Kahanism

Flag of Kach, used by Kahanists

Kahanism (Hebrew: כהניזם) 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 enemies of Jews and Israel itself, and believed that a Jewish theocratic state, where non-Jews have no voting rights, should be created.[1]

The Kach party has been banned by the Israeli government. In 2004, the U.S. State Department designated it a Foreign Terrorist Organization.[2][3] 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 (SDGT) entity.[4]

The Otzma Yehudit party, which has been called Kahanist and anti-Arab,[5][6] won six seats in the 2022 election and is a member of the current Israeli government. The party, and the Kahanist movement as a whole, have been described as espousing Jewish fascism.[7][8]

  1. ^ "God's Law: an Interview with Rabbi Meir Kahane". Archived from the original on February 19, 2009. Retrieved 2012-12-18.: "Any non-Jew, including the Arabs, can have the status of a foreign resident in Israel if he accepts the law of the Halacha. I don’t differentiate between Arabs and non-Arabs. The only difference I make is between Jews and non-Jews. If a non-Jew wants to live here, he must agree to be a foreign resident, be he Arab or not. He does not have and cannot have national rights in Israel. He can have civil rights, social rights, but he cannot be a citizen; he won’t have the right to vote. Again, whether he’s Arab or not."
  2. ^ "U.S. Dept. of State, Country Reports on Terrorism 2004. April 2005" (PDF).
  3. ^ "Country Reports on Terrorism 2004" (PDF). State.gov.
  4. ^ "US set to remove Kahane's 'Kach' group from foreign terrorism blacklist". www.timesofisrael.com.
  5. ^ Aaron Kelman (27 January 2013). "Arab town doesn't love anti-Arab party". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
  6. ^ Raphael Ahren (18 February 2015). "The extremist who could bring Kahanism back to the Knesset". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
  7. ^ "Israel moves sharply to right as Netanyahu forms new coalition". BBC. 21 December 2022.
  8. ^ "Netanyahu's hard-line new government takes office in Israel". BBC News. 2022-12-29. Retrieved 2022-12-29.