The Israeli organization Lehava (an acronym for the Hebrew words meaning “preventing assimilation in the Holy Land”) has started circulating flyers in Jerusalem warning non-Jews to stop flirting with or talking to Jewish girls, saying “We don’t want you to get hurt, respect our girls’ honor because they are dear to our hearts.”
The flyers, which some Lahava activists have been handing out at Damascus Gate in east Jerusalem and elsewhere in the city, also say “Our girls are dear to us, just like you don’t want a Jew to date your sister, we also aren’t willing to accept an Arab dating one of our women. Just like you would do anything to stop a Jew from dating your sister, so would we!”
The flyers warn Arab men not to come to west Jerusalem’s malls or public areas to meet girls, advising them to “walk around in your village and find a girlfriend there, not here!”
The flyer also mentions the savage beating that left 17- year-old Jamal Julani near death in “Cat Square” in downtown Jerusalem last Thursday, saying “Last week, an Arab who thought he’d come here and find a Jewish girlfriend was hurt, we don’t want you to get hurt, respect the honor of our girls because they are dear to us!”
Lehava is an organization whose primary objective is opposing marriages between Jewish women and non-Jewish men.
The organization gained notoriety in 2010 after sending an open letter to Israeli Jewish supermodel Bar Refaeli urging her to break off her relationship with American actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who is Roman Catholic.
Also in 2010, a number of Lehava-aligned rabbis signed a proclamation which said that leasing land to non-Jews was “blasphemous” and that anyone violating the ban would be ostracized. The document, which was endorsed by more than 50 national-religious and ultra-Orthodox rabbis working in municipalities across Israel,
Later the same year, a number of rabbis’ wives issued an open letter urging Israeli women not to date non-Jews.
The letter stated, “Your grandmothers never dreamed that one of their decedents would, by one act, remove future generations from the Jewish people. For you, for future generations, and so that you will never have to endure the terrible suffering, we appeal to you, begging, pleading, praying: Don’t date them, don’t work where they work and don’t perform National Service with them.”
In addition to opposing interfaith and interethnic marriages, Lehava also has encouraged Israelis to report to the organization the names of Israelis who rent to Arabs, so that they can be named and shamed publicly.
Illustration: a copy of the Lehava leaflet, which reads:
Dear Arab guy:
We don’t want you to get hurt!
Our daughters are valuable to us,
and just as you would not want a Jew to date your sister
we unwilling are also unwilling for an Arab to date a girl from among our people.
Just as you would do anything to stop a Jew from dating your sister – so do we!
If you are thinking of visiting Jerusalem malls or the pedestrian street [Midrechov] with the intention of dating Jewish girls – this isn’t the place for you.
You may walk around in your own village freely and find girlfriends there, not here!
Last week an Arab who thought he might find Jewish girls got hurt.
We don’t wish for you to get hurt,
So respect our daughters’ honor
As we mind it dearly!
Lehava organization.
