Editing Meir Kahane (section)

==Emigration to Israel==
{{Main|Kach (political party)}}
[[File:Leader of the Kach right wing movement Meir Kahane speaking before his followers in his office in Tel Aviv (FL63435862).jpg|thumb|right|Kahane addressing his followers at the Tel Aviv offices of the [[Kach (political party)|Kach]] Israeli political party he established, 1984]]

In September 1971, Kahane [[aliyah|moved to Israel]]. At the time, he declared that he would focus on [[Jewish education]].<ref>{{cite book| first= Ehud| last= Sprinzak |year= 1999| title= Brother against Brother| publisher= The Free Press| page= 189| isbn= | url= }}</ref> He later began gathering lists of Palestinian citizens of the State of Israel who were willing to emigrate for compensation, and eventually, he initiated protests that advocated the expulsion of Palestinian citizens of Israel, and Palestinians of the [[Israeli-occupied territories]]. In 1972, Jewish Defense League leaflets were distributed in [[Hebron]], calling for the mayor to stand trial for the [[1929 Hebron massacre]].<ref>{{cite web| title= The Kach Movement – Background| url= http://www.mfa.gov.il| website= mfa.gov.il| publisher= Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20090117094828/http://mfa.gov.il/ |archivedate=January 17, 2009| date= March 3, 1994| access-date= }}</ref> Kahane was arrested dozens of times by Israeli law enforcement.<ref>{{cite AV media| work= [[60 Minutes]]| title= Meir Kahane| publisher= CBS}}</ref> In 1971, he founded [[Kach and Kahane Chai|Kach]], a political party that ran for the [[Knesset]], the Israeli Parliament, during the [[1973 Israeli legislative election|1973 general elections]] under the name "The League List". It won 12,811 votes (0.82%), just 2,857 (0.18%) short of the [[electoral threshold]] at the time (1%) for winning a Knesset seat. The party was even less successful in the [[1977 Israeli legislative election|1977 elections]], winning only 4,836 votes.

In 1980, Kahane was arrested for the 62nd time since his emigration, and he was jailed for six months after a detention order that was based on allegations of him planning armed attacks against [[Palestinians]] in response to the killings of Jewish settlers.<ref>{{cite news| url= https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=KnwxAAAAIBAJ&sjid=baQFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3057,1747482&dq=kahane+arrested&hl=en| title= Israelis arrest rabbi on terrorism charges| work= [[Montreal Gazette]]| date= May 15, 1980| via= Google News| access-date= | archive-date= March 9, 2021| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210309012037/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=KnwxAAAAIBAJ&sjid=baQFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3057,1747482&dq=kahane+arrested&hl=en| url-status= live}}</ref> Kahane was held in prison in [[Ramla]], where he wrote the book ''They Must Go''. Kahane was banned from entering the UK in 1981.<ref>{{cite news| url= https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1314&dat=19811023&id=plROAAAAIBAJ&pg=1701,3233841&hl=en| title= Britain Bars Meir Kahane| agency= Associated Press| work= The Spokesman-Review| via= Google News| date= October 23, 1981| access-date= November 4, 2021| archive-date= March 27, 2022| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220327092404/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1314&dat=19811023&id=plROAAAAIBAJ&pg=1701,3233841&hl=en| url-status= live}}</ref>

In 1981, Kahane's party again ran for the Knesset during the [[1981 Israeli legislative election|1981 elections]], but it did not win a seat and received only 5,128 votes. In 1984, the [[Israeli Central Elections Committee]] banned him from being a candidate on the grounds that Kach was a racist party, but the [[Supreme Court of Israel]] overturned the ban on the grounds that the committee was not authorized to ban Kahane's candidacy.<ref>{{cite news| title= Israel Court Drops Ban on 2 Political Parties| work= The New York Times| date= June 29, 1984| page= 3}}</ref> The Supreme Court suggested that the Knesset pass a law excluding racist parties from future elections. The Knesset responded in 1985 by amending the "Basic Law: Knesset" to include a prohibition (paragraph 7a) against the registration of parties that explicitly or implicitly incite racism.

=== Knesset ===
[[File:Leader of the Kach right wing movement Meir Kahane speaking before his followers in his office in Tel Aviv (FL63435243).jpg|thumb|right|Kahane addressing his followers in Tel Aviv, 1984]]
[[File:Leader of the Kach right wing movement Meir Kahane speaking before his followers in his office in Tel Aviv (FL45871085).jpg|thumb|right|Kahane addressing his followers in Tel Aviv, 1984]]
[[File:The Knesset plenum held a sitting today (FL45847884).jpg|thumb|right|Kahane addressing the Knesset while he was a member of the Israeli parliament, 1985]]

In the [[1984 Israeli legislative election|1984 legislative elections]], Kahane's Kach party received 25,907 votes (1.2%), gaining one seat in the Knesset, which was taken by Kahane.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Friedman|first=Robert I.|authorlink=Robert I. Friedman|url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1986/02/13/the-sayings-of-rabbi-kahane/|title=The Sayings of Rabbi Kahane|journal=The New York Review of Books|date=February 13, 2016|volume=33|issue=2|access-date=July 29, 2022|archive-date=July 29, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220729112335/https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1986/02/13/the-sayings-of-rabbi-kahane/|url-status=live}}</ref> He refused to take the standard [[oath of office]] and insisted on adding a Biblical verse from [[Psalms]] to indicate that national laws were overruled by the [[Torah]] if they conflict. Kahane's legislative proposals focused on Jewish education, an open economy, transferring the Arab population out of the [[Land of Israel]], revoking Israeli citizenship from non-Jews, and banning [[Interfaith marriage in Judaism|Jewish-Gentile marriages]] and sexual relations.

While his popularity in Israel grew, Kahane was boycotted in the Knesset, where his speeches were often made to an empty assembly except for the duty chairman and the transcriptionist. The Knesset revoked his [[Parliamentary immunity]] to prevent his freedom of movement in areas where his inflammatory rhetoric could cause harm. Kahane's legislative proposals and motions of no-confidence against the government were ignored or rejected. Kahane often pejoratively called other Knesset members "[[Hellenistic|Hellenists]]," a reference to Jews who assimilated into [[Greek culture]] after [[Judea]]'s occupation by [[Alexander the Great]].

In 1987, Kahane opened a [[yeshiva]] ("HaRaayon HaYehudi") with funding from US supporters to teach "the Authentic Jewish Idea". Despite the boycott, his popularity grew among the Israeli public, especially for working-class [[Sephardi Jews]].<ref name="cut down">{{cite magazine | url= https://people.com/archive/after-a-career-of-preaching-hatred-for-arabs-rabbi-meir-kahane-is-cut-down-by-an-assassins-bullet-vol-34-no-20/ | title= After a Career of Preaching Hatred for Arabs, Rabbi Meir Kahane Is Cut Down by An Assassin's Bullet | date= November 19, 1990 | magazine= [[People (magazine)|People]] | first1= Bill | last1= Hewitt | first2= J. D. | last2= Podolsky | first3= Mira | last3= Avrech | volume= 34 | number= 29 | access-date= November 4, 2021 | archive-date= November 4, 2021 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20211104084657/https://people.com/archive/after-a-career-of-preaching-hatred-for-arabs-rabbi-meir-kahane-is-cut-down-by-an-assassins-bullet-vol-34-no-20/ | url-status= live }}</ref> Polls showed that Kach would have likely received anywhere from four to twelve seats in the coming November 1988 elections.<ref>{{cite web| url= http://www.washington-report.org/backissues/0799/9907081.html| via= washington-report.org| title= Jewish Defense League Unleashes Campaign of Violence in America| work= The New York Times| date= October 17, 1988| access-date= | archive-date= October 8, 2010| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20101008001518/http://www.washington-report.org/backissues/0799/9907081.html| url-status= live}}</ref><ref>Freedman, Samuel G. {{Google books |id=6iHOrDQghpcC |page=196 |title=Jew vs. Jew: the struggle for the soul of American Jewry }}</ref>

In 1985, the Knesset passed an amendment to the [[Basic Law of Israel]], barring political parties that incited to racism. The Central Elections Committee banned Kahane a second time, and he appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court. However, the Supreme Court this time ruled in favor of the committee, disqualifying Kach from running in the [[1988 Israeli legislative election|1988 legislative elections]].{{refn|Shaul Magid, ''Meir Kahane: The Public Life and Political Thought of an American Jewish Radical'' (2021). Quote: Israeli legislators took the drastic action of amending the country’s Basic Laws to bar “racist parties and candidates” from running in Israeli elections. Known as article 7a of the Basic Laws, this amendment rendered KACH illegal, and Kahane and his party were removed from the Knesset.}} Kahane was thus the first candidate in Israel to be barred from election for racism. [[Shaul Magid]] writes that "This law was clearly legislated for Kahane and KACH alone; it was never successfully invoked again."<ref>Shaul Magid, ''Meir Kahane: The Public Life and Political Thought of an American Jewish Radical'' (2021)</ref> The law was criticized as being anti-democratic by the well-known lawyer and professor [[Alan Dershowitz]].<ref>{{cite book| title= Chutzpah| first= Alan M. | last= Dershowitz |author-link=Alan Dershowitz | pages= 191–192| year=1992| publisher= Touchstone| isbn= 978-0-671-76089-2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3jjNW-_TnusC| via= Google Books}}</ref>{{non-primary source needed|date=April 2025}}

After Kahane's election to the Knesset in 1984, the United States government attempted to revoke his U.S. citizenship, an action which Kahane successfully challenged in court.<ref name= Chapter12a>{{cite web|url= http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/immigrationlaw/chapter12.html|title= Concepts of Citizenship|last1= Weissbrodt|first1= David|last2= Danielson|first2= Laura|year= 2004|website= hrlibrary.umn.edu|publisher= University of Minnesota Human Rights Library|access-date= July 28, 2019|quote= Kahane was a U.S. citizen at birth. He moved to Israel where he became active in politics and was elected to the Israeli Parliament. Kahane, aware of the fact that accepting an office under a foreign government was an expatriating act listed in INA 349 (a)(4), communicated on several occasions with the State Department that he did not intend to give up his U.S. citizenship. The State Department nonetheless claimed that Kahane committed the expatriating act by shifting his allegiance to Israel. The court rejected this argument because an actor who contemporaneously with the expatriating act declares his intent to stay a U.S. citizen automatically preserves his citizenship. ''Kahane v. Shultz'' (E.D.N.Y.1987).|archive-date= July 28, 2019|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190728090517/http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/immigrationlaw/chapter12.html|url-status= live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/653/1486/2401125/|title=Kahane v. Shultz|year=1987|via=law.justia.com|access-date=August 17, 2020|archive-date=August 2, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210802175305/https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/653/1486/2401125/|url-status=live}}</ref> However, in 1987, the Knesset passed a law declaring that a Knesset member could only be an Israeli citizen.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b57912.html#_ftnref2|title=Israel: Basic Law of 1958, The Knesset (with amendments)|website=refworld.org|publisher=United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees|access-date=August 17, 2020|quote=... added by the Amendment No. 10, passed by the Knesset on 19 May 1987 and published in Sefer Ha-Chukkim No. 1215 dated 27 May 1987.|archive-date=September 15, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230915151100/https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b57912.html#_ftnref2|url-status=live}}</ref> To remain eligible for office, Kahane renounced his United States citizenship, but after being banned from the Knesset for his politics, he again filed suit to get his U.S. citizenship reinstated based on the argument that he was compelled to relinquish it by the Knesset. The court rejected this argument, but he was permitted to continue traveling to the United States.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/immigrationlaw/chapter12.html|title= Concepts of Citizenship|last1= Weissbrodt|first1= David|last2= Danielson|first2= Laura|year= 2004|website= hrlibrary.umn.edu|publisher= University of Minnesota Human Rights Library|access-date= July 28, 2019|quote= One year later, the Israeli Parliament passed a law providing that its members could only be Israeli citizens. Kahane executed a formal oath of renunciation of his U.S. citizenship to remain eligible for a seat in the Parliament. After Kahane's party was barred, on different grounds, from running in the elections, Kahane tried to revoke his renunciation of U.S. citizenship claiming that the Israeli law compelled his act. The court ruled against Kahane, who remained expatriated, although he was permitted to visit the United States and was eventually assassinated in New York City. ''Kahane v. Secretary of State'' (D.D.C. 1988).|archive-date= July 28, 2019|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190728090517/http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/immigrationlaw/chapter12.html|url-status= live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://casetext.com/case/kahane-v-secretary-of-state |title=''Kahane v. Secretary of State'' |year=1988 |via=casetext.com |access-date=August 17, 2020 |archive-date=March 27, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220327092407/https://casetext.com/case/kahane-v-secretary-of-state |url-status=live }}</ref>