A grandson of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, best known for his belief that Arabs should be ethnically cleansed from historic Palestine, is leading a movement to document and boycott all businesses in Israel that employ Palestinians.The plan was discovered when 19-year old Meir Ettinger was reported to the police for walking around the Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem and asking merchants whether they employ Arabs. One Palestinian merchant became suspicious that Ettinger may be planning an attack against himself or other Palestinians working at the market, and called the Israeli police.
When police questioned Ettinger, they found that he was working on a booklet to help promote a boycott of Palestinian businesses, and Israeli-owned businesses that employ Palestinians.
Ettinger grew up in the Yitzhar settlement, an Israeli colony in the West Bank known for its extreme right-wing religious views. Many residents of Yitzhar are followers of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, including Kahane’s grandson Meir Ettinger.
According to Israeli police reports, Ettinger was banned from the market for 14 days, but a few days after that ban, four other residents of Yitzhar settlement were discovered in the same market collecting information for the anti-Arab booklet.
The group calls itself the ‘Hebrew Labor’ project, and organizers say that it has twenty members, all residents of Yitzhar settlement.
The right-wing Israelis organizing the booklet say that they are merely providing a service for Israelis who wish to boycott Palestinians, adding that there is nothing illegal under Israeli law about producing such a booklet.
