Anti-Israel activists and anti-Zionist Jews protested a Little Rock Hanukkah candle lighting attended by ex-Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee on Wednesday night, according to Chabad Lubavitch and activist groups.
Progressive Jewish group Taste of Olam Haba and Little Rock Peace for Palestine, according to their Instagram accounts, disrupted the lighting of a Lubavitch of Arkansas public Hanukkiah because of the involvement of Huckabee, who is set to become US ambassador to Israel.
The activists carried poles with candles on the end, and chanted slogans throughout the lighting event. According to photographs published by the groups, some wore sweaters calling for "ceasefire now" in Gaza.
“Christian Zionists and their agenda have no place in our Jewish communities and in our government. As Mike Huckabee, the [US President-Elect Donald] Trump appointee as future Israeli ambassador, addressed our city, we stood united in rejecting his message of division. Instead, we spoke for unity, justice, and equality for all people between the river and the sea,” the two activist groups said on social media.
“Christian philosemitism is antisemitism. Only loving Jews that support your right-wing end-times theology is not loving Jews.”
Chabad said on X that the traditional Hannukah liturgy Maoz Tzur drowned out “antisemitic protestors” as Huckabee kindled the Hanukkiah’s flames.
“Light in the face of darkness,” Chabad described the scene
Lubavitch of Arkansas on Facebook thanked Huckabee, the city, local politicians, and local businesses for joining and supporting them.
“What a beautiful first night of Hanukkah it was,” Arkansas Lubavitch said Thursday. “Thank you all for coming out to celebrate with us and show your Jewish pride.”
Huckabee issued a statement on social media on Wednesday wishing “a very merry Christmas to my fellow Christian believers and a happy Hanukkah to my Jewish friends.”