The Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC) has demanded that Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein launch a criminal investigation against Safed’s Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu for incitement to racism. The demand comes after Eliyahu’s recent halachic adjudication against selling or renting out apartments to Arabs. A conference on the same theme was held last week by Eliyahu and fellow rabbis who share his view.
“These sentiments are prohibited by law, and worse tenfold when they are expressed by a public figure in an official capacity – as Rabbi Eliyahu is,” the IRAC wrote to Weinstein. “The exploitation of the religious and public status given to a city rabbi, and using the money of the religious council [which hired the convention hall where the conference was held] in order to express racist opinions, severe enough by themself, necessitate your urgent probe.”
Jerusalem Post
