In the name of God and taxpayer money
Uri Nerov attacks the disciplinary proceedings against Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, which ended with only a warning for four political statements, while hundreds of racist statements against Arabs remained outside the complaint. The writer claims that the settlement sends a dangerous message to rabbis in public service.
Uri Nerov, an opinion writer for Maariv, attacks the disciplinary proceedings that ended with only a warning against Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, the chief rabbi of Safed employed in public service. Nerov recounts that after years of appeals and a petition to the High Court of Justice, criteria were established for what a city rabbi is allowed to say, but it took four years and two requests for contempt of court until disciplinary proceedings were opened. According to him, the proceedings were confidential until the court ordered their disclosure, and then it became clear that the Minister of Religious Affairs and Rabbi Eliyahu had reached a plea deal on only four statements, all political, which ended with a warning. Nerov lists severe racist statements by the rabbi against Arabs that were not included in the complaint, and claims that the settlement sends a message of lack of enforcement and suits the values of the current coalition. He calls on the national religious public to denounce the use of Judaism to justify racism and Kahanism.