The Lehava organization — for the prevention of assimilation in the Holy Land— launched a new initiative this week in Jerusalem in the course of its members’ conference: the organization will grant kashrut certificates to restaurants that refuse to employ Arabs. The certificate will read as follows in large letters: “This Certificate is Hereby Granted in Assurance that the Proprietor of This Business Employs: Jewish Workers and No Enemies!”
Right Wing Initiative: Kashrut Certificates for Business that Do Not Employ Arabs
By Motti Levi • Walla!
Translation: Didi Remez • Coteret.com / Special to FailedMessiah.com
The Lehava organization — for the prevention of assimilation in the Holy Land— launched a new initiative this week in Jerusalem in the course of its members’ conference: the organization will grant kashrut certificates to restaurants that refuse to employ Arabs. The certificate will read as follows in large letters: “This Certificate is Hereby Granted in Assurance that the Proprietor of This Business Employs: Jewish Workers and No Enemies!”
Bentzi Gopstein of Lehava explained to Walla! (online service) that “it is not our intention to charge any fees for these certificates. Rather it is important for us that we send this message.” Gopstein explained that his organization had examined matters and discovered that the majority of marriages between young Jewish girls and Arab men occurred as a result of Arabs being employed in shops in Jewish areas.
In addition to dispatching kashrut certificates, the organization plans to collect signatures from thousands of Jewish residents for a letter in which they commit to only buy foodstuffs from chains that have promised to clear their ranks of all Arab employees. The petition’s introduction, entitled “Ahmed son of Sara—the next case must be stopped!” explains, among other things, that “it is no secret that there is a great deal of competition between the major food chains in our area… We can raise demands and make it profitable for them to hire Jews and fire the many Arabs that endanger our daughters.”
Some thirty members of the organization’s convened for a gathering in Jerusalem, in the course of which, as reported, both projects were launched. Over the next few weeks activists of the organization plan on deploying their array of volunteers around Jerusalem and, in some three weeks’ time, move on to additional cities in Israel.
When Gopstein was asked whether this activity did not contain certain anti-democratic features, he rejected this out of hand: “Zionism began with the concept of Jewish labor, and to ‘purchase blue and white.’ Employing Arabs creates the problem of assimilation and we are therefore calling on business owners to encourage Jewish employment and refrain of employing gentiles.” Gopstein added, “Israel’s government invests millions in the war against assimilation overseas. It is high time that they open their eyes that realize that also here in Israel we have this problem.”