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Key Points

• A controversial religious ruling that urges Jews to refrain from renting or selling land or property to non-Jews, signed by several dozen Israeli municipal Rabbis, has encountered strong condemnation from leading figures across the Israeli political spectrum.
• Religious rulings like the controversial Rabbis letter do not have any legal significance or impact.
• Those condemning the letter include Prime Minister Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin and parliamentarians.
• Prominent religious leaders in Israel and abroad have also condemned the letter, and contested the religious foundation of the decree. Over 900 Israeli religious students also signed a petition slamming the Rabbis’ ban.
• The controversy illustrates the complex relationship between religion and state in Israel.

The Rabbis’ letter

• In early December, 39 municipal Rabbis signed a religious ruling urging Jews to refrain from renting or selling land or property to non-Jews. The signatories contend that their ruling follows Jewish Law, though this claim has been challenged by prominent Rabbis in Israel.
• The letter issued by the Rabbis came two months after a similar call by the Chief Rabbi of Safed, Smuel Eliyahu, who opposed the renting of apartments in the town to Arab students attending a local college.
• As a municipal rabbi, Eliyahu is a civil servant and is obliged by the Israel’s public service code of conduct. An investigation by the State Attorney’s Office was launched against Elyahu to inspect whether his statements constitute a breach of the law.
• Israel has clear laws against incitement to racism. The fine line between freedom of expression and violation of such laws makes officials wary of enforcing them.Additional religious sensitivities make investigation of rabbis relatively rare.

The public backlash

• The Rabbis letter was strongly condemned by prominent public figures from across the political spectrum:

• PM Benjamin Netanyahu strongly rejected the ruling, saying, “These things should not be said in a Jewish and democratic state that respects the morality and the tradition of Israel and the Bible. The State of Israel, therefore, categorically rejects these statements.” 
• Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin said the “statement shames the Jewish people.” Rivlin, who is traditionally positioned in the right-wing of Likud, came out unequivocally against the letter, saying, “Let me make this absolutely clear: I believe these people do the most damage to the state of Israel.”
• Minority Affairs Minister Avishay Braverman (Israel Labour), called on the Attorney General to launch an investigation into incitement to racism: “They are being paid from the public coffers but defying all the rules that apply to civil servants.”
• The Holocaust memorial museum Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, condemned the ruling as “a blow to Jewish values“

Religious rebuke

• The Rabbis’ letter also encountered opposition from prominent religious figures in Israel and Jewish communities around the world. Among the Israeli religious leaders who refused to support the letter on religious or practical grounds were Rabbi Ovadia Yossef, the leading Sephardic orthodox authority and the religious leader of Shas; Ashkenazi Haredi leader Rabbi Yossef Shalom Elyashiv; and Rabbi Haim Druckman, one of the most prominent leaders of the Zionist-orthodox movement.
• Hundreds of rabbis from around the world have also signed a letter expressing “great shock and pain” at the Israeli municipal rabbis’ letter.
• More than 900 graduates of religious seminaries from across Israel have also condemned the Rabbis’ ruling, stating that the letter “damages the delicate relations between Jews and Arabs in Israel.”

Background: Tensions between religion and state in Israel

• Israel defines itself as a Jewish and democraticstate, but in almost all aspects, Israel is a secularstate, and freedom of religion is respected.
• Most Jews in Israel, whilst retaining a strong attachment to Jewish culture and tradition, are not observant of Jewish religious law, and Halakha is not enforced by the state. The main exception, where religious law has standing before the state, is in relation to personal status issues. There is no civil marriage in Israel, but Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Bahai religious authorities each have jurisdiction over marriages among their members.
• Israel’s declaration of Independence and numerous laws seek to ensure that all citizens haveequal rights. There is equality of religion, race andgender before the law.
• Religious rulings like the controversial Rabbis letter do not have any legal impact and in fact may constitute an enticement to racism, a criminal offence in Israel. The criminal aspects of the letter are now being investigated by the Attorney General’s Office.
• The fine balance between the Jewish and democratic nature of Israel has been heatedly debated since Israel’s establishment and remains unresolved to this day. Prominent jurist and intellectual Ruth Gavison noted, “The rabbis’ letter does not “prove” that the state’s Jewishness is theocratic and that it therefore cannot be democratic. The state’s Jewishness is not bound to Jewish halakha.”