Bentzi Gopstein

Gopstein is a student of Meir Kahane and an adherent of Kahanism, the ideology named for and developed by Kahane and promoted by his banned Kach party. Kach incited to racism and advocated the expulsion of Arabs from Israel and the Palestinian Territories. Gopstein praised the 1994 Cave of the Patriarchs massacre committed by fellow Kach member Baruch Goldstein. Shortly after Kahane's 1990 assassination, Gopstein was arrested, and then released, in a case involving the unsolved murder of a Palestinian Arab couple. In 1994, Gopstein was assigned to administrative detention as a result of his involvement with Kahane's then-banned organization. In 2015, in a tape-recorded talk, Gopstein justified burning down churches based on the religious teachings against idolatry by 12th-century Jewish philosopher and scholar Maimonides. Later that year, he advocated expelling Christians from Israel and banning celebration of Christmas there. In 2017, Gopstein and Itamar Ben Gvir sued journalist Yoaz Hendel who called them draft-dodgers saying they wanted to join the IDF but the army "... did not want two guys who it was feared would try to stir up unrest among soldiers and turn them into extreme right-wingers like themselves. They were known to be trouble-makers and the IDF did not want to mess with them". ==Hemla==

Gopstein has served as public relations director of Hemla ("Mercy"), a publicly funded non-profit. For many years, Hemla focused on "saving the daughters of Israel" from mixed marriages with Arab men, and received up to $175,000 each year from the state between 2005 and 2013. Part of the public funding went to Gopstein's salary. While some considered Hemla to be focused on keeping Jewish women from dating non-Jewish men, Gopstein described the charter of the Hemla in an interview with Haaretz: ==Lehava==

Gopstein serves as head of Lehava, an anti-assimilation organization. It is dedicated to preventing personal, romantic, or business relationships between Jews and non-Jews, particularly Arabs. Lehava's activities are documented in a recent report titled "Racism and Gender in Israel" by the Israel Religious Action Center and other groups active against racism. In 2011, Lehava plastered posters in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods of Jerusalem deploring a supermarket chain that employed Palestinians. The slogan of the fliers was, "Do you want your grandson to be called Ahmad Ben Sarah?" The group began distributing "kosher certificates" to businesses that did not employ Arabs to encourage discrimination against non-Jews. In 2012, Lehava distributed fliers warning Palestinian men not to date Jewish women. In addition to opposing interfaith marriages, and promoting discrimination against Palestinians and Arabs in employment, Lehava has also encouraged Israelis to report to the organization the names of Jews who rent to Arabs so that they can be named and publicly shamed. A group of anti-racist organizations petitioned Israel's Supreme Court against the state attorney, Lehava, and Gopstein. According to the petition, Gopstein had, in addition to promoting discrimination against Palestinians and other Arabs, praised a group of Jewish youths who attacked Palestinians in Jerusalem, leaving one victim unconscious and hospitalized. The court case is pending. In 2014, three members of Lehava were arrested, and indicted in 2014 for committing arson and spray-painting anti-Arab graffiti at the Max Rayne Hand in Hand: Center for Jewish Arab Education in Israel (Yad B'Yad) Bilingual School in Jerusalem. Gopstein, along with several other group members, was arrested shortly thereafter for incitement. In the same year, Gopstein openly criticized Yair Netanyahu, son of then-prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for dating a Gentile woman of Nordic descent. In January 2015, Channel 2 reported that Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon may be preparing to categorize Lehava as a terrorist organization. Ya'alon was reported to have ordered the Shin Bet and the Defense Ministry to assemble evidence required for the classification. The arson incident received international attention. Gopstein issued a statement harshly critical of Ya'alon: A journalist participated in Lehava undercover and reported on Gopstein's leadership. Liat Bar-Stav described a meeting that Gopstein led for his followers, in which he said to them: As the crowd responded with booing and cheering, Gopstein continued: Before his Facebook account was permanently disabled, it had doctored images of Arab Israeli Knesset members who appear to be hanged by the neck. In 2023, the Times of Israel captioned a photo of him as "Extremist, far-right rabbi Bentzi Gopstein shouts 'it’s not pride, it’s an abomination' at the protest against the Jerusalem Pride Parade, June 1, 2023." Advocacy outside Israel Gopstein wrote a letter to Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg protesting both Zuckerberg's marriage to a non-Jewish woman, as well as the Palestinian use of Facebook. He complained, "In Israel, too, assimilation is hitting us quite a bit because of your Facebook, where every Muhammad is 'CitySlicker', and every Yosef calls himself 'Prince Charming'". In 2018, Gopstein started a fund-raiser to raise money to sue Facebook for censorship. ==Attitude towards Christians==

Gopstein has called for the incineration of Christian churches. The discussion centered on whether Maimonides's ruling to eliminate idol worship was valid also for modern times. On the Haredi website Kooker, Gopstein published an article in December 2015 calling for the suppression of Christmas celebrations in Israel and the expulsion of Christians, whom he likened to vampires. Calling the Catholic Church "the deadly enemy of the Jewish people for centuries", he wrote, "Their missionaries prowl for prey in Jerusalem." In response, Israeli groups have asked he be investigated for incitement. Reactions In 2016, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) sent a letter to the Israeli government, encouraging action to be taken to curb Gopstein. In the letter to Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit, the ADL said that Gopstein has referred to Christians as "bloodsucking vampires", condoned burning Christian churches, and that his Facebook page includes anti-LGBT posts, as well as ones the ADL calls "extremely abusive, racist, inflammatory, and violent". The Reform Center for Religion and Policy petitioned Mandelblit again in 2018. During a hearing, however, the petition was withdrawn by suggestion of multiple Supreme Court justices. ==Election bans==

In the run-up to the September 2019 Knesset election, Gopstein boycotted a hearing of the High Court of Justice on whether Otzma Yehudit should be allowed on the ballot. He claimed that "the judges already made their decision" and would overturn the Law of Return if given the chance. ==Indictment==

In late November 2019, nine years after an initial complaint had been filed by the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism regarding his behavior, Gopstein was indicted for incitement to violence, racism, and support for terrorism on the basis of a series of statements he made over a five-year period from 2012 to 2017, such as praising the mass murderer Baruch Goldstein, defending the actions of youths involved in the Zion Square assault, calling Arabs as a cancer, and stating that there was no shortage of Arabs who deserved to be beaten up. The indictment was approved by the Israeli Attorney General. ==Personal life==

Gopstein is married to Anat Gopstein, and has eight children. == International sanctions ==

On 19 April 2024, Gopstein was targeted in the third round of sanctions imposed by the Biden administration, which are aimed at clamping down on settler violence in the West Bank. On 22 April 2024, Gopstein "discovered the practical effect of the measure when he went to fill up on gas for his car on Sunday and was informed by the electronic card reader, "Due to your inclusion on the U.S. Treasury sanctions list, we have been forced to block your [credit] card." Also on 19 April 2024, the U.S. Department of the Treasury "imposed sanctions on two entities for their roles in establishing fundraising campaigns on behalf of Yinon Levi... and David Chai Chasdai... two violent extremists who were sanctioned on February 1, 2024 in connection with violence in the West Bank. The fundraising campaigns established by Mount Hebron Fund for Levi and by Shlom Asiraich for Chasdai generated the equivalent of $140,000 and $31,000, respectively.“ On August 3, 2024, Chasdai, together with Yakov Goelman, was indicted "... on charges of terrorism, aggravated bodily harm, and damaging property motivated by racism, among other charges..." They were among some 20 extremists who attacked a car with five Israeli Arab women, "... bombarded the women’s vehicle with rocks; sprayed them with teargas; set their car on fire; screamed that they were going to kill them; caused them severe physical injuries and psychological trauma; and psychologically tortured them..." when they mistakenly entered the illegal settlement Givat Ronen. On 28 July 2025, Levi killed Awdah Hathaleen, 31, a Palestinian activist featured in the film No Other Land, near the village of Umm al-Kheir. The European Union (EU) imposed sanctions on Gopstein's Lehava, citing involvement in serious human rights abuses against Palestinians. The sanctions include asset freezes and travel bans and were announced by the European Council under the EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime. On 3 May 2024, the UK imposed sanctions on the Hilltop Youth and Gopstein's Lehava for “facilitating, inciting and promoting violence against Arab and Palestinian communities.” In June 2024, Canada sanctioned Gopstein together with six other settlers and five organizations "for their violent and destabilizing actions against Palestinian civilians and their property in the West Bank.” Similarly, on 28 August 2024, the USA sanctioned another West Bank Jewish settler organization and another West Bank settler: - Hashomer Yosh, "an Israeli nongovernmental organization that provides material support to U.S.-designated outpost Meitarim Farm, and U.S.-designated individuals Yinon Levi, Neriya Ben Pazi and Zvi Bar Yosef. After all 250 Palestinian residents of Khirbet Zanuta were forced to leave in late January, Hashomer Yosh volunteers fenced off the village to prevent the residents from returning. The volunteers also provided support by grazing the herds and purporting to “guard” the outposts of U.S.-designated individuals." - Yitzhak Levi Filant, "the civilian security coordinator of the Yitzhar settlement in the West Bank. Although Filant’s role is akin to a security or law enforcement officer, he has engaged in malign activities outside the scope of his authority. In February 2024, he led a group of armed settlers to set up roadblocks and conduct patrols to pursue and attack Palestinians in their lands and forcefully expel them from their lands..." On 21 November 2025, Singapore sanctioned Gopstein along with three other settlers for their involvement in "egregious acts of extremist violence" against Palestinians in the West Bank. ==References==