Israel: Anti-assimilation group Lehava could be classified as terrorists after burning Arab-Jewish school

Israel's Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon is working to classify the country's far-right anti-assimilation group Lehava as a terrorist organisation, according to local media reports.

Yaalon is cooperating with Israel's Shin Bet security service and lawyers to build a case against the group whose members have been charged with setting fire to a Jerusalem Arab-Jewish school.

Three members of the Organisation for Prevention of Assimilation in the Holy Land (Lehava) were charged with committing the arson attack in November last year which saw anti-Arab graffiti sprayed on the walls of the Max Rayne Hand in Hand School in the Israeli capital.

The leader of the group Bentzi Gopshtain, who was arrested and charged with incitement in the attack, responded to Yaalon's move to blacklist the group by saying it was a "political stunt that demonstrates why one shouldn't vote for the Likud [Yaalon's political party]".

"I suggest that [Yaalon] aims to outlaw the Islamist Movement and then [the Likud] preoccupy itself with an anti-assimilation group... Instead of taking care of an enemy of Israel, the defence minister is trying to win over votes from the Left [by] taking on Lehava. The group acts to save the daughters of Israel [Jewish women] and deserves the Israel Prize," he said in a statement.

The far-right group gained notoriety last August when they protested the wedding reception of Morel Malka, a Jewish convert to Islam, who was marrying an Arab-Israeli citizen, Mahmoud Mansour.

Four anti-assimilation protesters were arrested after breaching a court order which stated that they could not approach within 200m of the wedding hall.