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This information is from the Information Division,
Israel Foreign Ministry - Jerusalem

In 1968, Rabbi Meir Kahane established the Jewish Defense League, the forerunner of the Kach movement. The declared goal of the movement at the time was to combat black antisemitism.

In September 1969, Kahane immigrated to Israel. Though he had declared that once in Israel he would not engage in politics, he spoke out against the black Jews in Dimona, and later openly advocated the expulsion of Arabs from Israel. One of his first campaigns against Arabs was in 1972, when he distributed pamphlets in Hebron calling upon the mayor to stand trial for his part in the massacre of the Jews in Hebron in 1929.

The Kach movement first sought election to the Knesset in 1973, but received only about 13,000 votes, which were not enough to win a seat. Two years later Kahane returned to his activities in Hebron, this time calling for the expulsion of the Arabs from the city.

In the 1977 Knesset elections, Kach received less than 4,500 votes. In 1980, Kahane was sentenced to six months in prison for plotting with others to commit a grave act of provocation on the Temple Mount. In 1981, Kach once again failed to introduce any of its members into the Knesset.

During the evacuation of the Israeli settlers from Yamit in 1982, Kahane gained popularity. At the government's request, he helped convince some extremists in Yamit who had barricaded themselves in the synagogue and threatened to commit suicide to withdraw their ultimatum.

When the Kach movement submitted its list for the 1984 Knesset elections, the Central Elections Committee ruled that it could not participate in the elections. Kach appealed to the High Court of Justice, and its appeal was upheld. The court ruled that the existing electoral law did not allow for the debarring of a party on the grounds of racism. The Court further suggested that the law be amended.

The Kach movement thus ran for election in 1984, winning 26,000 votes, and Kahane became a member of Knesset. He announced that Kach would not support any government that did not advocate the expulsion of the Arabs from Israel.

In August 1985, the Knesset passed an amendment to the Basic Law: The Knesset, in accordance with the High Court's comment in the Kach case. The amendment added incitemnet to racism as grounds for barring a party from participating in elections. The law now states as follows:

'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.'

Accordingly, in 1988, prior to the elections to the 12th Knesset, the Central Elections Committee disqualified the Kach list, basing its decision on the above amendment. In his appeal to the High Court of Justice, Kahane claimed that security needs justify severe measures of discrimination against Arabs. The Court rejected the claim and the appeal, stating that the aims and actions of Kach are manifestly racist.

On November 5, 1990, Meir Kahane was murdered in New York by an Egyptian Islamist. There are two movements which follow in his footsteps: 'Kahane Lives', led by his son Benjamin Kahane, based in the settlement Tapuah; and 'Kach' led by Baruch Marzel, based in Kiryat Arba.

Both movements were disqualified by the Central Elections Committee in the 1992 elections. Both appealed to the High Court of Justice, which rejected their appeals, ruling that they are followers of the original Kach movement.

In November 1992, following the movements' support of the grenade attack in the butchers' market in the Old City of Jerusalem, Minister Amnon Rubinstein asked the Attorney-General to initiate a criminal proceedings against the leaders of the two movements, on the charge of incitement to terrorism.

Both Kach and Kahane Chai organize protests against the Israeli Government, and harass and threaten Palestinians in Hebron and the West Bank. Groups affiliated with them have threatened to attack Arabs, Palestinians, and Israeli Government officials. They also claimed responsibility for several shooting attacks on West Bank Palestinians in which four persons were killed and two were wounded in 1993.

Membership of the two groups overlap. Both groups operate primarily in Israel and West Bank settlements, particularly Qiryat Arba' in Hebron. The organizations receive support from sympathizers in the United States and Europe.

Kach, Kahane Chai Israel, extremists What are Kach and Kahane Chai?   Kahane Chai leader Binyamin Kahane (right), who was killed in 2000. (AP Photo) Two marginal Israeli groups that have used terrorism to pursue their goals of expanding Jewish rule across the West Bank and expelling the Palestinians. Both groups grew out of the anti-Arab teachings of Rabbi Meir Kahane, an American-born extremist who founded and led Kach (its name means “thus” in Hebrew) until he was assassinated in New York in 1990. Israel outlawed Kach and its offshoot Kahane Chai (“Kahane Lives”) in 1994, a month after a Kach supporter shot and killed 29 Muslim worshipers at a West Bank mosque. Experts say Kahanist leaders in Israel have steered clear of terrorism recently in hopes of getting Israel to lift the ban on the two groups, but Israeli authorities continue to regard Jewish extremists as a potential terrorist threat. The State Department lists Kach and Kahane Chai as foreign terrorist organizations. What terrorist attacks have been associated with Kach and Kahane Chai? The deadliest came in February 1994, shortly after the signing of the Oslo peace accords between Israel and the PLO, when Baruch Goldstein, a Brooklyn-born doctor and Kach supporter, opened fire with a machine gun inside the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron. He killed 29 people and wounded dozens more before he was himself killed. Goldstein chose to attack at a particularly sensitive religious site; the mosque is built atop the Cave of the Patriarchs, where, according to both Jewish and Muslim traditions, the prophet Abraham and his family are buried. Kahanists have also shot, stabbed, and thrown grenades at Palestinians in Jerusalem and the West Bank. In cases where Kach and Kahane Chai have not themselves claimed responsibility for anti-Arab attacks, Kahane and his followers have declined to condemn such violence and have often glorified it. The Machteret—a 1980s Jewish underground terror group with links to Kach—staged several attacks, including an unsuccessful May 1980 campaign to kill several Palestinian mayors, before being broken up. Israeli authorities also foiled the Machteret’s plans to blow up Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque, which is built atop the contested holy site known by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and by Jews as the Temple Mount. Destroying the mosque, experts say, could provoke a massive Middle Eastern conflict. How big are Kach and Kahane Chai? Recent reports say Kach and Kahane Chai have an overlapping core membership of several dozen as well as a larger number—perhaps several hundred—of less committed supporters that includes both native-born Israelis and radicalized immigrants from the United States and elsewhere. Where do Kach and Kahane Chai operate? In Israel and the West Bank. Two West Bank settlements—Kiryat Arba, near Hebron, and Tapuach—are thought to be the cradles of Kahanist support. Have Kach and Kahane Chai been active in the current Israeli-Palestinian violence? We don’t know. Neither group has claimed responsibility for any of the recent anti-Arab bomb plots or the more common roadside shootings of Palestinians by Israeli extremists. Nor have Israeli authorities yet proved any Kach or Kahane Chai connection to these attacks. In April 2002, Israeli police arrested a former Kach spokesman in connection with an attempt to leave an explosive-packed trailer outside a Palestinian girls’ school and hospital in East Jerusalem, but experts say the plot was arranged by individuals affiliated with another Jewish extremist group that is not affiliated with Kach or Kahane Chai. Who was Meir Kahane? Martin David Kahane was born in 1932 in Brooklyn, New York. As a teenager, he joined Betar, a quasi-military youth group affiliated with the Revisionist Zionist movement, which sought a Jewish state in all of British-ruled Palestine. In 1968, Kahane, who trained as a lawyer and rabbi, formed the Jewish Defense League (JDL), a militant group that promoted Jewish vigilantism and urged American Jews to arm themselves under the slogan “every Jew a .22.” Putatively organized to combat African-American anti-Semitism, the JDL went on to target the offices and representatives of Soviet-bloc nations, the Palestine Liberation Organization, Arab states, and Jewish organizations it saw as moderate

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