Group goes to court over Safed rabbi's `racism'
By Yuval Yoaz
Wed., July 13, 2005
The Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC) petitioned the High Court yesterday, demanding that Attorney General Menahem Mazuz charge Safed Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu for making racist remarks.
"Rabbi Eliyahu has been conducting a racist campaign against Israel's Arab population over the past several years, and his responses on various Web sites represent racist and nationalist positions that encourage acts of violence and reflect profound contempt for Israel's democratic institutions," said IRAC lawyer Einat Horowitz.
Eighteen months ago, Mazuz decided to try Eliyahu. However no indictment has been drawn up because the matter "is being investigated."
"There is no choice but to conclude that the attorney general has resolved not to try Rabbi Eliyahu," the petition says, "in contravention of the law, common sense and his previous decision."
Among his statements regarding Arabs, Eliyahu has said, "The basic assumption is that they favor terror; with the money one pays them they are liable to buy weapons with which to kill another Jew; it is forbidden to buy a tomato from an Arab, to sell him a car, give him employment."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/599224.html