Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Israeli Army Apologizes for Book Saying Non-Jews Aren’t Equal to Jews

The Israel Defense Forces has apologized for publishing a book of religious regulations that states non-Jews do not have equal rights in Israel.

The IDF issued the apology on Thursday in a letter to MK Zahava Gal-On (Meretz), and said it had halted distribution of the book, which claims that “the concept that non-Jews and Jews have equal rights in the state goes against the opinion of the Torah.”

The book was published by the IDF rabbinate and authorized by the IDF chief rabbi, Brig. Gen. Rafi Peretz. It deals with questions of keeping Jewish law (halakha) in the army and discusses regulations for affixing mezuzahs on IDF bases.

One discussion has to do with whether mezuzahs are even needed at army bases, given the fact that both Jews and non-Jews serve in the IDF. There have been numerous halakhic rulings over the generations that mezuzahs are not required in dwellings where both Jews and non-Jews live.

As part of the discussion, the book looks at the question of who owns state property – and whether non-Jewish citizens have as much claim to it as Jews.

Read more at Haaretz.com.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism. 

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.