Far-right camp teaches Jewish youth to withstand interrogation, intimidate Arabs
Three-day camp is run by the far-right wing Lehava anti-assimilation group in the West Bank
The far-right wing Lehava anti-assimilation group has established a type of pre-army camp to train youth in self defense, to withstand interrogation and conduct surveillance activities, among other things, the Ynet news site reports.
Lehava (in Hebrew "flame") is also the Hebrew acronym for "Preventing Assimilation in the Holy Land." It is known for inciting racist violence from its followers and many centrist and left-wing Knesset lawmakers have sought to have the group outlawed and declared a terrorist organization. Israel's Shin Bet security agency, however, has said that it has not been able to compile enough evidence against the group to do so.
According to the report the camp in the West Bank, which took place this summer for the second time, includes three days of intense training for youth ranging in age from 14 to 22 years old. The same youngsters often also engage with the "hilltop youth," who have been blamed for violence and vandalism targeting Palestinians, Christian holy sites and even Israeli military property.
Key parts of the course include training in the Israeli martial art of Krav Maga, learning Arabic phrases which could be used to intimidate their Arab neighbors, and engaging in an inflammatory curriculum against Muslims and Christians designed by Lehava's leader Bentzi Gopstein.
One of the participants told Ynet that "they teach us how to approach an Arab who is going out with a Jewish girl. I know how to say to him in Arabic 'give me your sister's number,' and then make it clear to him that he can’t be in contact with the Jewish girl anymore.”
Another course taught by right-wing activist Noam Federman prepares participants for being interrogated by the Shin Beit and a second about police interrogation is taught by attorney Itamar Ben-Gvir who regularly represents Jewish youth charged in attacks against Arabs. Federman has had numerous run-ins with police and previously spent some nine months in administrative detention.
“The goal of a Shin Bet interrogator is to make the interrogatee completely dependent upon him for anything, completely needy," Federman tells the youth. "I remember being led into one of the interrogation rooms with a ski mask they put on me. They sat me down on a chair bolted to the floor, tied my hands, and I needed them even for a drink of water."
“Another time when they detained me, they left me in a small cell for a long time. The cell reeked because the toilet was a hole in the floor inside the cell, you couldn’t shower, and everything stank," he told them.
“The Shin Bet is no place for delicate people," Federman continued, adding "But if you’re strong enough to stay silent and not let them play you—you’ll ruin their plans. After a few days they in which hung me out to dry, they were sure I’d want to go into the interrogation room, and when they called me in I told them ‘no.’ That ruined all of their plans completely.”
In addition to covering police questioning techniques, Ben-Gvir teaches the participants how to skirt certain laws.
"You just need to know the letter of the law," he says. "For example, you should know that a protest of less than 50 people doesn’t require permits, and you can’t be arrested for it. You can also demand the police officers to identify themselves.”
According to Ynet, Gopstein says that the goal of the camp is to "encourage young people to have a meaningful IDF service, and educate them to fight assimilation and love the land of Israel.”
Gopstein noted that the camp does not include courses on weapons training and claims that all camp activities are carried out according to Israeli law.
"These teenagers are here to protect Jewish honor," he adds. "We love the IDF, but we’re against the Shin Bet’s violent interrogations."
(A Facebook post by Gopstein shows Lehava members studying Torah after a group Krav Maga session in Bnei Brak)
Earlier this year the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC) — the legal and advocacy arm of the Reform Judaism stream in Israel — requested that the state prosecution investigate Gopstein for incitement and insulting religious sensibilities.
The request was prompted by an article written by Gopstein in which he called Christians "blood-sucking vampires."
The Vatican's Custody of the Holy Land also demanded that Gopstein be prosecuted for incitement against Christians in a letter written to Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein and State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan last year.
Lehava activists follow the teachings of the late Meir Kahane, a virulently anti-Arab rabbi whose Kach party was banned in Israel, and its members fight against intermarriage.
Kahane was murdered in New York in 1990, but his ideology still inspires loyalty among Jewish extremists.
Kach itself was designated a terrorist organization in Israel in 1994; it is also outlawed in the United States and the European Union. The Jewish Defense League, a US-based organization founded by Kahane, which preceded Kach by several years, was designated a terrorist organization by the FBI in 2001.
Kahane's grandson Meir Ettinger was released from 10-months in administrative detention in June. Ettinger was arrested in August last year, a few days after an arson attack in the West Bank village of Duma that killed three members of the Dawabshe family.
The Shin Bet eventually arrested and charged two Jewish settlers for the Duma arson, while maintaining that Ettinger had been one of the driving forces behind the development of the radical ideology that led the pair to commit the attack.