Israel and the US are working to prevent members of the Lev Tahor cult from moving to Iran, amid fears they could be used as a bargaining chip by Tehran. Members of the Lev Tahor group applied for political asylum in Iran in 2018. Documents presented at a US federal court in 2019 showed that leaders of the fringe cult requested asylum from Iran and swore allegiance to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Times of Israel reports.
According to the Ynet news site, concerns were building that hundreds of members of the group, mainly based in Guatemala, could be trying to move to Iran after dozens of families were spotted at the airport in Guatemala, apparently on their way to the Kurdistan-Iran border.
The report said that relatives of the Israeli cult members had contacted the Foreign Ministry and Justice Ministry and asked them to urgently contact their Guatemalan counterparts to prevent the families from leaving. Relatives of American members were making similar requests to the US State Department.
“The Shalit deal will look like child’s play next to this,” they said, referring to the 2011 prisoner deal with Hamas in which Israel released 1,027 Palestinian terror convicts in exchange for soldier Gilad Shalit, who had been held captive since 2006.
According to the report, the Guatemalan authorities have already detained a number of the cult members who hold US citizenship and were allegedly on their way to Iran in recent days, after a request from American authorities.
The report said the cult was initially planning on moving to the Erbil region of Iraq, which borders Iran.
A first group has already traveled to the region, with additional members now trying to make their way by air from Guatemala or initially traveling to Mexico and El Salavador before flying out to the Middle East.
Rabbi Zvi Gluck, director of Amudim, told Ynet the sect has around 280 members with Israeli, American or Canadian citizenship, most of whom even have dual citizenship. “Most of them are Israeli citizens, so I expect the Israeli government to do everything in its power to find a way to act and help these people,” said Gluck. “If there is a raid on the place, they will not be able to take the children because there is no documentation about [their births]. In addition, when a new family joins the cult, their passports are taken away from them.”
More: Times of Israel
{Matzav.com Israel}
Ask me if I care.
What’s the problem?
Let be known that if they get kidnapped, it’s good riddance and no one will bother to rescue them.
All Jew are important even those that have not understood the first thing about the Torah, who force girls to be completely covered up like the Taliban, who violently hit and lock up their children, marry them of when they are underage, accept polygamy, do not understand anything about education and fight with the Israeli state and all the other Jews.
This is and has been the heart of the Jews during the exile and has permitted us to survive.
Tanya Likutey Amarim chap 32.
there are children and infant and they are precious Jewish souls, would you not make an effort for them?
documentation is obsolete. There is dna testing available these days.
There is no value in kidnapping them as no one will rescue them.
If the Mullahs decide to use these people as bargaining chips, they probably will not be demanding money in return, because why would a Mullah ask for moolah when he himself is a Mullah? Unless you say the more moolahs, the merrier.
Lol.
How much more Moolah would a Mullah make, if a Mullah would make more Moolah?
I lived next to them many years ago. I know what they are.
If they wana go to Iran, then let them.
Who cares ?
It’s hard to understand these people’s apathy, even antipathy, towards those who are obviously VICTIMS of a cult. I guess you’re too young to remember when cults were all too common, mostly not Jewish but a disproportionate number were, because הנפש לא תמלא, a neshamah is looking for Hashem. Cult members are always suffering victims, their lives miserable, and if they ever come out, they’re traumatized and require extensive counseling to recover. R”L