Question:
Thank you for the informative article on this topic. I found that article because I am being faced with exactly this shailah. We live in a mostly secular / mixed Arab / jewish neighborhood in eastern jerusalem and have been trying to sell our apartment for a long time and move into a neighborhood that will be better for our children’s chinuch. We now have a non Jewish buyer who would pay us what we’re asking and better and we urgently want to move. Is there a practical heter to allow us to sell? Thank you.
Answer:
Thank you for your question.
There are two issues with selling the apartment to a non-Jewish buyer. We are not allowed to sell property to non-Jews, because it in a way is kicking the Jews out of Eretz Yisroel,(Y;D 151-8), which is precisely what the Arabs want to do to the Jewish neighborhoods in E. Jerusalem today. The second issue is that by you selling your apartment to them, it is damaging your neighbors, because now it the value of the apartments in that complex will go down. Offhand I don’t know of any heteirim. As a rule you will not lose out in the long run by keeping the halacha, if though now it appears very inconvenient.
Hashem should help you sell your apartment to Jews for a good price.
