JERUSALEM
Five years after falling in love with each other, a Muslim man and a Jewish woman have got married, stirring up a hornet's nest and loud-mouthed protests in Israel.
"I have met Moral Malka five years ago and fell in love together," Mahmoud Mansour, a resident of the central city of Jaffa, told Anadolu Agency on Monday.
Mansour and Malka, a 22-year-old Jew, tied the knot in Jaffa, on Sunday.
Three months before the marriage, Malka converted to Islam.
"Malka embraced Islam three months before our marriage," the groom said.
Though Malka's conversion was welcomed by the groom's family, it triggered uproar among Jews in Israel.
"Her father has boycotted the wedding ceremony and refused to talk to her," Mansour said.
There are around 1.6 million Arabs in Israel, making up around 20 percent of the country's population.
Many Muslim men got married to Jewish woman, but there were no exact estimates of these marriages.
The phenomenon, however, gave rise in recent years to radical Jewish groups, which have been campaigning against Arab-Jewish marriages.
One of these groups is Lehava, which described on its Facebook page the marriage of Mansour and Malka as a "crime".
The group, whose Hebrew initials stand for "Preventing Assimilation in the Holy Land", called on Jewish residents of Jaffa to gather outside the wedding hall in an attempt to disrupt the marriage. The group's page, however, was blocked by Facebook.
In 2011, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported about an alleged link between Lehava, which was founded in 2010, and the Israeli government.
Threats
Mansour said that he and his wife had received several threats over their marriage.
"We have received several threats," Mansour said..
The groom and his bride, however, were unfazed by the threats.
"We decided to move ahead," he said.
Hundreds of Jewish protesters rallied outside the reception hall on Sunday to protest the marriage.
A counter-demonstration of left-wing protesters was also staged in support of the marriage, with hundreds of police deployed to keep the two demonstrators apart.
Mansour's and Malka's wedding invitation card was written in both Arabic and Hebrew and the wedding was held in Rishon Lezion in central Israel.
Upon request from police, however, Mansour had to hire several bodyguards to protect the wedding hall. He also sought a court order for police to prevent the Jewish activists from going to the wedding hall.
Sunday's ceremony was attended by around 800 people, including between 200 and 300 Jewish guests.
"Some Knesset members also sent us letters of congratulation," Mansour said. "I was so happy because the wedding party was a success despite all attempts," he added.
By Abdel-Raouf Arnaout
www.aa.com.tr/en
