JERUSALEM (JTA) — Rabbis in the haredi Orthodox Israeli city of Bnei Brak have issued a religious ruling forbidding residents to rent apartments to African refugees.
The ruling issued Monday by six leading haredi rabbis in the city follows a similar call in July by rabbis in nearby Tel Aviv.
More Sudanese refugees and illegal African immigrants reportedly have taken up residence in Bnei Brak after being made to feel uncomfortable in Tel Aviv, Ynet reported.
Meanwhile, an Israeli lawmaker warned Monday during a meeting of the Knesset Foreign Worker Analysis Committee that within a few years Israel will have more than 100,000 African immigrants living within its borders.
"There is no doubt that Tel Aviv residents will rush to Judea and Samaria when their city becomes African," Yaakov Katz of the National Union Party warned, using the Hebrew terms for the West Bank.
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