meir kahane

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a speech at Likud headquarters on election night, Tel Aviv, September 17, 2019. (Gili Yaari/Flash90)

How Netanyahu mainstreamed his dark, anti-democratic vision for Israel

By attacking the judiciary, bringing extremists into his coalition, and trying to subvert voting rights, Benjamin Netanyahu has presented a dark vision of an anti-democratic future for Israeli politics. By Harry Reis Benjamin Netanyahu emerged from September’s repeat elections a failure. Denied his desired majority, the prime minister’s only real hope of retaining power now…

By +972 Magazine October 4, 2019

Right wing activists attend a ceremony honoring the late Rabbi Meir Kahane in Jerusalem on November 17, 2016. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Otzma Yehudit is out. Does that mean Israelis reject Kahanism?

While the Kahanist Otzma Yehudit party failed to pass the electoral threshold, the latest national elections in Israel saw the normalization of Kahane’s particular brand of overt racism. Twenty-one years ago, Rabbi Meir Kahane stared into the camera during an election ad for his Kach party and told viewers, “[the Arabs of Israel] want to kill…

By Natasha Roth-Rowland September 19, 2019

Kahanist Michael Ben-Ari gives a speech to right-wing demonstrators who are protesting an event commemorating the Palestinian Nakba at Tel Aviv University, May 14, 2012.

How to stop Kahanists from taking over

Twenty-five years after a follower of Meir Kahane massacred Palestinian worshipers in Hebron, Netanyahu is basing his future coalition on a Kahanist party. Now Israelis will have to decide between apartheid and a future of hope and equality. By Raluca Ganea Reality is often too complex to draw clear lines between cause and effect. But occasionally, a single act…

By +972 Magazine February 26, 2019

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Members of the Kahanist Otzma Yehudit party Bentzi Gopstein (left) Michael Ben Ari (center) and Attorney Itamar Ben Gvir (right) seen in Israeli Supreme Court in Jerusalem, March 12, 2018. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

Israel’s fascist sideshow takes center stage

For the first time in over 30 years, a proper Kahanist party could be entering the Knesset. But is the rise of a party that advocates for Jewish supremacy, theocracy, and ‘total war’ as unprecedented as the outcry has suggested? The last week has been an eventful one in the annals of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s dalliances with the…

By Natasha Roth-Rowland February 24, 2019

Hundreds of Palestinian, Israeli and international protesters march in Hebron to demand the end of settlements and segregation in the city, February 22, 2019. (Photo by Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

Hundreds protest segregation in Hebron’s Shuhada Street

While Palestinians continue paying the price for the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre, carried out by a Jewish settler 25 years ago, those who share the attacker’s racist ideology are now being offered ministerial positions in Israel’s Knesset. By +972 Magazine Staff Hundreds of Palestinian, Israeli and international demonstrators marched in the West Bank city of Hebron on Friday…

By +972 Magazine February 22, 2019

A mural of Marwan Barghouti on the separation wall at Qalandiya checkpoint, West Bank, June 10, 2016. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

Will the NYT start noting the violent pasts of Israeli contributors, too?

There was much uproar from the Israeli government and its supporters following the publication of a Marwan Barghouti op-ed in the New York Times. But where was the outcry when the paper published op-eds by Israelis with violent pasts? On Sunday the New York Times published an op-ed by Marwan Barghouti, a Palestinian leader who has been…

By Lisa Goldman April 18, 2017

Members of the Jewish Defense League (JDL) beat a 55-year-old Palestinian man outside the AIPAC convention in Washington D.C., March 26, 2017. (Screenshot)

WATCH: Jewish Defense League activists beat Palestinian-American at AIPAC

Wearing shirts and carrying flags bearing insignia of the JDL, once declared a terrorist organization, the violent men and women also attacked left-wing Jewish activists. At least one was arrested. Members of the Jewish Defense League severely beat a 55-year old Palestinian American man and assaulted several American Jewish activists with IfNotNow outside the AIPAC…

By Mairav Zonszein March 29, 2017

A Donald Trump supporter, Jerusalem, November 7, 2016. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

Trump’s win poses a challenge we must respond to

The nativist rabble-rousing and promises of expulsion and exclusion that carried Donald Trump to victory are worryingly similar to the resurgence of Meir Kahane’s Kach movement in Israel. Neither can be ignored. On the eve of the U.S. presidential elections I stood opposite an alcove in Kraków’s High Synagogue, gazing into an empty socket in which a Torah scroll…

By Natasha Roth-Rowland November 9, 2016

The word 'revenge' is seen graffitied on the wall of the Dawabshe house, Duma, West Bank, July 31, 2015. (photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

Israel admits right-wing violence works

The highest court in the land delays the demolition of a synagogue built atop stolen Palestinian property, fearing retribution by right-wing extremists. Has terrorism officially won in Israel? The State of Israel just validated the very concept of “price tag” violence, which Israel officials have often described — but never legally defined — as terrorism. The…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man November 4, 2015

Labor chairman Isaac Herzog (Photo by Activestills.org)

Why did we forget about Herzog’s anti-Arab campaign?

While commentators will be talking about Netanyahu’s anti-Arab race-baiting for a long time, his opponent’s anti-Arab campaign tactics never stirred up too much controversy. There were many reasons why Benjamin Netanyahu galloped to victory in last week’s election. His opponent, Isaac Herzog, was viewed by many as disconnected, elitist and lacking an alternative vision for…

By Edo Konrad March 22, 2015

'Haaretz' newspaper (Photo: Hmbr/Wikimedia/CC)

A different look at democracy: Impressions from a ‘Haaretz’ conference

What does it feel like to be thought of as someone who endangers democracy? Sometimes, all it takes is having dark skin, curls and a kippa. Thoughts on Mizrahi identity from Haaretz’s Conference on Democracy. By Eli Bareket Several weeks ago I attended the Israel Conference on Democracy sponsored by the liberal Haaretz daily. It was…

By Haokets March 1, 2015

MK Hanin Zoabi (photo: Oren Ziv/ Activestills.org)

No parity between Zoabi’s democracy and Kahane’s racism

By simply discussing the disqualification of MK Haneen Zoabi and Baruch Marzel from the upcoming elections, the extreme right has already claimed another victory. The double-hearing held in the Supreme Court on Tuesday under an extended panel headed by Justice Naor, to discuss the disqualification of MK Haneen Zoabi and Baruch Marzel, respectively, was…

By Orly Noy February 17, 2015

Hundreds of people rally against racist group ‘Lehava’ at Zion Square in central Jerusalem, December 13, 2014. (Photo by Activestills.org)

Hundreds rally against racist group ‘Lehava’ in Jerusalem

The rally comes after three members of the group were arrested as suspects in the arson attack against a mixed Jewish-Arab school. Hundreds of people protested in West Jerusalem’s Zion Square Saturday night against racism and called to outlaw Lehava, a racist, anti-misegenation group . Three of its members were charged several days ago with…

By Mairav Zonszein December 13, 2014