Lehava

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Lehava ( Hebrew למניעת התבוללות בארץ הקודש LeMeniat Hitbolelut B'eretz HaKodesh , literally [Organization for the Prevention of Assimilation in the Holy Land] is an ultra-right Israeli organization that rejects all assimilation , personal and business relationships between Jews and non-Jews. One focus of Lehava's work is the rejection of interreligious marriages, especially partnerships between Jewish women and non-Jewish men. The organization is classified by the media as “ far right” or “ far right ”. Lehava's actions were condemned, among others, by Reuven Rivlin , the incumbent President of Israel, who called the members "rodents that nibble on the democratic and Jewish foundations of Israel".

History and people

According to its own statements, Lehava was founded in 2009 by Rabbi Mosis Zion. Ben-Zion Gopstein, an avowed supporter of Meir Kahane , has been chairman of the organization for several years . Gopstein had several clashes with the police when he was active for Kahane's Kach movement, which was banned as “racist” in 1988 and is on the EU's terrorist list. In addition to Gopstein, Lehava employs several people who can be assigned to Kahanism , such as Baruch Marzel , who was considered the “right hand” of Kahane. Ex- Knesset MP Michael Ben-Ari , also an avowed Kahanist, is Lehava's press spokesman.

Gopstein himself is also head of PR for the non-profit organization Hemla . It maintains publicly subsidized women's shelters to help Jewish girls and young women from shattered backgrounds "who are in danger of being forced to convert and get involved in crimes".

In January 2015, Defense Minister Moshe Jaalon instructed the Shin Bet and the Ministry of Defense to collect evidence that Lehava was classified as a terrorist organization. Ben-Zion Gopstein strongly condemned this approach: “I suggest that [Jaalon] try to ban the Islamist movement and only then deal with an anti-assimilation group… Instead of dealing with an enemy of Israel, the Defense Minister tries To woo votes from the left by cracking down on Lehava. This group is acting to save the daughters of Israel and deserves the Israel Prize . ”He denied that Lehava was doing anything illegal. In August 2015, the Shin Bet announced that there was insufficient evidence to classify Lehava as a terrorist organization.

activities

Against interreligious relationships

Lehava first attracted attention through her engagement against interfaith marriages . In 2010, the organizers sent an open letter to Jewish model Bar Refaeli urging them to end their relationship with Roman Catholic actor Leonardo DiCaprio . Lehava has also spoken out against Mark Zuckerberg's marriage to Priscilla Chan ; however, neither addressee responded to the requests. Several wives of Israeli rabbis wrote in an open letter on behalf of Lehava calling on women not to get involved with non-Jews . The Haaretz newspaper quoted the letter as follows: "Do not date non-Jews, do not work in places that non-Jews visit, and do not do your military service with non-Jews." The letter implied that if women were not instructed, they would be cut off from their "divine race" . Around the same time, Lehava called on Jews not to rent apartments to non-Jews and to make public the names of those renting out to Arabs. The two open letters sparked a public controversy in Israel, in the course of which the majority of rabbis and politicians condemned the appeals.

In 2013, the organizations launched a Facebook page on which interfaith couples should be publicly identified; However, this was closed again the following year due to racist comments. At the height of the Gaza conflict in 2014 , Lehava organized protests against the marriage of a couple from Jaffa , in which the Jewish bride had adopted the religion of her Muslim husband for the wedding. The organization announced that it "will ask our sister to come home to us Jewish people who are waiting for her." The couple tried to outlaw the demonstration, but the court allowed the rally within 200 meters of the ceremony. According to media reports, the protesters shouted "death to the left" and "death to the Arabs", even though the organizers tried to calm the crowd. President Reuven Rivlin disapproved of this as undermining the coexistence of the population groups in democratic Israel. The Israeli police ensured compliance with the distance requirement and arrested four demonstrators. Left-wing counter-demonstrators and Health Minister Ja'el German wished the bridal couple luck.

The investigative journalist Liat Bar-Stav, who sneaked into Lehava, describes a standard procedure developed by Gopstein for establishing contact with “seduced” Jewish women: the members would actively look out for Jewish women who date Arabs and address them. Under the pretext of briefly borrowing the woman's cell phone, they would steal her number by calling Lehava from the borrowed cell phone. The organization would then decide how to proceed on a case-by-case basis.

segregation

In 2012, the group distributed flyers in East Jerusalem warning Arabs not to visit the western side of the city. Lehava has also advocated separation of Jews and Arabs on beaches.

Christian institutions

The chairman of Lehava, Ben-Zion Gopstein, spoke as a participant in a panel discussion after arson attacks on churches and monasteries, e. B. the Church of the Multiplication in Israel had come. Citing the Jewish scholar Maimonides , who classified Christianity as idolatry in the 13th century, Gopstein argued that one must fight the church and accordingly the attacks were justified. The Catholic Church then reported him for hate speech. After an interrogation by the Israeli police on August 11, 2015, Gopstein stated that he rejects acts of individuals, that it is rather a matter for the state and the Israeli government.

Criminal offenses

The Hand-in-Hand School in Jerusalem is one of the few Israeli schools in which Arab and Jewish children are taught together and bilingually. On November 29, 2014, three perpetrators arson attacked the school and sprayed racist graffiti on the walls. According to the Shin Bet, all three are members of Lehava. The aim of the attack was to show public resistance to assimilation. A few days after the perpetrators were arrested, the police carried out house searches of several Lehava members. Lehava chairman Ben-Zion Gopstein was among the 17 people arrested on suspicion of terrorism and hate speech. Ten of the Lehava members were subsequently charged with incitement to hatred, and Gopstein was briefly placed under house arrest. Three of the activists were later charged and two were sentenced to short sentences.

In November 2014, four activists from the group were arrested in Petach Tikwa after distributing propaganda material and attacking the police.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Lehava 'Hotline' to Help Prevent Intermarriage, Assimilation . Israel National News, September 9, 2013
  2. ↑ Meet Lehava, the Israeli Fascists Mounting a Vicious Crusade to Keep their Women Away from Arabs International Business Times, 22 Sept 2014
  3. ^ Grinning Jewish Extremists Charged in Jerusalem School Arson . The Jewish Daily Forward, December 15, 2014
  4. ^ Over vocal protest, Arab-Jewish wedding goes ahead . In: The Times of Israel . Retrieved August 18, 2014.
  5. ^ Dan Williams 'Racist Jewish Group Offers Dilemma to Israel as Anti-Arab Violence Rises' . Forward, December 28, 2014
  6. ↑ a b Uri Blau, Shai Greenberg: A strange kind of mercy . May 27, 2011. Retrieved December 21, 2014. 
  7. ^ A b Yair Ettinger: Israel Police arrests four more anti-Arab activists from rightist group Lehava . In: Haaretz date = 2014-12-21 . Retrieved December 21, 2014. 
  8. ↑ a b Marzel urges super model Refaeli not to marry DiCaprio .
  9. ^ Israeli wedding of Jew, Muslim draws protesters amid war tensions , Reuters. August 18, 2014. 
  10. ^ Number 4 in the National Union: Everyone Understand that Kahane was Right (hebrew) , Yedioth Ahronoth. February 2, 2009. 
  11. ↑ The “Kahanist” MK complained about Arie Golan: He Cut me Short in an Interview . Maariv
  12. ↑ Vered Lee: Love in the time of racism: The new, dangerous low in the campaign to stop interracial relationships . In: Haaretz , April 25, 2013. Accessed December 21, 2014. 
  13. ^ Why Israel may list this hard-line Jewish group as a terrorist organization . The Washington Post, Jan. 5, 2015
  14. ^ Tanti assimilation group could be classified as terrorist . Times of Israel , Jan. 4, 2015
  15. ↑ Security agency says evidence lacking to ban extremist Jewish group. Times of Israel, August 4, 2015, accessed August 5, 2015 .
  16. ^ Jewish Organization Lehava Defends Call for Bar Refaeli / Leo DiCaprio Breakup .
  17. ↑ english.alarabiya.net ( Memento of the original from August 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / english.alarabiya.net
  18. ↑ Rabbis' wives urge Israeli women: Stay away from Arab men Haaretz, 28 Dec 2010
  19. ↑ Public invited to inform on those renting to Arabs .
  20. ↑ Rabbis' wives: Don't date Arabs .
  21. ↑ Rebbetzins: Women, stay away from Arab men .
  22. ^ Batsheva Sobelman, Right-wing extremists can't break the love of a Muslim man and Jewish woman in Israel . Sydney Morning Herald , August 16, 2014.
  23. ^ Roy Arad: Extremists' hatred poisons Mahmoud and Morel's wedding . In: Haaretz , August 19, 2014. 
  24. ↑ Crowd Shouts 'Death to the Arabs' at an Israeli Wedding of Jew and Muslim . Newsweek
  25. ^ Liat Bar-Stav 'Inside radical right-wing group Lehava' . YNET News, January 3, 2015
  26. ↑ Orlando Crowcroft: Israeli court allows protesters to picket Palestinian-Jewish wedding . In: The Guardian , August 17, 2014. Retrieved December 21, 2014. 
  27. ↑ Jeremy Sharon: Rabbi and leader of extremist group says he's in favor of burning churches, in theory . Jerusalem Post, Aug. 5, 2015; accessed on August 7, 2015
  28. ↑ Catholic Church in the Holy Land reports right-wing extremists. In: Welt Online . Retrieved August 9, 2015 .
  29. ↑ DER SPIEGEL: Israel: police interrogate extremist Lehava boss Ben-Zion Gopstein - DER SPIEGEL - politics. Der Spiegel , August 11, 2015, accessed on February 15, 2020 .
  30. ↑ Andrea Backhaus: You won't divide us. In: Zeit Online . January 6, 2015, accessed August 5, 2015 .
  31. ^ Gili Cohen: Shin Bet: Anti-Arab activists admit to J'lem school arson: Suspects reportedly members of extremist group Lehava, which is fighting Jewish assimilation . Haaretz , December 11, 2014
  32. ↑ Chaim Levinson: Police raid homes of right-wing Lehava activists, arrest chairman Gopstein . Haaretz , December 16, 2014
  33. ^ Brothers sentenced for Jerusalem arson hate-crime on Jewish-Arab school . Jerusalem Post, July 22, 2015
  34. ↑ DER SPIEGEL: Israel: police interrogate extremist Lehava boss Ben-Zion Gopstein - DER SPIEGEL - politics. Der Spiegel , August 11, 2015, accessed on February 15, 2020 .
  35. ↑ Ahia Raved: Three suspected hate crimes in one night . Ynet News, November 21, 2014