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[White Lightning]

Way to go, Einat!!

List of Jews-only businesses goes offline in wake of petition

By Yuval Yoaz and Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondents

The Avoda Ivrit ("Hebrew Work") Web site on Wednesday removed from the Internet its list of businesses that hire only Jewish workers, after two groups petitioned the Jerusalem District Court to instruct the site to shut down.

The Israel Religious Action Center and the Mossawa Center for Arab Rights in Israel said the site practices illegal discrimination against Arabs and other non-Jews.

The two parties came to an agreement, according to which the list went offline and the site published an apology for posting it in the first place.

The court gave the agreement the status of a court ruling, meaning that if Avoda Ivrit violates the deal, it has in effect violated a court order.

A short time after the agreement was made, however, the list was removed from its original location (www.jewsite.org/avodaivrit/) but was still available online, on the Avoda Ivrit server (www.jewsite.org). The list was removed following a Haaretz Web site article saying it was still online.

The apology posted on the Avoda Ivrit site said: "The managers and workers of the Avoda Ivrit Web site apologize for hurting feelings or human dignity or any damage that might have been caused to a person or the public from advertisements on the site."

The Web site was created in June 2002 by Adi Ginzburg, a private entrepreneur from Givat Shmuel who wanted to encourage the hiring of Jewish workers.

Some 200 businesses have added their names to the online list, declaring they do not employ Arabs. The list included names of taxi operators, construction companies and gas stations.

The Web site also offered a listing of Jews looking for work.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/517951.html

[connoisseur series500]

Great work, Einat!

[JSngry]

Got a gig for me? I'm neither Jew nor Arab!

[JSngry]

Oh yeah...

[White Lightning]

An interesting fact: Einat's name is mentioned and she's quoted in every Hebrew newspaper, but not in the English ones.

I've included the talkback as well. It represents the mixed reaction on the subject.

'Hebrew Labor' out

Dan Izenberg, THE JERUSALEM POST  Dec. 22, 2004

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It comes as no surprise to anyone that the "Hebrew Labor" advocated by the Zionists of old is not "in" any more. As of Wednesday, however, it has officially become "out."

The Jerusalem Magistrates' Court on Wednesday authorized a compromise agreement between the plaintiffs - the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC) and Mossawa, the Advocacy Center for Arab Citizens of Israel - and the owners of an Internet site called "Hebrew Labor" (Avodah Ivrit). The site served as a clearinghouse for Jews looking for employees and Jews looking for work. Only Jews who declared that they did not employ non-Jews were eligible to advertise on the site.

The Web site also advertised T-shirts bearing the statement "I buy only from Jews" and news items which linked terrorist attacks to the employment of Palestinians.

However, anyone who clicked on "Hebrew labor" as of Tuesday found an empty site except for one sentence of apology for "hurting the feelings and dignity or causing harm to any individual or group as a result of the advertisements on the site." The apology was part of the compromise .

The site started operating in 2002. It immediately generated headlines and triggered public controversy. The plaintiffs claimed that the site violated a law passed in 2000 prohibiting discrimination in providing a public service or entry to a public place.

According to IRAC, it was the first suit filed in accordance with the new law against an Internet site.

The plaintiffs charged that the site discriminated against non-Jewish employers or employees who were barred from advertising on the site, as well as Jews who employed Arabs. They said that "disqualifying certain people from using a service aimed at the public on the basis of their nationality or religion constitutes illegal discrimination and even racism."

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Talkback (moderated). Please include your first and last names, your city and country.

Mike Cunningham, Munster, Indiana, USA:

In the United States there has been a minority act that allows one to create a "black" club that excludes whites, there are Hispanic clubs, and female clubs that exclude whites or men. They are on college campuses and in professional organizations. There are black journalist societies as well as professional female medical societies. However, it is illegal to organize a white-man's club or organization. There are products that religious Jews prefer to buy when they know they are made by Jews. I don't see a problem with this. There are Italian restaurants who hire only Italian cooks, sushi restaurants that hire only Japanese. So what if there is a Jewish organization who wants to cater to the Jewish community that only wants to hire other Jews. In fact, some groups demand that the Jew be Shomer Shabbat. I can't understand why, especially today, the Israeli government hasn't learned they owe nothing to the Palestinians and that the market should decide hiring practices. There are enough Arabs in Israel to support their own Arab community. Israel is a Jewish state—I don't want Arabs taking care of me in Israel. When I buy Israeli products-I expect them to be made by Jews and that my money is going into Jewish hands. Perhaps if the Arabs chose another course of action besides terrorism, (killing Jews whom they work for) my opinion would be different.

Dov Epstein, Efrat: Asking for Jewish laborers only is inexcusable. Imagine that, not wanting your wife to worry that you might not come home because you had to hire an Arab, who just might have wanted to kill you. Or better yet, one who might not be able to come to work regularly because of closures, so you have no dependable workers. The gall of it, that with so many Jews put out of work because of bad fiscal policies by our government, and by a dismal political policy that might have punished the Arabs that kill our people, and scare away tourists, that instead, we should try to employ only Jews because, oh, gee, I think that this was constructed as the first "modern" JEWISH state.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pag...d=1103685619546

[Big Wheel]

Jeez, what an asshole that first commenter especially is. He couldn't be more wrong on the facts. First of all, AFAIK there is no such "minority act" in existence. I remember learning back in high school that there was some Supreme Court case that ruled that any organization with more than 10 members had major limits on how it was allowed to disciminate, but that's a pretty far cry from claiming that only "whites only" clubs are illegal. If they were, wouldn't the KKK, Aryan Nations and American Neo-Nazis have been sued out of existence by now? Also, my guess is that 99% of all Italian restaurants (or at least the ones that aren't entirely staffed by a single family) hire cooks of Latin American or maybe Asian origin and couldn't care less about hiring only other Italians. Their labor is likely way too expensive. I'd bet that VERY few sushi restaurants these days go out of their way to hire all Japanese cooks. Many are likely Korean or Chinese; to the extent that the owners are discriminating in favor of East Asians, it's probably mostly because they want someone who "looks the part" to the average gaijin.

And before I forget, congratulations, Einat!

[ejp626]

And some of the previous case law preventing discrimination in clubs was actually rolled back recently under the Constitution's provisions on freedom of association. This was ultimately was the deciding factor in the Supreme Court ruling that allowed the Boy Scouts to bar gays and atheists from membership. [side note: truly unbelievable that this came to pass, but the Boy Scouts are run by a bunch of dumb fuck Texans -- big surprise. I learned some valuable lessons from Boy Scouts, despite being a hardcore atheist at the time, back when it was not really an issue. Sort of don't ask, don't tell. But I won't let my son join the Scouts on these terms. And indeed it will be interesting to see if membership in the Boy Scouts declines in the Blue States. I believe I read that giving to the United Way was down in Blue States, except in those places where the United Way explicitly said they weren't funding the Scouts any more. People such as myself were really holding a grudge against the Scouts for being dumb fucks.] Anyway, my understanding is that in order to keep complete control over membership (including the right to discriminate) then a group has to largely forego any government funds and certainly any government contracts (though again, Bush is trying to undermine this for religious organizations). Many school districts ultimately decided they had to sever ties with the Scouts because of this whole messy situation.

[White Lightning]

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

[White Lightning]

Another precedent set by Einat:

Dec. 27, 2005 18:26

Livni orders disciplinary action for rabbi

By DAN IZENBERG

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni has ordered the Chief Rabbinical Council to put the state-employed rabbi of Kiryat Motzkin before a disciplinary committee for allegedly violating his obligation as a civil servant not to express political opinions in public.

The Justice Ministry refused to provide details about Livni's complaint, but it was almost certainly in response to a High Court petition filed by the Progressive Movement's Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC) on November 13, demanding that she do so.

The rabbi, David Drukman, told the NFC internet news site that "the leftist-Reform assault against me is because I dared to declare 'the word of God, that is the halacha' regarding the question of handing over territories belonging to the Jewish settlement in Israel to the worst among our enemies. In my statements, I warned, together with my rabbinical colleagues, that according to the halacha as written in the Shulhan Aruch, the disengagement, (that is, the humiliating expulsion of Jews, etc. etc.) will imperil the lives of the nation living in Zion."

Drukman is head of the Pikuah Nefesh organization which was established in March 1995. The organization published its first petition against the Oslo Accords and what it feared would be the withdrawal from settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. The petition was signed by state-paid city and neighborhood rabbis.

In the period leading up to the disengagement, Drukman spoke out against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan. He allegedly urged the public to move to Gush Katif to block disengagement "even at the price of going to jail." In the petition, IRAC quoted Drukman as saying, "we shall do all we can in the battle of the Lord to prevent this expulsion and destruction."

[White Lightning]

And another article:

Last update - 21:34 27/12/2005

Municipal chief rabbi to face hearing over political comments

By Yuval Yoaz, Haaretz Correspondent

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni on Tuesday decided, for the first time, to bring a sitting municipal chief rabbi before a disciplinary hearing due to political comments he made publicly.

Livni has filed a complaint against the rabbi of Kiryat Motzkin, David Drukman, due to five anti-disengagement comments he made in the media. According to the civil service law, municipal chief rabbis - like all civil servants - are not allowed to make political comments in public or criticize government policies in public interviews or at press conferences.

"Drukman took advantage of his position as a rabbi and a civil servant and is not fit to continue to serve in his public position," the Reform movement's Israel Religious Action Center said on the decision to bring Drukman before a disciplinary hearing. The Religious Action Center has filed a High Court of Justice petition on the matter, following which the attorney general and state prosecution recommended that Livni file a complaint with the disciplinary court for municipal chief rabbis.

Drukman is accused of behavior not suitable to the position of a rabbi in Israel and violations of the religious services law and the civil service law.

Drukman signed a proclamation last December saying Sharon and his ministers were planning to throw "good and pure Jews" off their land. On a Chabad movement Web site, Drukman wrote that the move would "increase [Palestinians'] appetite for murdering us, our women and our children."