Ben Barak, Bar Lev spearhead effort to outlaw Lehava as terror group

Chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee MK Ram Ben Barak of Yesh Atid as well as Public Security Minister Omer Bar Lev of Labor are seeking to outlaw the Jewish supremacist organization Lehava as a terror group.

On Monday, Ben Barak sent a letter to Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit calling on them to utilize the terms of 2016 legislation to ban the extremist organization.

Bar Lev met with Mandelblit on Monday to detail the request and advance the process of outlawing the group.

In addition, Ben Barak is seeking to dismantle the nonprofit organization Foundation for the Rescue of the Jewish People, which is Lehava’s fundraising arm.

In his letter to Gantz, Ben Barak detailed various recent incidents in which Lehava activists have allegedly been involved in planning and carrying out violent attacks against Israeli Arabs, particularly during the recent inter-communal violence during the war with Hamas in Gaza in May.

Ben Barak noted that on May 14, during the conflict with Hamas, Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai gave a briefing in which he accused far-right MK Itamar Ben-Gvir and Lehava of playing a central role in the outbreak of violence between

Jews and Arabs.

“It began with the demonstration of Lehava at Damascus Gate [of the Old City of Jerusalem], continued with the provocation in the [east Jerusalem neighborhood of] Sheikh Jarrah, and now he [Ben-Gvir] goes around with Lehava activists in cities,” said Shabtai at the time, and was quoted by Ben Barak in his letter to Gantz.

The MK also noted that a number of Arab mayors claimed in a letter to the chairman of the Center for Local Authorities that Lehava activists had been present in the mixed Jewish-Arab city of Lod during the riots there in May.

And he pointed to media reports that Lehava activists planned to attack Arabs in the Afula area with petrol bombs.

“These incidents which took place last month represent proof that the Lehava organization is currently a dangerous and violent organization,” wrote Ben Barak.

“I, therefore, call on you to use your authority as defense minister to advance a speedy and determined process which will result in the declaration of Lehava as a terror group and the outlawing of the organization.”

Lehava head Ben-Zion “Bentzi” Gopstein said in response that “The world is upside down when those who sit in a government with the Islamic Movement [the Ra’am party] are trying to outlaw Lehava.”