The tranquility of Safed, a small city nestled high in the hills of the Upper Galilee close to the Lebanese border, is not usually disturbed except by the occasional pilgrimage by Madonna or other famous devotees of the Jewish mystical teachings of Kabbalah.
But in the past few weeks, Safed -- one of Judaism's four holy cities -- has been making headlines of a very different kind. Gideon Levy, a columnist for the Israeli daily Haaretz, last week declared it "the most racist city in the country."
The unflattering, and hotly contested, epithet follows an edict from Safed's senior rabbis ordering residents not to sell or rent homes to "non-Jews" -- a reference to the country's Palestinian citizens, who comprise a fifth of Israel's population.
At an emergency meeting, called last month to discuss the dangers of "assimilation" caused by Palestinian men dating Jewish women, the 18 rabbis warned that Safed was facing an "Arab takeover." Jewish residents were told to inform on neighbors who try to sell or rent to Arabs.
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