Noam Federman has been sitting in jail for the last two months with no charges against him. This comes about after he has been under house arrest for over a year. His health is deteriorating, as he has been on a hunger strike for over 40 days. Right-wing public figures and rabbis have started starting to speak out against Noam's administrative detention and shocking prison conditions. He is being held in one of Israel?s most protected high security prisons, in solitary confinement in a very small, dark cell with no widows, a mattress on the floor and a hole in the corner to be used instead of a toilet.
This is not the first time that Noam has been arrested. He has stood trail in Israel tens of times and has been found innocent over thirty times.
The truth of the matter is that over the last 20 years, Rabbi Meir Kahane and his followers have been fair game for hunting, and the season is all-year-round. Rabbi Kahane himself sat for eight months on an administrative detention charge, enduring non-stop harassment from the Israeli authorities. He was forced out of the Knesset by a list of laws that were especially passed to ban his party. The media and government school system smeared his name and twisted his motives, inciting to murder him on a daily basis.
After Rabbi Kahane was assassinated by an international Muslim terrorist cell, the Kach and Kahane Chai movements were declared illegal terrorist organizations, despite the fact that no terrorist activity was ever proven or even associated with them. Offices were closed, members were held in administrative detention, supporters were banned from entering the country. Activists like me have been arrested and stood trial for making political statements. Homes like my own have been broken into with search warrants before the eyes of my little children so the police can find "seditious material". Youth have been arrested and convicted for the "crime" of wearing T-shirts with Rabbi Kahane's picture. And the list goes on?.
For the twenty years this has been going on, the "national camp" has at best stood by quietly, and at worst, played along. Some were stupid enough to think that "Kahane" was in competition with them, and that they would somehow do better at the polls if Kahane was not there. Others felt that "Kahane" stains the image of the right. Through "divide and conquer", the Left succeeded in isolating Kahane from the consensus. As a result, the political Right and national-religious movement cut off the branch that they were sitting on, since "Kahanism" is nothing more than authentic Judaism and Zionism ? the very ideals these groups stand for (albeit in more diluted doses).
What change has come upon the leaders of the national camp? Why have they come out of their closet to speak out for a Kahanist oppressed by the Israeli government?
Clearly, they are beginning to feel the heat. With the government closing down their Arutz Sheva flagship; with the threat of imprisonment hanging over their heads, as the Left increases its demands to bring more and more rabbis and right-wing figures to "justice" for their "racist" teachings, they are starting to realize that if "Kahanism" is "racist" and "terror", then they, as religious Zionists, are in the same boat. And so, it follows that if "Kahanists" are fair game to sit in jail for their Jewish beliefs, so are their rabbis vulnerable; if Kahane can be banned from the Knesset, so can Manhigut Yehudit; if the Kahanists? mouths can be closed, so can theirs.
This reminds me of a poem written by pastor Martin Niemoeller, one of the most respected Protestant leaders in Germany:
First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out ?
because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out ?
because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out ?
because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out ?
because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me ?
and there was no one left to speak out for me.
We hope that they haven't come out too late.
This is not the first time that Noam has been arrested. He has stood trail in Israel tens of times and has been found innocent over thirty times.
The truth of the matter is that over the last 20 years, Rabbi Meir Kahane and his followers have been fair game for hunting, and the season is all-year-round. Rabbi Kahane himself sat for eight months on an administrative detention charge, enduring non-stop harassment from the Israeli authorities. He was forced out of the Knesset by a list of laws that were especially passed to ban his party. The media and government school system smeared his name and twisted his motives, inciting to murder him on a daily basis.
After Rabbi Kahane was assassinated by an international Muslim terrorist cell, the Kach and Kahane Chai movements were declared illegal terrorist organizations, despite the fact that no terrorist activity was ever proven or even associated with them. Offices were closed, members were held in administrative detention, supporters were banned from entering the country. Activists like me have been arrested and stood trial for making political statements. Homes like my own have been broken into with search warrants before the eyes of my little children so the police can find "seditious material". Youth have been arrested and convicted for the "crime" of wearing T-shirts with Rabbi Kahane's picture. And the list goes on?.
For the twenty years this has been going on, the "national camp" has at best stood by quietly, and at worst, played along. Some were stupid enough to think that "Kahane" was in competition with them, and that they would somehow do better at the polls if Kahane was not there. Others felt that "Kahane" stains the image of the right. Through "divide and conquer", the Left succeeded in isolating Kahane from the consensus. As a result, the political Right and national-religious movement cut off the branch that they were sitting on, since "Kahanism" is nothing more than authentic Judaism and Zionism ? the very ideals these groups stand for (albeit in more diluted doses).
What change has come upon the leaders of the national camp? Why have they come out of their closet to speak out for a Kahanist oppressed by the Israeli government?
Clearly, they are beginning to feel the heat. With the government closing down their Arutz Sheva flagship; with the threat of imprisonment hanging over their heads, as the Left increases its demands to bring more and more rabbis and right-wing figures to "justice" for their "racist" teachings, they are starting to realize that if "Kahanism" is "racist" and "terror", then they, as religious Zionists, are in the same boat. And so, it follows that if "Kahanists" are fair game to sit in jail for their Jewish beliefs, so are their rabbis vulnerable; if Kahane can be banned from the Knesset, so can Manhigut Yehudit; if the Kahanists? mouths can be closed, so can theirs.
This reminds me of a poem written by pastor Martin Niemoeller, one of the most respected Protestant leaders in Germany:
First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out ?
because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out ?
because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out ?
because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out ?
because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me ?
and there was no one left to speak out for me.
We hope that they haven't come out too late.