Kahane Chai

A Jewish nationalist group banned in Israel, Kahane Chai spreads the anti-Arab ideology of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane. Right-wing Jewish people in the West Bank largely support the group, particularly those from Airyat Arba in Hebron. Kahane Chai is listed as a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department.

Rabbi Kahane founded the right-wing nationalist Kach Party in Israel in the 1970s and disseminated his violent, anti-Arab ideas until he was assassinated in New York City in 1990. After Kahane's death, the rabbi's son Binyamin gathered together Kach members and Kahane supporters to found the Kahane Chai or “Kahane Lives” group. The group's stated goal is to restore the biblical state of Israel, replacing democracy with theocracy. Its rallying cry is often, “Rabbi Kahane was right!”

Baruch Goldstein, the Brooklyn-born doctor who massacred 29 praying Muslims at a Hebron mosque in February 1994, was ...