Lehava, an Israeli anti-Arab group which campaigns under the slogan of 'saving the daughters of Israel', is planning to disrupt the wedding of a Palestinian Israeli man to a Jewish Israeli woman, after Israel's high court refused the couple's application to ban demonstrations outside their wedding reception. According to Haaretz:
The organization, whose name is a Hebrew acronym for Preventing Assimilation in the Holy Land, has been disseminating the wedding invitation over social media in recent days, and calling on supporters to demonstrate at the banquet hall when the celebration takes place.
"On Sunday we will all be in Rishon! An abomination is taking place in Israel! We will not be silent, we will be there to protest. Come with placards and loudspeakers. In the name of God we will succeed! Share this with everyone! Sadly, this is really happening," read the statement on the Facebook page of Lehava, headed by Bentzi Gopstein.
An investigation by Haaretz in 2011 revealed that Lehava had close ties with the Israeli government and received up to $175,000 per year from the state, over half of its operational budget.
The group has in the past distributed flyers in east Jerusalem warning Arabs not to visit the mostly Jewish western side of the city. It has also campaigned against Jews and Arabs mixing on beaches and Jewish landlords renting to Arabs. It's a wonder that Lehava haven't demanded that Palestinians wear a badge that identifies them, something like...oh, I don't know...a yellow-crescent, perhaps.
Yad L'Achim, another bunch of charmers who campaign against Jewish and Arab assimilation in Israel posted a photograph of the bride on its Facebook page, calling on Jews to write to her and beg her not to go through with the wedding.
Haaretz reports:
Lehava published the name and telephone number of the banquet hall where the wedding celebration is to take place. The organization posted an online appeal to supporters to telephone the banquet hall and demand that it cancel the event.
"Explain to [the owners] that their reputation is being ruined and will be destroyed because they are lending their hand to assimilation. Do not threaten!! Just explain why this really hurts the people of Israel!" reads the appeal.
The banquet hall management said yesterday that they have been harassed by numerous callers who mainly cursed them, but some also made threats, so they decided to hire security for Sunday's wedding celebration.
However, the groom, Mahmoud Mansour, 26, a Palestinian from Jaffa told Haaretz that he and his bride-to-be Moral Malka, 23, refused to be intimidated by racist thugs:
Mansour said he had also received many letters of support. "We feel great, and that really gives us strength. They think they'll break us, but we can't be broken. The opposite is true – we're getting stronger," Mansour said.
"The wedding will go on as planned – it will be great. I'm not worried, but it's troubling that on this day, which everyone waits for their whole life, the happiest day of their life, I have to go to court. It's sad that such things happen in this country."
Yes, it is. One can't help wondering: how much of the $175,000 p.a. that this race-hate group receives from the Israeli state comes from US taxpayers? Any? Some? A little? Let's hope the answer is: 'none'.