Lehava Organization (להב"ה)
Other names: Jewish Strength (formerly known as Otzma LeYisrael - Strength for Israel)
Type: Far-right and Jewish supremacist organization
Founded: 2005
Affiliations: Otzma Yehudit (The Jewish Power Party) and Hemla, an Israeli non-profit organization that helps the daughters of Israel from broken homes and guides those who are in danger of forced conversion from Judaism to other religions.
Country: Israel
Organisation Ideology: Jewish Supremacism/Religious Zionism/Anti-Arab Fundamentalism
Founders: Bentzi Gopstein and followers of former MK and extremist Kach party founder, Rabbi Meir Kahane
Key Members: Bentzi Gopstein/Michael Ben-Ari/Baruch Marzel/Itamar Ben-Gvir
Online Resources
Official website: Lehava Organization
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15k followers
Overview
“Lehava” is a right-wing and Jewish supremacist organization founded by extremist activist Bentzi Gopstein in 2005. The organization, with more than 10,000 active members, derives its ideas and beliefs from the doctrine of Kahana, Rabbi Meir Kahane, who believed in a homogeneous Jewish state run according to the provisions of the Torah. Not only do its members oppose Jewish intermarriage and assimilation, objecting to most personal relationships between Jews and non-Jews, but among the most dangerous beliefs of the organization are the expulsion of Palestinians from Israel and Israeli occupied Palestinian territories, including the annexation of the occupied West Bank, and the imposition of a ban on Christmas celebrations.
Lehava members do not only rely on preaching and public relations in promoting their vision and applying their agenda, but they have been also accused of taking part in verbal and physical attacks on Palestinians, accusing them of having relations with, or marrying Jewish girls.
According to Haaretz, the organization's funding is still a “mysterious matter,” as it states that the Chairman of Lehava, Bentzi Gopstein, receives an annual salary of 40,000 shekels. Lehava is also part of a growing extremist religious movement making up the Religious Zionism political bloc, which entered the Knesset following parliamentary elections in March 2021. Their extremist right-wing principles, which believe in the superiority of the Jewish race over others, may even gain more influence in the near future.
According to The Jerusalem Post, in an article published on 22 June 2021, efforts are made to designate Lehava as a Jewish terror group. Additionally, the Member of Knesset, Ram Ben Barak, is also seeking to dismantle the “Foundation for the Rescue of the Jewish People,” Lehava’s fundraising arm, as affirmed in the article.
Ties to Extremism
In a case that became the buzz of Israel in 2014, Lehava challenged the marriage of Mahmoud Mansour, a Palestinian citizen of Israel from Jaffa, and Morel Malka, who converted from Judaism to Islam. Lehava supporters crowded in front of the couple's wedding hall, chanting “Arabs beware, my sister is not fair game”, and “no existence with Arabs”, while Gopstein called out to the bride with a loudspeaker: “God is weeping in heaven over you, Morel. We are calling you, return home.”
In 2015, Gopstein, who resides in the illegal Israeli outpost of Givat Ha’Avot, called for a ban on Christmas celebrations in Israel, labelling Christians as bloodsuckers and claims that if Christians will not be expelled from the Holy land, they will drink Jewish blood once again. Similarly, In 2019, during a roundtable held in front of many students of a Yeshiva - an intensive Jewish religious educational institution, Gopstein endorsed the fires and burning of the Church of Multiplication near the Sea of Galilee in the Holy Land and incites on the importance of destruction of Christian idolatries.