Three dozens prominent Israeli rabbis supported a ruling forbidding the Jews to sell or rent their homes to gentiles. The ruling itself should not be seen as a great surprise. Anyone even superficially familiar with the spirit of the mainstream Jewish religious establishment in Israel, would agree that this was only too expected. Really, the particularism (sorry for the euphemism), of the Jewish faith is so glaring that in some countries people started filing lawsuits against the use of several main authoritative text of the Jewish canon. In Israel, however, these views are not only a matter of private worship, since the religious services (Jewish or otherwise) are integrated into the state civil service apparatus. So, when seeing the ruling signed by people bearing the titles of civil servants one may assume that the ruling has something to do with the state on behalf of which these servants toil. In this case what is the worth of all the official denunciations as long as the said individuals continue their employment within the same apparatus.  Is the state of Israel really opposed to this ruling or it just pays the lip service to the principles of the democracy and tolerance, in order not to lose the prestigious "the only democracy in the Middle East" status? You judge yourself.


However, I find one surprising aspect in this affair after all. Although, evidently in its spirit the ruling is directed against Arabs, the wording refers to the general population of gentiles in Israel. This population include many ethnic and religious groups including many members of the Russian community, many of whom would not be recognized as Jewish by the religious establishment. These people, according to the same establishment, may number in hundreds of thousands, a substantial proportion of the population of Israel. They are also usually indistinguishable from the "kosher" Russian Jews and tend to be well integrated within the Jewish community. What is more, many of them would probably consider themselves Jewish. This ruling, if effective, would seriously undermine their status. In fact, they would have been hurt much more than Arabs, because they lack a set of service providers separate from that of the Jewish majority. They would be unable (or unwilling) to buy or rent  homes in the Arab cities and they would be discriminated against in the Jewish cities. In view of this, it's really surprising to see how little if any reaction this ruling has elicited from the right wing (another euphemism) Liebermann's "Israel Beitainu" party which have received such a large share of the Russian votes. Apparently, the defense of its own electorate has a lower priority there than bashing the Arab minority. 


Why is it that that the phrase "first they came for the communists..." is constantly flashing in my mind? I am not a communist - ask the rabbis!!!