Kahane, Meir (1932–1990)

Brooklyn-born Rabbi Meir Kahane was a radical ideologue and founder of Kach, the militant nationalist and outlawed political party in Israel that advocates violence against Arabs. Kahane was assassinated on November 5, 1990, in New York City.

Kahane developed and disseminated his beliefs that Greater Israel, including the occupied West Bank, was given to the Jews by God and that all Arabs should be expelled from the land. In the 1960s, Kahane formed the anti-Arab Jewish Defense League (JDL), a forerunner of Kach and Kahane Chai. He used the slogan “Never Again!” (in reference to the Holocaust) when recruiting for the league. Kahane moved to Israel in 1971 and founded the Kach Party. Kach means “thus” or “this is the way” in Hebrew. After he won a seat in the Israeli Parliament in 1984, Kahane is said to have submitted a bill to Israel's Parliament to completely separate Jews and non-Jews in Israel. The government of Israel declared the Kach Party racist and ineligible to field candidates in 1988.

Kahane was assassinated on the evening of November 5, 1990. In a meeting room of the Marriott Halloran House Hotel in midtown Manhattan, Kahane gave a speech calling for the forcible expulsion of native Palestinians from Israel to an audience of about 100; he was answering questions when a man approached and shot him in the neck with a handgun. Kahane was mortally wounded, and the gunman fled the scene. Egyptian-born El Sayyid Nosair was arrested a few blocks away.

Kahane's funeral was marked by violence; a mob of his supporters stabbed an Arab gas station attendant and stoned camera crews, shouting “Kill the Arabs” and “Kill the Media.” Nosair was tried and found not guilty on the murder charge, but he was later convicted on weapons charges. When the not guilty verdict was read, teenage followers of Kahane shouted “Death to Nosair!” and clashed with Nosair's supporters in the hallways of the court.

In Kahane's absence, the Kach Party withered. However, Kahane's son Binyamin founded the group Kahane Chai, or “Kahane Lives” to pursue his father's goals. Kahane's teachings, also called Kahanism, remain influential among right-wing Jewish settlers in the West Bank. After a Kahane disciple, Dr. Baruch Goldstein, massacred 29 praying Muslims in a Hebron mosque in February 1994, the Israeli government voted to outlaw Kach, Kahane Chai, and any organization following Kahane's teachings under Israel's 1948 Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance. The ban also criminalized giving financial or verbal support to these groups.

In December 2000, Binyamin Kahane was also assassinated, shot by Palestinian gunmen in a drive-by shooting. Five years later, Eden Natan-Zada, a [Page 322]devotee of Kahane, opened fire on a bus in an Arab section of Israel, killing four people.