People protest to "keep Bat Yam Jewish" and against trend of Jewish girls dating Arabs; activists hold opposition rally condemning racism
Hundreds gathered at a demonstration in Bat Yam on Monday evening, to protest against Arab residents of the Tel Aviv suburb, and to warn against what they said is a worrying trend of Arabs “defiling” Jewish girls in Bat Yam and across Israel.
Posters advertising the protest said “the Arabs are taking over Bat Yam, buying and renting apartments from Jews and taking Jewish girls who they defile.”
The posters add “15,000 Jewish girls have been taken to [Arab] villages!” and “What would you do if an Arab man hit on your sister? We’ll put an end to this!”
The rally was attended by a large contingent of protesters from around the West Bank and inside Israel, including young men waving Kahane Chai flags and school kids dancing the hora while chanting “Arabs out!” and wearing shirts reading “Bat Yam is Jewish” and “the Jews have returned for eternity.” A few dozen Bat Yam residents also attended the protest; most of them part of a group of high school boys leaning against a rail. Occasionally protesters chanted “death to the Arabs,” but were admonished by the speakers. One particularly popular slogan was "Jewish girls for the Jewish people," appearing both on signs and in chants.
Far-right MK Michael Ben-Ari attended the rally with right-wing activist Itamar Ben-Gvir in tow. Ben-Ari said he came to the protest “to see the Jews who are standing up for themselves. We are standing before a disaster and our politicians are more concerned with ideas like democracy, ideas that our enemies exploit in order to attack the state of Israel.”
Pisgat Ze’ev community administrator Moshe Ben Zikri, who has recently waged a campaign against Arab residents of the east Jerusalem neighborhood, told The Jerusalem Post at the protest “today the Arab enemy is taking over all over Israel. They act innocent, they say we’re only here to rent an apartment and then they take over house by house. Our girls fall victim to their temptation. Not only that, but crime and drugs, all of it comes with the Arabs, none of that stuff takes place in a Jewish area until the Arabs come.”
Ben Zikri said Arabs pose a special threat to innocent Jewish girls who are easy prey to their charms.
“These Arabs, they speak Hebrew, they look just like us and they tempt our women. Some guy named Arafat says his name is Ofer, and so on. Our girls don’t know these guys are Arab and they fall victim to them and families are destroyed. They don’t have to kill people to destroy families.”
Tom Mahager, spokesperson for the Abraham Fund Initiatives, an organization that works to bridge gaps between Jews and Arabs in Israel, said the protest showed that such racist demonstrations “are only growing and spreading in Israel. There isn’t enough enforcement against actions like this.”
He added that such actions gain legitimacy from the loyalty oath and the Rabbis’ letter and other prominent actions against Israeli Arabs taken recently by state employees and elected leaders.
Mahager also slammed the silence of local leaders in the face of such actions saying “Bat Yam Mayor Shlomi Lahyani must say we are not a racist city, Bat Yam is not a racist city and we don’t accept these guests as legitimate.”
A counter-protest was held a few hundred meters away, where several dozen protesters chanted “Bat Yam: a city for everyone” and “down with racism” among others. One protester held a sign reading “I love Arabs, ask me how,” while another placard showed a picture of a smiling couple under the words “I married an Arab!”.
Barak Sella, a 25-year-old organizer for the southern branch of the Federation of Working and Studying Youth”, said he came along with several other members of the youth group “in order to show our opposition to the other protest, but also to get across our message of unity which is that we will keep Bat Yam Jewish and democratic.”
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