Lehava member indicted for illegal possession of ammunition

An activist affiliated with the extremist Lehava organization was indicted by the Jerusalem District Court on Monday for illegal possession of ammunition, after bullets were found in her home.

The indictment said police uncovered 12 live rounds of 0.22-inch caliber bullets at the Jerusalem home of the 20-year-old female activist.

It was not immediately clear when or why the woman’s home was searched by police.

Earlier this month, State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan urged tougher punishments for illegal firearms sales and urged prosecutors to demand jail time for both owners and dealers of unlicensed weapons and ammunition. In his August 7 recommendation, Nitzan proposed six months’ jail time or community service for those found in possession of illegal ammunition.

Lehava was established as an organization aiming to prevent marriage between Jews and Arabs, which is prohibited according to religious Jewish law. The group has become identified with the extreme Jewish right and its members have been seen patrolling downtown Jerusalem looking, they claim, for mixed couples.

Their vigilante patrols — often made up of teenagers — have often escalated into scuffles, and there were several instances over the past year where members of the organization have beaten Arabs who came to town for a night out.

Earlier this year, Lehava’s longtime head, Bentzi Gopstein, was investigated by police for incitement after he called Christians living in Israel “blood-sucking vampires.”

During a public panel discussion months earlier, he called for the burning of churches, telling his fellow presenters he was prepared to sit in prison for decades for saying so.

Gopstein has been arrested and detained by police several times in recent years, but has never been convicted of inciting his followers to violence.

In November 2014, three members of the group set fire to a Jerusalem school that teaches Muslims, Christians and Jews.