The following letter to the editor was published in the January 7, 2011 edition of the Intermountain Jewish News:

Editor:

In your December 24, 2010, “View From Denver,” you assert that the edict signed by dozens of Israeli rabbis prohibiting their followers from renting or selling homes to non-Jews is not necessarily racist.  We respectfully disagree and join together with over 900 rabbis and most of the Reform, Reconstructionist, Conservative and Orthodox rabbinic institutions who have spoken out against this unjust action.

It is important to note that our opposition to the ban is not an expression of naïve American voices that you might argue fail to recognize the hardships of living amidst those that strive for the destruction of Israel.  Instead, we join in opposition to the ban with many rabbis and leaders in Israel, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has publicly and vehemently registered his own opposition to the ban.  In defense of the ban, Rabbi Yosef Scheinen, the head of Ashdod Yeshiva, is quoted as having said, “Racism is granted in the Torah.  The land of Israel is designated for the people of Israel.”  In response, Prime Minister Netanyahu emphasized that such declarations are not acceptable in Israel: “Such things cannot be said, not about Jews and not about Arabs.  They cannot be said in any democratic country, and especially not in a Jewish and democratic one.  The state of Israel rejects these sayings.”  Racism cannot be justified as a means to an end.

Your argument that the logical conclusion of the two-state solution is that there be a Jewish state only for Jews violates the founding principles of Israel.  To justify your argument, you assert that the Arabs in Israel are a disloyal minority and not “faithful citizens of Israel.”  Your contention misses the point, and disregards Israel’s fundamental philosophy.  Even at its weakest moment, during the formation of the State, Israel’s founders recognized that even while they were fighting with some of the Arab inhabitants of the area, they needed to preserve minority rights in the new nation.  The 1948 Israeli Declaration of Independence provides, “We appeal – in the very midst of the onslaught launched against us now for months – to the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to return to the ways of peace and play their part in the upbuilding of the State, on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its bodies and institutions – provisional or permanent.”  Arab Israelis should not have their rights as Israeli citizens restricted simply because they are not Jewish.  As the leaders of Israel and this country have long recognized, the majority must preserve and protect the individual liberties of all citizens.

It is outrageous and unacceptable that some Israeli rabbis are promoting such blatant discrimination against non-Jews.  We urge you to reconsider your stance and to join with so many others inside and outside of Israel condemning this discriminatory ban.