Rabbi Meir Kahane (z"l)
Rabbi Meir Kahane (z"l)Israel news photo

National Union Knesset Member Dr. Ben-Ari is urging Israeli mayors and regional council leaders memorialize Rabbi Meir Kahane on November 15, the Hebrew date when he was murdered in New York 19 years ago.

Rabbi Kahane, the New York-born founder of the now illegal Kach movement, was murdered by an Egyptian-born American in New York in 1990 after a speech in which he warned American Jews to move to Israel before it was “too late” to escape a second Holocaust.”

Kach movement's symbol

He founded the Jewish Defense League (JDL) in New York, which attracted Jews to fight anti-Semitic attacks, and he was the founder of the Kach movement. He was elected to the Knesset after making Aliyah [moving to Israel], but the legislature banned the party from the legislature in 1988 and outlawed it six years later.

MK Ben-Ari reminded Israel leaders that the JDL encouraged Jews to stand up for their rights and defeat anti-Semitism. Rabbi Kahane also was active in the struggle to open the gates for ‘Refuseniks,” Jews in the former Soviet Union, during the era of prohibitions to observe Jewish laws and leave the country for Israel.

“The State of Israel memorializes political leaders from a wide spectrum” and should include Rabbi Kahane, who “acted for the good of the people and the country,” MK Ben-Ari stated.

The Kach party fought for a Jewish presence in all of Judea, Samaria and Gaza and promoted a clear and strong stand against Arab enemies.

MK Ben-Ari charged that the Knesset's move to outlaw Kach was unprecedented and anti-democratic. The government has taken no similar action against Arab parties, some of which publicly promote ties with Syria and Lebanon, declared enemies of the State.

Rabbi Kahane warned that Israel faces becoming a state with a Jewish minority. "The question is as follows: if the Arabs settle among us and make enough children to become a majority, will Israel continue to be a Jewish state? Do we have to accept that the Arab majority will decide?" he wrote.