Product Code Database
Kahanism () is a religious Zionist ideology based on the views of Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the Jewish Defense League and the Kach party in Israel. Kahane held the view that most Arabs living in Israel are the anti-Arab racism of Jews and Israel itself, and believed that a Halakhic state, where non-Jews have no voting rights, should be created.
The Kach party has been banned by the Israeli government. In 2004, the U.S. State Department designated it a Foreign Terrorist Organization. In 2022, it was removed from the U.S. terror blacklist due to "insufficient evidence" of the group's ongoing activity, but it remains a Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity.
The Kahanist Otzma Yehudit party won six seats in the 2022 election and is a member of the Israeli government, though it left between 21 January and 19 March 2025 because the government had agreed to a ceasefire in the Gaza war during that time. The party, and the Kahanist movement as a whole, have been described as espousing Jewish fascism.
Kahane's assassination led to the splintering of the Kach party, with Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane leading Kahane Chai from Kfar Tapuach and Kach led by Baruch Marzel, who eventually became a member of Otzma Yehudit. In 1992 both groups were banned completely from participating in elections. In 1994, due to the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre committed by Baruch Goldstein, they were declared illegal terrorist organizations by the Israeli government. After the ban, Kahane Chai's leaders created an extraparliamentary advocacy group, "The Kahane Movement", which archived media content from Kahane online.
The next election where Kahanists received political representation was in 2009, with Michael Ben-Ari, who ran on the National Union ticket. Ben-Ari split from the National Union after the election, forming Otzma Yehudit. Otzma Yehudit failed to pass the electoral threshold in the 2013 Israeli election.
Kahanism gained no political legitimacy until the April 2019 Israeli election. As a result of the 2018–2022 Israeli political crisis, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attempted to gain seats by appealing to Kahanist voters by making a deal with the Jewish Home party to have them run on a joint list with Otzma Yehudit as the Union of Right-Wing Parties. The party received enough seats for Otzma Yehudit to be represented, but Ben Ari, who was supposed to represent the fifth slot on the Union of Right-Wing Parties list, was barred from running after the list was submitted. Otzma Yehudit eventually achieved parliamentary representation in 2021, when Itamar Ben-Gvir won a seat as part of a joint list with the Religious Zionist Party.
Otzma Yehudit won six seats in the 2022 Israeli legislative election, forming what has been called the most right-wing government in Israeli history. In November 2022, after a memorial event for Kahane attended by Ben-Gvir, the U.S. State Department hosted a press briefing, saying, "Celebrating the legacy of a terrorist organization is abhorrent. There is no other word for it. It is abhorrent." The party left the coalition on 21 January 2025 because the government had agreed to a ceasefire in the Gaza war. That ceasefire collapsed on 18 March, and the party rejoined the government the next day.
Kahanism's central claim is that the vast majority of the Arabs of Israel are and will continue to be enemies of Jews and Israel itself, and that a Halachic state, governed by Halakha law, absent of a voting non-Jewish population that includes Israel, Palestine, areas of modern-day Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, should be created.: "The southern boundary goes up to El Arish, which takes in all of northern Sinai, including Yamit. To the east, the frontier runs along the western part of the East Bank of the Jordan river, hence part of what is now Jordan. Eretz Yisrael also includes part of Lebanon, and certain parts of Syria, and part of Iraq, all the way to the Tigris river."
Kahane denied these allegations throughout this life, instead calling his opponents "leftists" and "fascists". He likened his struggle for an ethnically pure Israel to the Jewish people's struggle against fascist powers during the Holocaust. Some doubt the label's accuracy; historian Matthew N. Lyons argues that Kahanism's religious fundamentalism could be more accurately described as "religious nationalism".
In 2004, the U.S. State Department designated Kach a Foreign Terrorist Organization. In 2022, it was removed from the U.S. terror blacklist due to "insufficient evidence" of the group's ongoing activity in the most recent five-yearly review, but it remains a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) entity.
In February 2025, Eli Schwarz, a self-confessed member of Kahane Chai, was arrested and charged with making threats at a demonstration in Toronto. Police seized clothing branded with the Kahane Chai name and crest, a soft-body armour vest, a rifle, a scope, and ammunition from his residence.
| + !Name !Country !Description !Status | |||
| Kach and Kahane Chai | Israel | Original political parties | |
| Jewish Defense League | Global | Militant activist organization, founded by Kahane | |
| Terror Against Terror | Israel | Militant group | |
| Sicarii | Israel | Militant student group founded in 1989 | |
| Lehava | Israel | Activist organization | |
| Jewish Task Force | US | US based Kahanist media organization | |
| Otzma Yehudit | Israel | Political party | |
| Jewish National Front | Israel | Political party | |
| Hatikva | Israel | Political party | |
| Jewish Defense Organization | US | Militant self defense organization |
Goldstein was denounced "with shocked horror" by Orthodox Judaism, and most Israelis denounced Goldstein as insane. Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin condemned the attack, calling Goldstein a "degenerate murderer", "a shame on Zionism and an embarrassment to Judaism". At the same time, Goldstein's actions were praised by some extremist settlers; Yochay Ron said that he "felt good" when he heard the news, and also said that Jews were "at war with the Arabs" and "all Arabs who live here are a danger to us... they threaten the very existence of the Jewish community on the West Bank." Goldstein and other religious settlers at Beit Hadassah (both Kahanist and Gush Emunim) believe that the biblical lands on the West Bank are sacred, that Jews are required by God to occupy them, and that the presence of Muslims desecrates the Holy Land. After this attack, members of the Kach Party praised Goldstein's actions, and in the ensuing political turmoil, the Knesset banned Kach in Israel. The Shamgar Commission concluded that Goldstein acted alone.
|
|
