Meir Kahane: Encyclopedia II - Meir Kahane - Israel

Meir Kahane - Israel

Meanwhile the JDL in the U.S. continued to branch out into terrorist activities, including the bombing of several buildings; the harassment, stalking and sometimes murder of prominent members of the JDL political and intellectual opposition; and the coordination of JDL activities with the Israeli Mossad (headed in the early '70's by Yitzhak Shamir). Consequently, police pressure began to build upon Kahane, and in 1971 he decided to leave the U.S.

In 1971 he emigrated from the United States to Israel (known as "making aliyah" in Judaism). He quickly moved to establish the [[Kach Party]]. In 1980 Kahane stood unsuccessfully for election to the Knesset. Also that year he served six months in prison following an adminstrative detention order against him of which the details have not been revealed. According to Ehud Sprinzak, "the prevailing rumour was that a very provocative act of sabotage on the Temple Mount was planned by Kahane and a close associate of his, Baruch Green." [1]

In 1984 Kahane launched another election campaign, and successfully won a seat in the Israeli parliament. The Central Elections Committee had banned him from being a candidate on charges of racism, but the Israeli High Court found that the Committee did not have the legal power to do so, and it requested from the Knesset to establish a law that would enable the Court to ban Kach in the future (the Anti-Racist Law of 1988).

Kahane refused to take the oath of office for the Knesset as is written and insistied on adding a verse from Psalms to it, to indicate that when they are in contradiction, the Torah Law has suppremacy over the laws of the Knesset.

Kahane's legislation proposals centered on revoking Israeli citizenship from non-Jews, and banning Jewish-Gentile marriages or sexual relations, based on the Code of Jewish Law compiled by Maimonides, the Mishne Torah. In spite of the fact that the legislation proposals of Kahane were based on Torah Law, no religious party and no rabbi in function supported Kach publicly.

As his political career progressed, Kahane became increasingly isolated in the Knesset. His speeches were boycotted by Knesset members and were made to an empty parliament, except for the duty chairman and the scriptgirl writing down his speeches for posterity. Kahane's legislation proposals and motions of no-confidence against the Government were either no brought to discution or rejected by his fellow Knesset members. Kahane often called the other Knesset members "Hellenists" (in Hebrew; this is a historical term glommed from Jewish religious texts for ancient Jews who assimilated into Greek culture after Judea's occupation by Alexander the Great. In 1987 Rabbi Kahane opened aYeshiva (Yeshivat Haraayon Hayehudi) with the help of funds from America, for the teaching of "the Authentic Jewish Idea".

An important catalogue of press clippings extending over 30 years and classified according to more than 120 topics (politics, culture, religions, art, people etc) was purchased from he family and donated to the "Library for the History of Zionism" at Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan.

In 1985 the Knesset passed an amendment to Israel's Basic Law, barring "racist" candidates from standing for election. The Committee applied it to Kahane, who appealed against the decision to the Israeli High Court. This time the Court found in favor of the Committee, declaring Kahane to be unsuitable for election. Kahane asserted that the reason for the Kach party ban was that polls showed it about to become the third largest party in Israel.

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