Jeff Barak, weho I believe used to be of this parish, has written an excellent piece on the growing anti-Arab racism in Israel, praising the excellent efforts by the UK Task Force -- a group which encompasses the newly-moderate Zionist Federation, the New Israel Fund and the Abraham Foundation.
As Barak points out:
[But] Our leaders have turned a blind eye to this problem. It’s not hard to imagine Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu making an impassioned speech about anti-Semitism in Europe should, say, a leading bishop instruct his flock from the pulpit not to rent out properties to Jewish tenants.
And yet, when Safed’s Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu issued a halachic ruling last month prohibiting Jews from renting homes to Arabs in the center of the town, there was no condemnation from any senior figure.
Eliyahu, who let us not forget is employed by the state, has form on this issue. He was charged four-and-a-half years ago with making racist remarks against Arabs, but the charges were dropped after he promised to retract them. Puzzlingly, there has been no move on the part of the legal authorities to reinstate these charges after his recent outburst and Eliyahu continues to bring home a healthy salary each month from the state coffers.