Jewish radical under house arrest for alleged threats against Arabs
Lehava leader Bentzi Gopstein and 15 others detained over suspected assault and harassment of men who dated Jewish women
The leader of an extremist Jewish group was remanded to house arrest Sunday following allegations he made threats against Arabs who were romantically involved with Jewish women.
Lehava head Bentzi Gopstein was sentenced to five days house arrest by the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court. Of the 14 other members of the anti-assimilation group arrested at the same time, two had their remand extended by two days, while the rest were allowed to return home, Hebrew media reported.
“Fifteen suspects known to the police as active in the Lehava organization were arrested or detained for questioning during the night as part of a police investigation on suspicion that they acted to locate and threaten (Arab) minority members with connections to Jewish young women,” a police statement said.
Speaking to reporters ahead of his hearing at the court, Gopstein said he was arrested for telling a Jewish woman that she should not date an Arab man, insisting he did no wrong.
“Lehava operates within the limits of law only,” he said. “It’s all nonsense.”
Police said the arrests came after an “undercover and complex” investigation of the group, which was prompted by a number of recent instances of assault and harassment of Arabs in Jerusalem and efforts by the group “to expand its activities.”
An Israel Police spokeswoman said Sunday’s arrests were meant to “cut off the phenomenon” of assaults on Arabs and “prevent radicalization by members of the group and harming of others on the basis of racist nationalism.”
“The Israel Police will act wherever criminals are taking the law into their own hands,” the spokeswoman said in a statement.
Gopstein’s lawyer Itamar Ben Gvir said before the sentencing that his client’s arrest was due to “leftist extremists” and “Reform Jews” exerting pressure on police.
Lehava opposes intermarriage. In August 2014, its activists staged a rally where racist slogans, including “Death to Arabs,” were shouted at the wedding near Tel Aviv of a Muslim man and Jewish woman.
Arabs account for some 21 percent of Israel’s over eight million population.
In April, six Israelis, including two soldiers, were arrested for alleged racist attacks against Arabs with knives and other weapons and charged with “terrorist” offenses. Police said they were influenced by a Lehava video.
Gopstein was also questioned by police in 2015 after he condoned torching churches in Israel, in accordance with a medieval Jewish commandment to destroy places of idol-worship.
