Israeli far-right's new target: Arab bus drivers

The extremist right-wing organization Lehava has launched yet another racist hate campaign, this time against drivers from the Egged bus company, which operates in the West Bank settlements of Ma’ale Adumim and Kiryat Arba, among other places. “Putting the Steering Wheel in Mohammad’s Hands Is Not Good,” a flyer distributed by Lehava activists, claims that more than 90% of employees of the Egged Transport Co-Operative are residents of Jabal Mukaber, the East Jerusalem neighborhood of the Palestinian who drove a truck into a group of Israel Defense Forces soldiers in Jerusalem on Jan. 8, killing four of them.

The flyer directly addresses Malachi Levinger, head of the Kiryat Arba local council, charging that he is not doing anything to stop the employment of Arab drivers. “Are you willing to take responsibility for a terror attack by the driver? Will our girls be able to make it home safely without being harassed? We don’t want Mohammad putting the moves on the girls of Kiryat Arba.”

Lehava was founded by Bentzi Gopstein, a student of the late anti-Arab radical Rabbi Meir Kahane, in 2014 during Israel’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza. Its declared aim is to fight against what it calls the “assimilation of Jewish women with Arab men.” The group has stepped up its incitement over time. For example, it has called for a boycott of Arab stores and its members have sprayed hateful graffiti on the walls of churches and crashed an art festival in Jerusalem because a Catholic choir was performing.

Gopstein was arrested in December 2014 on suspicion of incitement to racism, and the police recommended prosecuting him. His on-call lawyer, the radical right-wing activist Itamar Ben-Gvir, claimed that Gopstein had been the target of “political persecution” and said the State of Israel should be commending him for the sacred work he was undertaking for its sake.