Kach and Kahane Chai

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Kach (כ"ך - kakh, acronym of כהנא לכנסת Kahana LaKneset "Kahane to the Knesset", alluding to the Irgun motto rak kakh: "only thus") was a far-right political party in Israel founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane. After his assassination in 1990, it split into two movements, Kach and Kahane Chai (Kahana Hai: "Kahane Lives"). This article deals with both groups.

1 Kach
2 Split of Kach
3 Kach's Effect Today
4 Terrorist Attacks Associated with Kahanists
5 See also
6 External links

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Kach

Kahane's Kach maintained two central, political planks in their platform. The first was the proposed forced transfer of Arabs from the borders of Israel, including Israeli Arabs who did not accept the conditions of Ger toshav. The second was the establishment of a state for Jews inside the borders of Eretz Yisrael (the biblical land of Israel) ruled by traditional Jewish law (Halakha).

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). It continued to fail to win the minimum number of votes in the elections of 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:

A candidates' list shall not participate in elections to the Knesset if its objects or actions, expressly or by implication, include one of the following:

(1) negation of the existence of the State of Israel as the state of the Jewish people;

(2) negation of the democratic character of the State;

(3) incitement to racism.

The first clause was specifically targeted at the Progressive List for Peace, and the third 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.

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Split of Kach

Following Kahane's assassination in 1990 by an Arab, the movement split into two groups with similar ideologies and somewhat overlapping membership: Kach and Kahane Chai. Kach was originally led by Rabbi Avraham Toledano and later by Baruch Marzel out of Hebron. Kahane Chai was led by Meir's son Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane out of Kfar Tapuach until he and his wife were murdered in a random ambush by Palestinians in 2000. Both groups were outlawed by Israel in 1994 under anti-terrorism laws following statements in support of Baruch Goldstein's killing of Arabs at the Cave of the Patriarchs. Many of their leaders spent time in Israeli jail under administrative detention, particularly Noam Federman, who spent more than 6 months in lockup without being charged with a crime. They still retain several hundred hardcore supporters, including support from individuals in the United States, Canada, Europe, South Africa and Australia. Presumably, most of Kach's electorate moved to other parties such as Rehavam Zeevi's Moledet.

Following the banning of Kach and Kahane Chai the movements officially disbanded. The leadership of the former Kahane Chai formed an advocacy group known as The Kahane Movement. The group's activities consist mainly of maintaining the "Official Kahane Website". The Kahane Movement is listed on the United States' list of terrorist organizations as an alias for "Kach" though the group denies this.

The New Kach Movement existed during the period 2001 – 2003. It maintained websites posting Kahanist political commentary and held meetings with informal members. The organization was headed by Israeli-born student Efraim Hershkovits, who lived in Montreal, Canada. It had chapters worldwide as well as a youth movement, Noar Meir. Upon returning to live in Israel in 2003, Hershkovits disbanded the movement to avoid harassment by the Israeli government, advising its former members to support the Kahane Movement. After the organization had disbanded, its name was added to the United States' list of terrorist organizations as an alias for "Kach". Hershkovits was arrested on August 7, 2005 and placed in administrative detention for three months by Israeli authorities. Since Israel has no writ of habeas corpus, people in Israel may be incarcerated for months or years without any charges being brought.

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Kach's Effect Today

The United States Department of State designates the group as a terrorist organization [1] and says that it has:

Organized protests against the Israeli Government.

Organized protests against Palestinians in Hebron.

Vowed revenge for the death of Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane and his wife.

The State Department also says that the group is suspected of involvement in a number of low-level attacks since the start of the Second Intifada in 2000. But several individuals in the US are challenging the terrorist designation in court, claiming that the Kahane parties have never participated in or taken credit for a single terrorist incident.

In the 2003 elections former Kach leader Baruch Marzel ran as number two on the Herut party list. The party narrowly missed obtaining a seat. In 2004 he founded the Chayil Party.

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Terrorist Attacks Associated with Kahanists

According to Council on Foreign Relations [2] Kach and Kahane Chai have been associated with a number of terrorist acts:

In February 1994 Baruch Goldstein opened fire on Palestinian worshippers inside the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, killing twenty-nine people and wounding many others. Neither Kach nor Kahane Chai condoned this act of misdirected revenge. This is despite the fact that killing random innocent people is a common form of Palestinian terrorism against Jews.

In the 1980s The Machteret, a resistance group with links to Kach, supposedly staged several attacks against Palestinian officials who were believed to have spearheaded terrorist attacks targeting unarmed civilians, often including young children.