the crimes of incitement to racial hatred, so they are acting without fear," he said in a statement.

The letter appeared as tensions grow between religious Jewish and Arab-Israeli residents of the northern town of Safed, where local rabbi Shmuel Eliahu has called on Jews to avoid renting or selling property to Arabs.

Safed's college attracts Arab-Israeli students from the surrounding area, many of whom seek accommodation in the town while studying.

In October, Israeli MPs approved a draft law to villages reject new residents on the basis of being socially "unsuitable," a move rights groups denounced as racist.

The bill would allow communities of up to 500 people to bar potential residents on grounds of "unsuitability to the community's social and cultural fabric," a measure seen as targeting Arab Israelis.

In November, a poll conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute found 46 percent of Jewish Israelis preferred not to live next door to Arabs, while two-thirds -- or 67 percent -- of Arabs preferred not to live next to ultra-Orthodox Jews.

It also found 53 percent of Jewish Israelis backed government incentives for Arabs to emigrate.

Israel has 1.3 million Arab citizens -- Palestinians who remained in the country after the creation of the Jewish state in 1948 and their descendants.

Arab citizens, who make up 20 percent of the population, have long complained of systematic discrimination in resources and opportunities.