Far-right activist threatens Arab TV presenter who preaches coexistence
At Meir Kahane rally, Bentzi Gopstein holds up rag with Lucy Aharish’s photo, says she’ll soon be ‘mopping the floors’
The leader of an extreme right-wing Jewish group appeared to threaten an Israeli Arab television presenter on Thursday, when he held up a cleaning rag with her picture on it and warned that she would soon be mopping floors.
At a commemoration of slain extremist rabbi Meir Kahane in Jerusalem, Bentzi Gopstein, who heads the “Lehava” anti-assimilation organization, attacked the media and vowed to punish its members when the far-right assumes power.
“To all the wimps (in Hebrew ‘cleaning rags’) in the media, get ready to mop the floors,” he declared according to the Ynet news website, holding up one such rag emblazoned with a photo of Aharish. “Because that’s what you’ll end up doing.”
Gopstein has attacked Aharish in the past. During an appearance on her current events program on Channel 2 in 2014, the activist told the host that as an Arab citizen “You’re not supposed to be here” in the Jewish state. When Aharish replied that she wasn’t going anywhere, he retorted “We shall see.”
והנה התיעוד הבלעדי, גופשטיין כשבידיו סמרטוט עם דמותה של העיתונאית לוסי האריש. "עם הסמרטוט הזה של התקשורת נעשה ספונגה". צילום: יחיאל גורפיין. pic.twitter.com/G81Kx3Bu0Q
— רפי פרלשטיין rafi perlshtein (@rafiperlshtein) November 17, 2016
In 2015 Lehava protested against Aharish being honored as a torch-lighter at the annual Independence Day ceremony at Mount Herzl. Gopstein claimed that Aharish was “not a Zionist” and was therefore unfit to have a leading role in the annual ceremony.
Gopstein’s latest attack on Aharish came after she told the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper last month that what “broke” her in the 2014 exchange with the Lehava chief was “the hatred in his eyes, simply because of one thing: that I’m Arab.”
Gopstein justified his actions to Ynet on Friday, saying Aharish “refuses to let go of what I said to her and continues to whine about it…so we’ll make her nightmare come true.”
Aharish was Israel’s first Arab presenter on prime time television. The 35-year-old media icon was described by the Ministerial Committee for Symbols and Ceremonies headed by former cultural affairs minister Limor Livnat as a “trailblazing Muslim journalist, who brings a discourse of tolerance and interdenominational openness to Israel’s public agenda,” in a statement explaining the decision to grant Aharish the torch-lighting role at the ceremony.
Known among Jewish-Israelis as a moderate Arab voice, Aharish takes pride in the Jewish state and has been willing to openly criticize both Israeli Jews and her fellow Arab Israelis. Many Jewish Israelis have hailed her as a clear voice of reason in local journalism.
Debra Kamin contributed to this report.
