Defence Minister Benny Gantz said Monday that Israel should consider adding two right-wing extremist groups accused of violence against Palestinians and calling for the death of Arabs to its terrorist list.
“I believe it is time to examine defining groups like La Familia and Lehava as terror groups, and I know the issue is being presented to security forces,” Gantz said during a faction meeting of his Blue and White party.
Thousands of Israelis waving flags marched through Jerusalem’s Old City on Sunday as part of a nationalist procession commemorating Israel’s 1967 capture of east Jerusalem.
Some marchers chanted “death to Arabs”, as a number of Palestinians hurled projectiles from the rooftops.
Read more; Palestinian PM: Israeli flag march ‘crossed all red lines’
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett ordered police to show “zero tolerance” towards Jewish extremists who planned to “incite” tensions, singling out La Familia.
Foreign Minister Yair Lapid described Lehava and La Familia as a “disgrace” who weren’t “worthy of holding the Israeli flag”.
La Familia is a group of fans of the Beitar Jerusalem football club, notorious for their anti-Arab racism and violence.
Lehava is an extremist right-wing group that fights against fraternisation between Jews and non-Jews which could lead to intermarriage. It is affiliated with the teachings of the late Rabbi Meir Kahana, whose Kach group is outlawed in Israel.
To designate an organisation as a terrorist group, one of Israel’s security organisations — the Shin Bet internal security agency, police, army or Mossad — must issue a request to the defence ministry and receive the consent of the attorney general.
Following the defence minister’s approval, the group will receive a three-month temporary designation, during which it can appeal the decision to the ministry as well as a special judiciary panel.
If no appeal overturns the decision, the group will then be formally declared a terrorist organisation.
Israeli officials have from time to time previously raised the issue of designating La Familia and Lehava as terrorist groups, but have never gone through with the process.
La Familia brushed aside the latest wave of condemnation and attention as an attempt to garner political support.
“Time and again political groups or members of Knesset try to ride on the organisation’s back to try get votes and take down the group with incidents that never happened,” they wrote on their official Facebook page.
Read more; Israelis waving flags take to the streets, and skirmishes occur in the Al-Aqsa mosque
“La Familia is a football organisation only, and as regular civilians, we have the right to march in Jerusalem,” they said.
Lehava leader Benzi Gopstein slammed Gantz for hosting Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas at his home late last year, “but does nothing against the Arabs who incite day after day on the Temple Mount,” Judaism’s holiest site, which is also Islam’s third-holiest site, Al-Aqsa mosque compound in east Jerusalem.
“We’ve been through” hardships, Gopstein said on his Telegram channel, and “we’ll get through Gantz too.”
