The racist Lahava flyer being distributed in Jerusalem
Israel’s Alternative Information Center (AIC) and +972 are both reporting on another racist flyer being distributed by Lahava , The Organisation for the Prevention of Assimilation in the Holy Land. The threatening flier warns Palestinians (“Arabs”) against “visiting Jerusalem malls or the pedestrian street….this isn’t the place for you.” The reason? Allegedly to protect Jewish women from contact with ‘Arabs’.
Haggai Matar at +972 reports NGO Ir Amim has filed a complaint to police against Lehava, accusing it in incitement to racism and violence. All this comes on the heels of the August 16th Zion Square lynching in which attackers claimed their victims were trying to talk to a Jewish girl, a claim the victim has refuted.
Haggai Matar at +972 translates Lehava’s flyer.
Dear Arab guy:
We don’t want you to get hurt!
Our daughters are valuable to us,
and just as you would not want a Jew to date your sister
we unwilling are also unwilling for an Arab to date a girl from among our people.
Just as you would do anything to stop a Jew from dating your sister – so do we!
If you are thinking of visiting Jerusalem malls or the pedestrian street [Midrechov] with the intention of dating Jewish girls – this isn’t the place for you.
You may walk around in your own village freely and find girlfriends there, not here!
Last week an Arab who thought he might find Jewish girls got hurt.
We don’t wish for you to get hurt,
So respect our daughters’ honor
As we mind it dearly!
Lehava organization o.leava@gmail.com
Yesterday Noam Sheizaf offered a background on the promotion of ethnic segregation in Israel, emphasizing on preventing relations between Jewish girls and Palestinian men.
The holy war against Arab-Jewish relations and the Jerusalem lynch:
The most vocal is Lehava, an NGO that calls upon citizens to inform them of any case of mixed marriage or relationship. Their low-tech internet site, filled with racism and hate-talk, has a section titled “shame page,” which features the pictures of women, mostly public figures, who are in relationships with non-Jews. The head of Lehava, a Kahanist called Bentzi Gopstein, said today that the Jerusalem attackers “have raised Jewish honor from the floor and did what the police should have done.”
……….
A flyer warning the public about an Arab who threatens to “defame” Jewish girls, distributed in a Jerusalem neighborhood in 2011.
The holy war against interracial relationships has been central to the agenda of racist groups throughout modern history. In many places, the first to suffer from attacks (and later, laws) were Jews. An attempt to introduce laws against intermarriage was the main reason the Knesset rejected Jewish supremacist Meir Kahane in the 1980s. At the time, Justice Shamgar wrote that such ideas “remind us of the worst persecution in Jewish history.”
As it turns out, a prescient reminder.
Mock poster in German by Amir Schiby
Matar reports the latest Lahava poster has been circulating on Facebook, gathering many supporters as well as critics who have “compared its content to Nazi agendas”. This poster in German is a translation of Lahava’s text, tauntingly directed at Jewish men.
This is not an issue we can expect to fade anytime soon. There is another poster at +972 by Israeli artist Zoya Cherkassky, calling on Jewish men to “not meddle in women’s decisions on whom to date,” recommended.
Ah, your timing is perfect Annie. Thanks!
While I find that incidents like the recent attack in Zion Square do indeed say something about what some people may believe is appropriate behaviour, I don’t think it follows necessarily that such events speak much about the country or the culture as a whole.
I find what tends to be more telling is the reaction of the general public and media, and what questions get asked or not asked.
In this spirit, I headed over to The Jerusalem Post. Oh my. Here’s the article they have up on this exact issue.
Far-right group warns Arabs not to flirt with Jews
http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=282200
Read some of the comments. It’s quite enlightening, well in a dark, scary, morbid sort of way….
Surely it should be the choice of the girl though I cannot imagine why any Palestinian would want to put their lives in danger though by putting themselves through such trauma. Speaking with a Palestinian female friend inside “Israel”, she said no one she knows would even think of such a thing. They would be frowned upon inside their community so will basically be considered an outcast.
The German is awful, Google Translate?
I wonder how blacks in this country can be made aware of this Jim Crowism in Israel/Palestine.
Any poster in German has got to have the word Rassenschande. Also the equivalent of rein arisch (rein jüdisch?).