Hate Thy Neighbour – Forbidden Love In Israel

Comedian Jamali Maddix goes eating, drinking, relaxing and partying with groups spreading hate across the world in an attempt to figure out what perpetuates their prejudice. In this episode, Jamali takes a trip to the holy land to meet Lehava, the anti-assimilation group that tries to prevent Arabs and Jews from marrying. He spends time with Bentzi Gopstein, the group’s orthodox leader, who resides in one of the most contested settlements in the West Bank and has previously been arrested on suspicion of murder.

Watch this episode ‘Lehava don’t want Israeli Jews associating with Muslims or Christians‘ on SBS OnDemand.

“Anti-assimilation” is another one of those watchwords and it’s a code that defines far-right organisation Lehava. Headquartered in Israel and led by Ben-Zion Gopstein, one of their most prominent campaigns in recent years was the attempt to break up Bar Refaeli and Leonardo di Caprio. This hatred of race-mixing gets more serious when it takes the form of arson, hostile protest at weddings and attacking police. Gopstein has a way with words, once objecting to Christian missionaries in Israel with “Let’s throw the vampires out of our land before they drink our blood again.”