Ten Israelis Arrested for Anti-Arab Activities — Surprisingly, None of Those Arrested was Named Benjamin Netanyahu

Aftermath of arson attack on Jewish-Arab bilingual school in Jerusalem. (Photo screen captured from
YouTube video)

By Isabel Kershner
Ten members of a far-right Jewish organization were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of incitement and calls for acts of violence motivated by racism, the police said. The arrests came against a background of heightened Jewish-Arab tensions in Israel and Israeli-Palestinian hostility.

The police crackdown came a day after three activists from the group, Lehava, long known for provocative anti-Arab activities, were charged with a November arson attack against a Jewish-Arab bilingual school in Jerusalem, and amid growing calls in Israel for the group to be outlawed.

The police have described Lehava, Hebrew for “flame” and an acronym for Preventing Assimilation in the Holy Land, as acting against mixed Jewish-Arab couples in the spirit of Meir Kahane, an American-born rabbi whose Kach party was banned in Israel two decades ago on grounds that it was racist and undemocratic. Rabbi Kahane was shot to death in a Manhattan hotel in 1990.

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