JERUSALEM (JTA) — The chief rabbi of the northern Israeli city of Safed may be suspended for calling on Safed’s Jews not to rent apartments to non-Jews.
Minority Affairs Minister Avishay Braverman on Wednesday asked Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman to suspend Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu as the municipal rabbi, a position paid by public funds. Braverman said in a letter to Neeman that Eliyahu was harming the social fabric between Jewish and Arab residents of the Galilee and that he was taking advantage of his public position to make such pronouncements, Haaretz reported.
"Moreover, as an appointee of the state, the rabbi is obligated not to work against it. His continued incitement against the Arabs in the Galilee does not serve the needs of the state," Braverman’s letter said.
Braverman also charged that Eliyahu, who he said has been inciting against Arabs for several years, could light a "fire that could lead to war between the Jews and the Arabs of the Galilee."
A group of rabbis last month signed on to the letter calling on Jews not to rent to non-Jews in the northern Israeli city.
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