Since the beginning of the blessed month of Ramadan this year 2021, the Zionist gangs have organized provocative events and marches in occupied Jerusalem, aiming at preventing the Palestinians from reaching Al-Aqsa Mosque to pray, in addition to assaulting Palestinians and harassing them with the aim of deporting them from the Old City of Jerusalem. These gangs used violence as a systematic method in carrying out their assaults, amid the protection of the Israeli occupation forces.
These gangs are headed by three religious currents belonging to official and unofficial organizations, including:
– The extremist Zionist organization “Lehava”, headed by the extremist Jew, “Bentzi Gopstein”.
– Followers of the “Kahane” terrorist movement, which is now represented in the Israeli Knesset under the name “Otzma Yehudit” which is headed by the ultra-Orthodox Itamar Ben-Gvir.
– The Religious Zionist party that is now represented in the Israeli Knesset, headed by the extremist Betzalel Smotrich.
The occupation government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu facilitated the entry of extremist religious parties into the Israeli Knesset, and worked to sponsor them and sponsor their extremist activities against the Palestinian people. This sponsorship consisted of granting these parties and organizations official licenses and supporting their activities by millions of shekels, in a move aimed at reinforcing the assaults against the Palestinian people and eliminating any international opportunity to reach a two-state solution, with East Jerusalem as the capital of the future Palestinian state.
Moreover, the security services of the occupation have not worked to stop the activities of these organizations and parties, despite the daily assaults they carry out against the Palestinian people in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem. Rather, the occupation army has provided these extremist organizations with an opportunity to train settlers on violence in West Bank and Jerusalem settlements (Occupied Palestinian territories), in addition to providing lectures to settlers with the aim of preparing them to enter the army.
The occupation government’s sponsorship of these terrorist organizations has resulted in dozens of Palestinian victims, both martyrs and wounded, in addition to assaulting their property, terrorizing their children, and assaulting their lands and controlling them under the protection of the occupation army. In recent years, the number of assaults by these organizations, most notably the “Hilltop Youth” and “Price Tag” gangs, has increased by more than three times over recent years, without holding them accountable and without any investigation into the crimes they carried out, including murders, shootings and burning homes, vehicles, and agricultural fields.
In addition to the support provided by the Israeli occupation government to these terrorist organizations and parties, the occupation state has granted licenses and government funding to dozens of extremist Zionist societies that seek to promote the idea of demolishing Al-Aqsa Mosque and establishing the alleged Third Temple, and has provided other facilities to settlement associations aiming to expel Palestinians from Jerusalem by controlling their lands and properties are under pretexts related to religious monuments and places, in addition to harassing them in order to displace them.
The Terrorist Zionist Organizations and Parties that Carry out Assaults in Occupied Jerusalem
1. Lehava:
It is a Zionist terrorist organization, founded in 2009 by the extremist Jew, “Bentzi Gopstein”, one of the students of the extremist Jewish rabbi, Meir Kahane, the former leader of the “Kach” terrorist party.
The goal for which this organization was initially established was to prevent Jewish-Arab fusion, to prevent any mixing between Jews and Arabs in Israel, including marriage, and to prevent any relations between them. This includes attending joint events or even being in one public place, such as parks, restaurants, beaches and even residential buildings, in addition to preventing Jews from renting their homes to any Palestinian Arab, and preventing Arabs from entering Jewish interests, by presenting a certificate for these interests, that no Palestinian is present in them.
Over time, the goals of this organization evolved to include:
– Maintaining a Jewish majority in Israel and rejecting the existence of Arabs and Palestinians.
– Calling for a boycott of Arabs in the occupied territory (48-Arab), and not to receive or employ them in restaurants, neighborhoods, and Judaism.
– Organizing demonstrations against Arabs and Palestinians inside the occupied territory and at the intersections of bypass roads for settlements in the occupied West Bank.
– Restrictions on Palestinian citizens of occupied Jerusalem with the aim of expelling them from their homes.
– Working to increase the Jewish link to the Temple Mount, and try to change the status quo in Jerusalem.
This organization organizes daily visits for its followers to the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Compound. In addition to setting this organization as a target to fight Christianity in Israel, considering it a pagan religion, and in implementation of this goal, members of this organization burned several churches inside the occupied territory.
Despite the activities of this terrorist organization and not being legally registered in Israel, the occupation government provides it with advantages and facilities. The head of the organization, “Bentzi Gopstein”, provided training and lectures to religious schools in settlements in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem. Moreover, Lehava organized courses for youth in the settlements, who joined under the terrorist organization “Hilltop Youth”, who carry out assault against Palestinians, their property and holy sites.
These courses included:
– Training on assaults against Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem;
– Learning the Arabic language;
– Carrying out surveillance operations;
In addition to lectures on behavior during police and Israeli security services (Shin Bet) investigations in the event of their arrest.
The head of the organization, “Bentzi Gopstein”, published articles in which he incited against the Christian Palestinians in the occupied territories, called for their expulsion from Israel, and described them as vampires and should be eliminated, and that they follow a pagan religion. He also called on his followers to assault Christmas trees, and not to place them in public facilities inside the occupied territory.
With regard to the funding that this organization receives, it receives donations from inside and outside the occupation state, in addition to selling products with racist content such as clothes and hats with the organization’s logos written on it.
In order to facilitate the work of the organization, the leader of the organization, “Bentzi Gopstein”, also financed his activities from Israeli associations licensed and supported by the occupation government. Among these associations:
– United for the Salvation of the People of Israel.
– Hemla.
– Israel Faculty Fund (Keren Siegel Israel).
These associations receive millions of shekels each year from the Israeli Ministry of Social Welfare, and “Gopstein” co-chairs these associations, and issues cheques from them to finance his activities in the “Lehava” organization. However, by analyzing the data of these associations, by accessing the official data of the Register of Associations in Israel, it was found that these associations receive millions of shekels each year from the occupation government and from external donations. The following are the most prominent of what was mentioned in the official records in the occupation state about these associations:
United for the Salvation of the People of Israel((הקרן להצלת עם ישראל): It was founded in 2011, the association’s license number is: 580537322, and the external donations obtained by the association, according to official data in 2019, amounted to approximately 650 thousand shekels, in addition to hundreds of thousands of shekels from the Israeli occupation government. The main office of this association is located in the “Kiryat Arba” settlement in Hebron.
Hemla (חמלה סיוע לנזקקים) ((mercy): It was founded in 1999, the association’s license number is: 580350411, and the external and internal donations of the association amounted to 200 thousand shekels in 2019, and government donations to it in the same year amounted to 1,276,000 shekels. The main office of this association is located in the occupied Jerusalem.
Israel Faculty Fund ( Keren Siegel Israel) (קרן סגל לישראל): It was founded in 2007, the association’s license number is : 580475184, the external donations in 2019 amounted to approximately 3,390.966 million shekels, and the association also receives government aid worth millions of shekels every year. The main office of the association is located in occupied Jerusalem.
All of these associations are co-chaired by the leader of the “Lehava” terrorist organization, Bentzi Gopstein, in which he is authorized to sign the financial expenditure. It is the main financing party for the activities of the terrorist organizations, in addition to the donations that “Lehava” collects inside and outside the occupation state Israel, and all of that is facilitated by the Israeli occupation government.
In addition to internal donations and association funding, Lehava collects financial donations from abroad that come directly to it, and the most prominent of these donations is through the Jewish “Falic” family in the United States of America, through several companies that are located in Panama including: Ueta Tzedakah, IBW Tzedakah, and Animal Tzedaka. This is in addition to the donations that the family makes directly to the aforementioned “Kern Siegel Israel”.
Despite the terrorist activities carried out by Lehava against the Palestinian people, the Israeli occupation government deign not to take it out of the Israeli law. Rather, it has worked during the past years and continues to support it through government donations and allows its members to enter Israeli educational institutions to provide lectures and lessons under the title “Preserving the Jewish identity in the land of Israel”.
2. Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power or Jewish Strength) (followers of the rabbi Meir Kahane): It is an extremist far-right Zionist party established by the students of the extremist rabbi, “Meir Kahana”, namely: Michael Ben-Ari, Itamar Ben Gvir, Baruch Marzel, and Bentzi Gopstein. The party entered the Knesset in the last elections to the Knesset 24, and the party is represented in the Knesset by its current president Itamar Ben Gvir.
Among the goals of the party, according to what was set out in its founding charter, what it calls “preserving the historic land of Israel”, intending by that to occupy all the Palestinian lands, declare the Jewish state on it, and strengthen settlement and control over the lands of the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem, and the party calls for the necessity to impose Israeli sovereignty over al-Aqsa compound. The party’s charter also stipulates the work to expel Palestinians from “the land of Israel” and encourage their emigration by all available means.
The Israeli occupation government supports the party according to the Law on Supporting Parties and Electoral Campaigns, and despite the fact that its followers carry out the ideas of the extremist rabbi, “Meir Kahane” who was calling for the extermination of the Palestinian people, and one of his students called “Baruch Goldstein” carried out the massacre of the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron in 1994, that caused 29 Palestinian martyrs, however it allowed the party to enter the elections, run for office, and practice its activities in an open and legal manner.
Members of this party have emerged in recent events in the occupied city of Jerusalem in their attacks on Palestinian citizens. Members and supporters of the party stated that they seek to expel Palestinians from the Old City of Jerusalem and restrict them to control their property, and the party had the main role in organizing and supporting terrorist attacks that it is carried out by settlers groups in the West Bank, including the “hilltop youth” and the “Price tag” gangs. The party also supports the establishment of random outposts in the West Bank, under the slogan “Resettlement in the Land of Israel.” The party, through a legal association co-administered by Itamar Bin Ghafir in the name of “Hunino”, defended the criminal settlers who killed and burned the Dawabsha family in Douma, Nablus district, as well as the perpetrators of the killing and burning of the martyr “Muhammad Abu Khdeir” in occupied Jerusalem. This party also provides consultations, free legal aid for settlers involved in terrorist attacks, and works to represent them without any compensation, and even collects donations for them in order to help them.
The party carries out activities targeting religious schools and Jewish youth, in addition to providing lectures and food aid to the Israeli occupation soldiers, and trying to influence them, and incite them to kill Palestinians, whenever the opportunity arises. As for the attacks in occupied Jerusalem, the party is strengthening the far-right demonstrations organized by Lehava against the Palestinians, and explicitly calls for the expulsion of the Palestinians from Jerusalem and the Old City, as well as for tightening control over al-Aqsa compound and the abolition of the Jordanian Hashemite guardianship on al-Aqsa compound in order to change the status quo, and to allow the Jews to share the time frame of al-Aqsa Compounds with the Muslims.
3. The Religious Zionism Party: it consists of Knesset candidates from three parties, the National Union-Tkuma faction led by Bezalel Smotrich; Otzma Yehudit (“Jewish Power”), chaired by Itamar Ben-Gvir; and Noam, led by Avi Maoz. All of these parties explicitly call for the expulsion of the Palestinian people from their lands, strengthening settlement in the West Bank, extending Israeli sovereignty over all Palestinian lands, in addition to removing the Jordanian Hashemite guardianship on al-Aqsa compound and ensuring the “right of the Jews” in it. These parties had the main role in attacking the Palestinian people in the West Bank, and the Israeli occupation government worked to legitimize it and provided government support to it to participate in the elections for the 24th Knesset, and the Zionist parties were united in one list under the name of “religious Zionism” headed by the extremist Bezalel Smotrich.
This list believes in the necessity of displacing the Palestinians and granting them Jordanian nationality, and extending Israeli sovereignty over all Palestinian lands. This list also opposes the establishment of any Palestinian entity, including any Palestinian presence in occupied Jerusalem, and seeks to enable settlers to control East Jerusalem, with the aim of thwarting any international scheme to reach a two-state solution.
During the recent events in occupied Jerusalem, there was a prominent role for the officials of this list in supporting the Jews and inciting against the Palestinian citizens who are defending their property and their children, and they publicly called for the need to extend sovereignty over Jerusalem and impose harsh penalties on the Palestinians with the aim of displacing them and expelling them from occupied Jerusalem.
These parties receive government aid and donations, and operate a number of associations, the most prominent of which is the “Regavim” association, which is concerned with preventing Palestinian construction in Area C, and has filed legal cases that led to the demolition of hundreds of Palestinian homes in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem. In addition to the ideological role that these parties provide in the settlements and within the occupation state, and their efforts to prevent the establishment of any independent Palestinian entity. In addition to these parties, there are other terrorist Zionist parties that belong to the same religious stream and carry out the same ideology, among them: the Yamina Party and the Jewish Home Party, which were one party before the last Knesset elections, and their officials supported the Jewish attacks in occupied Jerusalem.
Temple Mount and Eretz Yisrael Faithful Movement:
• It was registered as a movement in 1982.
• Movement’s President and Founder: Gershon Salomon.
• Location: Shar Ilyash – Jerusalem.
