''Sees 98% of the Arabs as enemies': Benzi Gopstein convicted of inciting racism

January 14, 2024   

The Jerusalem Magistrate's Court convicted the chairman of the Lehava organization, Benzi Gopstein, of the offense of inciting racism, for a speech he gave 10 years ago, at a memorial service for Rabbi Meir Kahane held in Jerusalem. Have you encountered a problem registering for kindergarten, schools and seminars? • All the information is here In addition, the court acquitted Gopstein of the other offenses attributed to him by the prosecution in the indictment, which include three charges of incitement to violence, as well as an offense of incitement to terrorism. In the first charge, from which he was acquitted, Gopstein was charged with incitement to violence for things he said in 2012 to a Channel 7 reporter: "The boys lifted Jewish honor off the floor and did what the police should have done, brought justice to the Arab rioters who harassed the Jewish girls. It's a shame they let the boys do it and that the police don't handle it...Jewish girls are not innocent...". The court ruled that the defendant's words were not a call to violence. The second charge is based on things the defendant said to Abri Gilad in the film 'Crossing the Lines', which aired on Channel 12 in 2013. Among other things, the defendant said that from a halakhic perspective, it is permissible to harm Arabs who are enemies, and that an Arab guy who starts a relationship with a Jewish girl should not hang out on the street with his Jewish girlfriend. The court ruled that the words spoken did not explicitly call for violence against Arabs. It was also determined that the film was edited, and given the time elapsed between the broadcast date and the filing of the indictment, it is not possible to locate the raw materials and examine the words spoken by the defendant in their full context. Therefore, it was ruled that the defendant's claim that later in his words he stated that action should be taken only in accordance with the law, and that these words were removed in the editing, cannot be denied. The third charge is based on what he said to reporter Ohad Ben Hamu in December 2013 at the wedding of his daughter who married a 'hill boy': "There are no Palestinians at our wedding. There are no Arabs at our wedding. With us, it's about the purity of Hebrew labor. Let's say that if there was an Arab waiter here, he wouldn't serve the food, but would look for the nearest hospital," as well as on what he said in an interview on the 'Friday Morning' program broadcast on Channel 10: "My girlfriend who was at the wedding and an Arab waiter are not things that go together." The court accepted Gopstein's position that this was a description of an existing reality, and not a call to an act of violence, and this was based, among other things, on what the defendant said in a live interview on the Channel 10 morning program, according to which the hill boys do not get along with Arab enemies. The fifth charge charged the defendant with incitement to terrorism in light of the fact that at a wedding of Lehava activists, the defendant took the stage and sang the song "Blessed is the man who entered the cave, through the weapon and shot," which glorifies and praises the massacre committed by Baruch Goldstein in the Machpelah system. The court rejected the defendant's claim that it was a satirical song. However, it was determined that there was no real possibility that the words would lead to the commission of an act of terrorism, considering the private nature of the wedding event, the fact that the atmosphere that prevailed at the wedding was not unusual, and the impression that the wedding guests did not respond to the lyrics of the song that was played. The fourth charge is for the words he said at a rally in memory of Rabbi Kahane held in 2014. Among other things, the defendant said: "The enemies within us are a cancer. If we don't take the cancer and throw it away, we will not continue to exist and Jews will die here every day. Unfortunately, this cancer has metastasized everywhere - yesterday in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Arad, Beersheba. There is no place where this cancer does not have metastases, the same metastases that Rabbi Kahane warned us about. This cancer, this dangerous cancer of coexistence." He further said that the cancer of coexistence is dangerous, and came out against ministers in the government who give senior positions to Arabs. Gopstein's claim that he meant only the enemies of Israel was rejected. It was determined that the entirety of his statements indicates that he sees 98% of Israeli Arabs as enemies, and that these are racist statements against people of Arab origin due to their nationality. It was further determined that the words were spoken with the intention of inciting racism, among other things, considering that it was a rally in memory of Rabbi Kahane.