Extremism Is on the Rise in Israel
Extremist Israelis marched in Jerusalem last week chanting “Death to Arabs.” It’s part of a deeply worrying trend of rising far-right Zionism in a country that was already saturated in it.
On April 22, Israeli security forces clashed with Palestinian protesters as members of the Jewish far-right group Lehava marauded through the streets of Jerusalem. (AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP via Getty Images)
After neo-Nazis marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, and then president Donald Trump responded by saying there were “good people on both sides,” people who abhor white supremacism stood up, took notice, and condemned the marchers. Anti-racists would be wise to do the same about the far-right march that took place last week in Jerusalem.
The situation in Jerusalem began with clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces over restrictions placed on the Damascus Gate entrance to the Old City. Then, in response to TikTok videos showing two Palestinian youths slapping an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man, the far-right Jewish group Lehava called for a “demonstration of national dignity.” Leaked WhatsApp messages from the group revealed calls to lynch Palestinians.
As the Jewish-Israeli extremists marauded through the streets on Thursday, April 22, Israeli forces fired rubber-coated steel bullets at Palestinian counterprotesters. The remarks of a young Orthodox Jewish girl went viral on social media: “I don’t want to burn your villages, I just want you to leave and we’ll take them.” On her shirt was a sticker reading “Rabbi Kahane is right,” referencing the late ultranationalist rabbi whose group was placed on the US terror list in 2004.
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