Kach and Kahane Chai: Encyclopedia II - Kach and Kahane Chai - Kach

Kach and Kahane Chai - Kach

Kahane's Kach had two central beliefs. The first was, the proposed forced transfer of those Arabs from the borders of Israel, including Israeli Arabs that oppose Israel. The second was the establishment of a democracy for Jews only inside the borders of Eretz Yisrael (the biblical land of Israel).

Kach candidates ran for seats in the Knesset in 1973, only two years after Kahane's arrival to Israel. It failed to attract the minimum number of votes (at the time, one percent), and continued to fail to win the minimum number of votes in 1977 and 1981. The party finally gained a Knesset seat in 1984, with Kahane as its only representative.

This caused significant alarm among the Israeli political elite. In 1985, Basic Law: The Knesset (one of the Basic Laws of Israel) was amended to add section 7a, "Prevention of Participation of Candidates List." This provision ensured that:

The word "Jewish" in the first clause was added to make the law balanced in prohibiting both right-wing parties who wished to change Israel from a democracy to a theocracy and left-wing parties who wished to eliminate Israel's identity as a Jewish state. The first clause was specifically targeted at the Progressive List for Peace, and the second clause at Kach. Both parties had been elected for the first time to the Knesset.

Before the 1988 elections, the central elections committee disqualified both parties. Both appealed to the Supreme Court of Israel. The court upheld the disqualification of Kach, finding that its principles constituted "incitement to racism," but reversed the disqualification of the Progressive List for Peace. This effectively ended Kach's existence as a political party.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Kach", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki