Anger as Israel witnesses Jewish-Arab celebrity wedding

Palestinian-Israeli news anchor Lucy Aharish has been accused of seeking to “harm” Israel after marrying her partner of four years Jewish actor Tsahi Halevi yesterday.

“We Are Signing a Peace Accord,” the couple joked on their wedding invitation, quoted by the Israel Hayom newspaper.

However, Likud Member of the Knesset Oren Hazan called to stop Jewish assimilation, saying: “I don’t blame Lucy Aharish for seducing a Jewish soul with the goal of harming our country and for preventing more Jewish progeny from continuing the Jewish dynasty, on the contrary, she is welcome to convert.”

The marriage was also rued by Arye Deri, an ultra-Orthodox rabbi who serves as Israeli interior minister, a role that oversees the country’s population registry.

“It’s their own private affair. But, as a Jew, I have to tell you that I’m against such things because we must preserve the Jewish people,” Deri said in an interview on Israel’s Army Radio. “[Their] children will grow up, go to school and later want to get married, and then they’ll face difficult problems.”

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Halevi, an Arabic-fluent Jewish actor, is a former undercover commando in the Palestinian territories – a role he re-enacted for the hit Netflix series “Fauda”.

Palestinian Aharish is notable for being the first Arab Muslim news presenter on mainstream Hebrew-language Israeli television. She had complained, in media interviews, of suffering discrimination in Israel as well as pressure from her family over the prospect of her marrying outside of Islam. Aharish rebuffed criticism of her nuptials saying there are more important issues to cover than her private life.