(Jerusalem) Israel is considering placing on its list of terrorist organizations two far-right groups inciting hatred against Arabs, the Defense Minister said on Monday the day after a parade in Jerusalem punctuated by violent behavior against this minority. .
Posted at 1:15 p.m.
On Sunday, tens of thousands of Israelis – 70,000 according to the police – paraded for the “flag march”, marking “Yom Yerushalaim”, the “reunification” by Israel of Jerusalem, via the conquest of its eastern part during the Six Day War in 1967.
But during the march, seen as a provocative demonstration by Palestinians who aspire to make East Jerusalem the capital of a future state, members of far-right groups La Familia and Lehava chanted “Death to the Arabs “.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, at the head of a coalition which for the first time in the country’s history is supported by an Arab formation, immediately denounced these slogans and pointed the finger at the “La Familia” organization.
Photo GIL COHEN-MAGEN, Agence France-Presse archives
On Sunday, tens of thousands of Israelis – 70,000 according to the police – paraded for the “flag march”, marking “Yom Yerushalaim”, the “reunification” by Israel of Jerusalem, via the conquest of its eastern part during the Six Day War in 1967.
And the head of diplomacy Yaïr Lapid had called the two far-right groups a “disgrace” which “did not deserve to hold the Israeli flag”.
But on Monday, Defense Minister Benny Gantz said the country should consider placing these two groups on its list of “terrorist” entities.
“I believe it is time to consider [la possibilité] to define groups such as La Familia and Lehava as terrorist organizations and I know the question has been put to the security forces,” Gantz said.
“I have confidence in the heads of the country’s security agencies in order to examine this file in the best possible way,” added Mr. Gantz, during a meeting with elected officials from his party, the centrist “Blue White” party.
Political maneuver?
La Familia is a group of supporters of Jerusalem’s Beitar football club known for its violence and slurs against Arabs, while Lehava is an anti-miscegenation organization inspired by the teachings of Meir Kanaha.
This late rabbi was the founder of the anti-Arab party Kach, classified as a “terrorist” in Israel after the assassination in 1994 of 29 Palestinians in Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, by one of his disciples, Baruch Goldstein.
La Familia swept aside these criticisms, accusing the elected officials of wanting to make political capital on the back of the organization.
“Political organizations and members of the Knesset [Parlement] recurrently try to win votes by lowering our group based on incidents that never happened,” La Familia wrote on its Facebook account on Monday.
“Our organization is only interested in football, and as citizens like the others we have the right to march in Jerusalem,” added La Familia, whose members had violently opposed in 2020 to a project of investments by personalities from the Emirates in Beitar.
For his part, the leader of the Lehava organization, Benzi Gopstein, accused on his Telegram account Benny Gantz of having received Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at his residence, “but of doing nothing against Arabs who incite hatred […] “.
In Israel, for a group to be designated “terrorist”, one of the country’s security agencies (army, Mossad, Shin Beth) must submit a request to the Ministry of Defense and receive the green light from the Attorney General. And the organizations concerned can then appeal this designation.