The court sets a price and the customers buy on credit or by check so that the money does not have the laws of Shmitah . There is a great controversy about fruits grown by non-Jews on farms they own in Israel. Rav Yosef Karo held that it does not, and therefore must be tithed. He even excommunicated those who did not tithe. Although the majority of authorities differ with Rav Yosef Karo, the magnitude of his authority continues to determine the custom of Jerusalem.
Some authorities hold a compromise view.
The fruit must be eaten as Shmitah fruit, but the prohibition against marketing and the law of biur do not apply. The ramifications of this controversy, which are great due to the large amount of Israeli land controlled by Arabs, especially since 1967, have been greatly extended. This is because of the Chief Rabbinate s sale of most Jewish owned farms in Israel to Arabs for the duration of Shmitah . The laws of Shmitah would now be only rabbinic because the sanctity of Israel with respect to laws of the land is only d'rabonon - either since the destruction of the Second Temple, or even from its very inception. Since both of the above mentioned assumptions, especially the latter one, are very questionable, the rabbis did not allow a Jew to do work prohibited by the Torah even after the sale.