Occupied Jerusalem, December 18 (Saba) - A significant segment of Israel's adult Jewish population agrees with a religious ruling forbididng Jews from selling or renting apartments to Arabs or other non-Jews, according to a recent survey commissioned by Ynet and the Gesher organization, according to Qatar News Agency (QNA).

The controversial ruling was issued by a group of 50 municipal rabbis. Some 55% of those polled said they agree with the ruling; 26% of the respondents said they agree with it for the most part; 13% agree with the ruling to "some degree," while 42% disagree with the rabbis'' call entirely. The survey indicated that more than half of Israel''s secular Jews (about 53%) oppose the ruling, while 41% of them agree with it to some extent (18.4% support the ruling to a large extent; 12.1% agree with it to a certain extent; 13.6 back the rabbis'' ruling to a small extent).

Among Israel''s traditional population, 64% agree with the ruling and about 30% do not agree with it at all, the poll indicated. The survey further showed that some 66% of religious or haredi Israelis support the call not to rent or sell apartments to non-Jews, 22% of them agree with the ruling to a lesser extent, while only 10% do not agree with the rabbis'' ruling at all. In addition, some 58% of those polled said they were against dismissing the rabbis over the ruling, while 42% support such a move.

Asked what they would do in case an Arab family planned to purchase or rent an apartment in their neighborhood, some 57% of the respondents said it would not bother them, 24.5% said they would act or consider acting to prevent the Arab family from moving into their neighborhood, while 7% said they would move out. Analyzing the results according to religious affiliation shows that 69% of Israel''s secular Jews would not have a problem living near Arabs; 52% of the traditional respondents and 15% of the haredi respondents also said they wouldn''t mind having Arab neighbors. However, some 24% of the secular respondents said they would act or consider acting immediately to prevent Arabs from moving into their neighborhood, as would 31% of the country''s traditional Jews and 78% of the haredim.

Saba