Far-right group to IDF soldiers: If you feel threatened, shoot Arab in head

By Mairav Zonszein November 9, 2014 | Edit

Lehava, the right-wing, anti-miscegenation group whose main activity is to incite against Arabs as a way of dissuading Jewish Israeli girls from dating them, has taken its incitement beyond intermarriage and into the realm of security.

A new poster on its Facebook page encourages Israeli soldiers to act trigger happy when it comes to Palestinian protestors. It reads:

Soldier! Stones and firebombs can kill you! Do you feel your life is in danger? Pick up your weapon and put a bullet through the murderer’s head. It’s better to sit in jail than die. ‘Kill or be killed’ [quote from Sages] IDF soldiers and Border Policemen, the Israeli people love you and embrace you.

Lehava poster posted on Facebook, Nov 9, 2014.

This comes just one day after an Israeli policeman shot and killed 22-year-old Khir Hamdan in the village of Kafr Kanna after he attempted to attack them with a knife, but did not appear to pose any direct threat to their lives, leading to accusations the police shot him in cold blood and lied about it.

The Lehava poster effectively weighs in on the matter, defending the police and sending the message that when in doubt, soldiers must forget protocol, forget the law, and simply shoot to kill. My question is, what is a group that claims to be committed to preventing intermarriage doing getting involved in this issue? The answer seems clear.

They are following in the footsteps of both Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich, who essentially endorsed the extra-judicial killing of murder suspects, following last week’s terror attack in Jerusalem, and Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, who defended the police action, saying Hamdan was a “frenzied Arab terrorist.”

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TEST TEST GAL Our team has been devastated by the horrific events of this latest war. The world is reeling from Israel’s unprecedented onslaught on Gaza, inflicting mass devastation and death upon besieged Palestinians, as well as the atrocious attack and kidnappings by Hamas in Israel on October 7. Our hearts are with all the people and communities facing this violence. We are in an extraordinarily dangerous era in Israel-Palestine. The bloodshed has reached extreme levels of brutality and threatens to engulf the entire region. Emboldened settlers in the West Bank, backed by the army, are seizing the opportunity to intensify their attacks on Palestinians. The most far-right government in Israel’s history is ramping up its policing of dissent, using the cover of war to silence Palestinian citizens and left-wing Jews who object to its policies. This escalation has a very clear context, one that +972 has spent the past 14 years covering: Israeli society’s growing racism and militarism, entrenched occupation and apartheid, and a normalized siege on Gaza. We are well positioned to cover this perilous moment – but we need your help to do it. This terrible period will challenge the humanity of all of those working for a better future in this land. Palestinians and Israelis are already organizing and strategizing to put up the fight of their lives. Can we count on your support? +972 Magazine is a leading media voice of this movement, a desperately needed platform where Palestinian and Israeli journalists, activists, and thinkers can report on and analyze what is happening, guided by humanism, equality, and justice. Join us.

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