Jews, Arabs clash in Safed

(JTA) — Police moved in to prevent further clashes between Jewish and Arab residents in Safed after the Israeli city’s chief rabbi asked Jews not to rent to non-Jews.

Orthodox Jews threw stones Friday night at Arab students who rent apartments in Safed. On Saturday night, amid more clashes between Orthodox Jewish residents and Arab students, a Palestinian flag was hung on the top of a renovated mosque near the northern city’s central market.

Two Israeli groups with U.S. affiliates called late last week for the criminal investigation of Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, Safed’s chief rabbi, following his call for Jews not to rent apartments to non-Jews.

The Israel Religious Action Center, an affiliate of the Reform movement, and the Abraham Fund, a group that promotes Jewish-Arab coexistence in Israel and that has a U.S. office, sent separate letters to Israeli Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein calling on him to launch a criminal incitement probe of Eliyahu, Haaretz reported.

Eliyahu last week joined a call to keep Arabs out of Safed that apparently was prompted by fears that a medical school slated to open in the city will lead to an influx of non-Jews.

Amnon Be’eri-Sulitzeanu, the co-executive director of the Abraham Fund, told JTA that his group sent a letter to Weinstein and also to the civil service chief, Shmuel Hollander, demanding an investigation that could lead to Eliyahu’s dismissal.

"He’s a state worker, a member of the Chief Rabbinate and a member of the municipal rabbinate," Be’eri-Sulitzeanu told JTA. "He can’t express himself in a racist way. We want him fired."

Ami Nahshon, the fund’s president based in New York, said he backed the letters.

Spokesmen for the Religious Action Center, the Washington, D.C.-based sister to the Israel Religious Action Center, did not return calls from JTA seeking comment.