Israel is considering putting on its list of terrorist organizations the two most right-wing groups inciting anger against Arabs, the Defense Minister said on Monday, a day after a parade in Jerusalem marked by violent behavior against this minority.
On Sunday, tens of thousands of Israelis – 70,000 according to police – parked for the “flag march”, which marked Yom Yerushalaim, the reunification of Israel of Jerusalem, by conquering its eastern part during the Six Day War in 1967.
However, during the march, which was seen as a provocative demonstration by Palestinians seeking to make East Jerusalem the capital of a future state, members of the far -right groups La Familia and Lehava sang Death of the Arabs.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, the leader of a coalition that for the first time in the country’s history was supported by an Arab formation, immediately denounced these slogans and pointed fingers at the La Familia organization. .
And the head of diplomacy Yaïr Lapid described the two most right -wing groups as shame Who doesn’t unworthy to hold the flag of Israel.
However, on Monday, Defense Minister Benny Gantz said the country should consider putting these two groups on its entity list. terrorists.
” I believe it’s time to check [la possibilité] to define groups like La Familia and Lehava as terrorist organizations and I know the question has been put to the security forces. “
I trust the heads of the country’s security agencies to review this file in the best possible way.added Mr. Gantz, at a meeting with elected officials from his party, the Bleu Blanc -centered party.
Critics denied
La Familia is a group of supporters of Jerusalem’s Beitar football club known for violence and vandalism 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, which was ranked terrorist in Israel after the 1994 murder of 29 Palestinians in Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, of one of his disciples, Baruch Goldstein.
La Familia dismissed these criticisms, accusing elected officials of wanting to create political capital behind the organization.
” Political organizations and members of the Knesset (Parliament, editor’s note) have repeatedly tried to win votes by lowering our group based on incidents that never happened. “
Our organization is only interested in football, and as citizens like everyone else we have the right to march on Jerusalemadded La Familia, whose members violently opposed in 2020 an investment project of personalities from the Emirates in Beitar.
For his part, the head of the Lehava organization, Benzi Gopstein, accused in his Telegram account Benny Gantz of receiving Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at his residence, but nothing will be done against the Arabs inciting hatred.
In Israel, for a group to be assigned 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 organization concerned may appeal this assignment.
Source: Radio-Canada
