ByJERUSALEM POST STAFF

Right-wing activists Ben-Zion (Bentzi) Gopstein and Baruch Marzel were questioned at the Israel Police's Lahav 433 National Crime Unit on Wednesday on suspicion of incitement to racism, after a number of posts and messages ascribed to them appeared in social media.

Police reported that the two were released under restrictive conditions, although Gopstein and Marzel later said in a statement that they were freed wihout any restrictions.

Gopstein was indicted in 2019 on charges of incitement to terrorism, violence and racism. He is the leader of the far-right group Lehava, which advocates against intermarriage and relationships between Jews and non-Jews.

A Lehava statement said he was interrogated for a series of videos he originally published in 2018 that addressed the "causes and dangers of assimilation."

Both men were disqualified in 2019 from running for the Knesset on the Otzma Yehudit Party's list, which was elected to the current Knesset with MK Itamar Ben Gvir as a part of the Religious Zionist union of far-right parties.

The statement added that Marzel, a Hebron activist, was interrogated over a Youtube video in which he said "the enemy must be struck in the same way the Lord struck the people of Egypt with the Ten Plagues," as well as for statements which were used as evidence in his 2019 disqualification trial.