About 100 protesters with local Palestinian rights organization PAL-Awda NY/NJ gathered near a synagogue in West Orange, New Jersey, on Nov. 13, when an Israeli real estate event was taking place. The event at Congregation Ohr Torah, organized by My Israel Home, an Israeli real estate company based outside of Jerusalem, included properties in Giv’at Ha-Matos, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, as recognized by the United Nations. Per the International Court of Justice, Giv’at Ha-Matos and the 300 other Israeli settlements in the West Bank are all illegal encroachments upon Palestinian land—a fact that the protesters in West Orange sought to underscore when, Pal-Awda members told Prism, they were attacked by counter-protesters.

Israeli real estate companies have recently held similar events across the U.S., which have often been met by protesters aiming to highlight contraventions of international law. But many of the events have also included U.S. realtors, who may additionally be violating domestic laws against discrimination in housing, according to legal advocates. 

Following complaints from Palestinian organizers in March, the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights questioned at least two U.S. realtors about how they granted or denied entry into these events, according to documents obtained by Prism.

The New Jersey Division on Civil Rights declined to confirm an investigation or provide further details about its efforts to Prism.

A “firewall” of requirements to register

Since March, Israeli real estate companies have held more than two dozen events, such as the one at Congregation Ohr Torah, across the U.S. and Canada. These events have been put on by at least five different companies, according to Greg Kaplan, a member of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), which has also organized protests against the events. In addition to My Israel Home, other companies involved include CapitIL, Home in Israel, My Home in Israel, and YYK Jerusalem.

While Israeli realtors typically lead the events, U.S. realtors have sometimes helped secure venues, market the events, and been on hand to handle local deals, such as in cases where buyers want to sell property in the U.S. to finance purchases in Israel. My Home in Israel events have included Marina Dilamani of Voro and Sabrina Lewitinn of Exp Realty, according to documents from the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights. Home in Israel events have involved Jeremy Zucker of Keller Williams, Zucker’s office confirmed to Prism.

Dilamani, Lewitinn, and Zucker did not respond to Prism’s requests for comment.

Protesters and their legal advocates point to Israeli real estate companies’ screening of event registrants as discriminatory. Protesters who registered for events organized by Home in Israel and My Home in Israel say that they were explicitly asked to provide information regarding their religious affiliation and either granted or denied entry accordingly. Specific questions on the registrants’ synagogue, rabbi, and even the rabbi’s phone number effectively excluded all non-Jews and even secular Jews, protesters said.

“Realtors have set up a firewall of attendance registration requirements and questions, intended to exclude everyone but Jews who are linked to specific religious institutions,” said Tova, a spokesperson for PAL-Awda who declined to provide their last name due to the ongoing legal repression of pro-Palestinian activists in the U.S. “Not only non-Jews, but secular Jews as well would have a hard time passing their digital obstacle course of screening questions.”

In addition to the screening process, some of the properties marketed at the recent events must be reserved for Jewish buyers, per Israeli law. Such “housing covenants,” as they are known in the U.S., were outlawed by the Fair Housing Act of 1968.

Julian Shapiro, owner of Home in Israel, denied that his company screens registrants to their real estate events or offers any properties exclusively for Jews.

“We don’t screen anybody for their religious affiliation,” Shapiro said. “We don’t market anything for Jews only.”

But a member of JVP who attended a Home in Israel event on March 10 in Hartsdale, New York, provided Prism with an email that they received from Darren Rich, a realtor with Home in Israel, which explicitly requests the names of their “shul [synagogue] and rabbi.” Shapiro also previously admitted to The New York Times that some of the properties shown by his company are reserved exclusively for Jews.

CapitIL, My Home in Israel, My Israel Home, and YYK Jerusalem did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Prism.

U.S. realtors are licensed by their respective states and required to abide by both federal and state fair housing laws. In particular, this means that realtors cannot discriminate in the marketing of property to prospective buyers, according to Dina Chehata, an attorney with the Council on American-Islamic Relations of Greater Los Angeles, a public advocacy organization for Muslims in the U.S., which is planning on filing complaints with housing authorities in California over two events that My Home in Israel held in Los Angeles in June.

“We have strong policies that really look down on discriminating against somebody in real estate and in the sale of land based on their protected characteristics—national origin being one, religion being another,” Chehata said. “I doubt that [My Home in Israel] would be selling any land to Palestinian-Americans, for example. We know that Palestinian-Americans were not welcome at those events, so we would like to appeal to state agencies to say that it’s against our public policy in the State of California, and the United States generally, to have companies that are selling to American citizens in a way that discriminates against their protected characteristics.”

Legal action

In March, PAL-Awda assisted the Palestinian Assembly for Liberation Law Commission, another Palestinian rights organization, in filing complaints against My Home in Israel with the attorneys general and other authorities in New Jersey and New York regarding real estate events in each state. In addition to international laws condemning Israeli settlements in the West Bank, the complaint describes My Home in Israel’s screening process and Israeli housing covenants as discriminating against potential property buyers based on their religious backgrounds and ethnicities, which is prohibited under federal and state fair housing laws.

PAL Law’s complaint appears to have triggered an investigation into My Home in Israel in New Jersey. Although the New Jersey Civil Rights Division (NJ CRD), which enforces local fair housing laws, does not comment on ongoing investigations, the division sent a letter dated March 19 to Dilamani, Lewitinn, and Gidon Katz, an Israeli realtor with My Home in Israel, following PAL Law’s complaint on March 11. The letter, obtained by Prism, requests further information about a My Home in Israel event held on March 10 at the Congregation Keter Torah synagogue in Teaneck, New Jersey, including “the protocols and procedures utilized to determine whether to grant or deny entry.”

While it remains unclear if or when the NJ CRD investigation into My Home in Israel will proceed, protesters say they will continue demonstrating to demand that international and domestic laws be enforced to end the marketing of Palestinian land by Israeli realtors, as well as the ongoing Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip and the Israeli occupation of Palestine in general. For Jewish protesters such as Kaplan of JVP, the fact that many of the recent Israeli real estate events were hosted at synagogues is especially objectionable.

“Have they considered the moral and legal implication of hosting publicly advertised events that specifically exclude people on the basis of ethnicity and religion?” Kaplan said. “Maybe legal responsibility is entirely on the event organizers, but it’s a very bad look.”