Bat Yam Protest
Bat Yam ProtestYoni Kempinski

Hundreds of people demonstrated in Bat Yam's Yoseftal Street on Monday evening. The demonstration, entitled "We Want a Jewish Bat Yam", was initiated by the city's residents and the Lehava organization. They were backed by activists from all over Israel who came out to protest what was termed "the Arab takeover of mixed cities."

Posters that accompanied the protest called to "keep Bat Yam Jewish," proclaimed "Jewish girls are for the Jewish people" and stated "Jews - let's win!". According to the posters, Arabs have been buying and renting apartments from Jews in Bat Yam, and taking Jewish girlfriends. 
 
In recent years, tens of Jewish girls have married Arab men who take them to their villages where they are then usually abused, activists claimed. 
 
One demonstrator said that when Jews organized and acted, they recently succeeded in stopping a similar trend in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Givat Ze'ev.
 
The demonstration included residents of Bat Yam and participants from all over Israel, including MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) and ubiquitous nationalist activists Itamar Ben-Gvir and Baruch Marzel.
 
Leftists and Arabs held a counter-demonstration opposite the nationalists. They held signs accusing the nationalists of racism.