Israeli Jews split over ban on renting to Arabs

Poll finds 44 percent of Israeli Jews in favour of anti-Arab call by rabbis while 48 percent remain opposed.

Middle East Online

Rising wave of discrimination against Arabs and Africans JERUSALEM - Israeli Jews are divided over a call by rabbis for Jews to avoid renting or selling property to non-Jews, with 44 percent in favour, and 48 percent opposed, a new poll showed Tuesday. The question was asked as part of a survey conducted by Israeli and Palestinian pollsters, which also found Jews evenly split on support for a draft law that would allow small Israeli communities to reject new residents, and a proposed allegiance oath for new Israeli citizens. The poll comes after dozens of senior Israeli rabbis, many of them state employees, signed a letter warning Jews against renting or selling property to non-Jews. In recent weeks, human rights groups here have warned about a rising wave of discrimination directed against Israel's Arab population, as well as African migrants living in the Jewish state. Protests have been held throughout Israel calling for the expulsion of African migrants, and offering support for the rabbis' call. The survey released Tuesday found 40 percent of Jews support legislation that would allow small communities to reject admission of new candidates "based on social, national or economic suitability," while 48 percent oppose it. Support for an oath which would require new citizens to pledge allegiance to Israel as a Jewish and democratic state garnered support from 55 percent of Israeli Jews, but only if it applied to all new citizens. Six percent of Jews supported the allegiance pledge if it would apply exclusively to non-Jews. On the Arab side, three percent supported the pledge if it applied exclusively to non-Jews, while 17 percent said they supported such an oath if it was required of all new citizens. The poll was carried out jointly by Hebrew University's Harry S. Truman Research Institute and the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research. It surveyed 511 Israeli Jews and 408 Arab Israelis, weighted according to their proportion in the population, and had a margin of error of 4.5 percent. Israel has 1.3 million Arab citizens -- Palestinians who remained in the country after the creation of the Jewish state in 1948 and their descendants. There are also about 200,000 Arab residents of east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed in a move not recognised by the international community.