Activist calls Emanuel 'hater of Israel'

JERUSALEM, May 27 (UPI) -- A right-wing Israeli activist called White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel a "hater of Israel" in Jerusalem Thursday.

Before police took him into custody at the Western Wall, Itamar Ben-Gvir shouted "for shame" and "you won't shut me up!"

He and other right-wing activists blame Emanuel for U.S. President Barack Obama's hard line against Jewish settlements in the West Bank. "We have a duty to protest against a hater of Israel," Ben-Givr said.

Maariv reported Emanuel contacted Israeli authorities in January about holding the bar mitzvah of his son, Zach, at the Western Wall but government officials said there had been no further contact on the matter.

It would take at least a month to coordinate the event, the newspaper said.

Givr and another activist promised to disrupt the bar mitzvah if it is held in Jerusalem.

During his week-long family visit, Emanuel met with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and invited him to the White House to meet with President Barack Obama Tuesday for "a work meeting to discuss both our shared security interests as well as our close cooperation in seeking peace between Israel and its neighbors," he said.

Emanuel said Israelis had been "exceptionally warm and genuine in their affection to both all the family in general, but particularly to Zach on his bar mitzvah in wishing him a mazel tov."