What happened when I wanted to rent an apartment to an Arab

A new neighborhood in Lod

Shay Zilber writes in Haaretz on 25 July 2022:

Shai is a member of the garin Torani – literally a Torah nucleus or core group – of Lod, a city 9 miles southeast of Tel Aviv. When he heard that my family intended to rent an apartment we own in the building where he lives to an Arab woman, he called my father and warned him. “The building’s Jewish character must be maintained,” he said.

Shai has never even met Haniyyah. He doesn’t know her name, occupation or opinions. He was just told by another neighbor that she might become his neighbor, soon after she came to see the place, and he was alarmed.

Even before his call, I hinted to Haniyyah that some neighbors might not like the idea. She made it clear to me that she isn’t looking for any confrontations and doesn’t intend to create tension. I told her that it wasn’t her I was concerned about. I was familiar with the local atmosphere, because this wasn’t the first time Shai and his friends tried to prevent Arabs from entering the building. It happened a few years ago as well, long before the riots broke out in town last year.

He had called on the basis of a rumor, just like this time, but back then I didn’t bother to get into the matter with him, since we eventually rented the apartment to a tenant he found “kosher.” After hearing that he was sticking his nose in my business once again, I decided to reprimand him and called him right away, to try to figure out why he thinks it’s his place to tell us whom to let, or not let, into our property.

At first, he tried to claim that he called my father because he has the number and has a long-standing acquaintance with him. After expressing surprise at the timing precisely matching the arrival of the prospective tenant, he deigned to explain that “the whole building is Jews,” and that he will be glad to help us find renters. “What’s the big deal?” he asked, playing dumb.

I replied bluntly that he was expressing opposition to someone living in the building because they were not Jewish, and he indeed admitted that he wished his neighbors to only be from his own people. “Until now there have only been Jews here, people were happy and everything was fine,” he declared and asked me, “What’s the problem in saying that?” I tried to ask him what he would think if in Germany, someone objected to having Jewish neighbors, but he wouldn’t accept the comparison, and again offered me help with finding Jewish tenants.

Behind the façade of willingness to help, of the phony smile, stands a racist idea that seems to be impacting the entire city as the nucleus members have found their way into high municipal office. When Shai repeatedly asked me what the problem was, I threw back at him that he was creating it, that he was sowing terror and harming the fabric of life, but to him this was all background noise, not terribly disruptive to his long-term objective.

The next day I got a call from another neighbor, also from the nucleus, who also warned me to do “the right thing.” This time he himself saw Haniyyah, and knew that she wasn’t exactly a suicide bomber. Nonetheless, his persuasion efforts persisted. He explained that one of her cousins may be dangerous and added that since the neighborhood down the road has fallen into crime after an influx of Arabs, it is his mission to see that the same doesn’t happen in his own neighborhood.

This racism is not an isolated case, and is declared explicitly on the nucleus’ website. Speaking of the city’s historical background, it says “toward the end of the 20th century, the city’s condition deteriorated. Failed municipal administration, a massive influx of problematic Arab populations into some neighborhoods and people leaving in favor of the newer nearby cities caused a grim reality throughout the city and an increase in crime and disrepair.”

Going on to claim that “over the past decade there are new winds of hope blowing in Lod”, thanks to the nucleus’ members. So to the garin Torani, it’s a pretty simple matter: Most Arabs left the historically Jewish city after 1948 – willingly, of course – and those who remained are troublemakers that need to be gotten rid of.

Following this incident, I wish to make two proposals. The first is to left-wing organizations: It would be an interesting initiative to buy property, just as the right-wing organizations do, in major cities and in the heart of Jewish populations, and invite Arab and Palestinian residents to live there. Slowly there will be kindergartens, mosques and cultural institutions in the spirit of Islam.

The other proposal is to the various Torah nuclei scattered throughout the country: If they wish to sanctify the name of heaven on earth, to be a light unto the nations, they must show that there is no intent of “cleansing” behind their program, and that they are able to coexist with believers of other faiths. They should rejoice at the opportunity to serve as models of good neighborly relations. Their current conduct proves that they are the ones sabotaging it.

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