Israeli authorities are backing drives to stop mixed marriages, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported.

The Israeli Social Affairs and Social Services Ministry is funding racist Jewish organisations in combatting mixed marriages and what the newspaper described as “rescuing Jewish women from shmad – a Hebrew term that denotes coerced conversion to another religion – and removing them from Arab cities and villages after marrying Arabs.”

According to the newspaper’s report, the Israeli government approved granting the “Hemla” or “mercy” association nearly $300,000 to fund its activities under the pretext of working to save Haredi Jewish girls from being lost.

The report also noted that the association is categorised as a Zionist right-extremist organisation that adopts the ideas of racist Rabbi Meir Kahane, who called for expelling Arabs of Palestine. He was assassinated in the US in the late 1980s, but his followers have continued his activities in Israel and formed a number of movements, such as Kahane Chai. They are also supported by the Israeli right wing.

Hemla is run by Elyakim Neiman, and he described intermarriage between Jewish women and Arab men as a “national plague”. The movement openly attacks Arabs in order to “return young women to the path of healthy Jewish life, as is appropriate for the daughter of a king.”