JERUSALEM (JTA) — Protesters rallied in Jerusalem against a rabbis’ ban on renting apartments to Arabs.
About 150 demonstrators on Wednesday night took up positions across from Jerusalem’s Great Synagogue to protest the rabbinic ruling, issued Tuesday by dozens of Israel’s municipal chief rabbis.
"Racism is blasphemy" and "Rabbis’ letter – public blasphemy" read the signs carried by some of the protesters.
"You who have put your name on this letter, and all your supporters, you the leaders of nationalist, fundamentalist religious movements, you cannot claim that you would remain silent if the same were done to our Jewish brethren. This is not a religious issue, this is an issue of humanity; no man should be allowed to speak in this way," former Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg said at the rally, Ynet reported.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the rabbis’ ruling. Israeli civil rights organizations and Knesset members criticized the ruling and called for rabbis who signed to be fired from their jobs. Municipal chief rabbis’ salaries are paid for by the state.
