Kahanism

**Kahanism** () is a religious Zionist ideology based on the views of Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the Jewish Defence League and Kach and Kahane Chai. Kahane argued most Palestinians, especially Arabs of Israeli citizenship are enemies of Jews and Israel itself, and believed that a Jewish theocratic state, where non-Jews have no voting rights, should be created.

Kach, Kahane Chai has been banned by Israel and United States. In 2004, the U.S. State Department designated it a FTO. 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 entity.

Today, Kahanism has influenced the modern Israeli government and the opposition perhaps.

## History

Kach saw electoral success in 1984, winning 26,000 votes, equivalent to one seat. Early polls after the election predicted that the Kach party would become the third-largest party, winning as many as 12 seats in the next election. In August 1985, Kach was barred from participating in elections. Some Kahanist groups, such as the Sicarii began pursuing their political goals through violent means instead. On November 5, 1990, Kahane was assassinated by El-Sayyid A. Nosair, who was associated with precursor cells to Al-Qaeda.

In particular, after Kahane's assassination, senior activists such as his right hand man, Baruch Marzel and his eldest son, Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane used to Kach and Kahane Chai.

In 1992 both groups were banned completely from participating in elections. In 1994, due to the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre committed by fellow Kach activist Baruch Carl Goldstein, they were declared illegal terrorist organizations by the Israeli government.

Since the ban, Kahane Chai's leaders created an extra-parliamentary advocacy group, "The Kahane Movement", which archived media content from Kahane online.

Goldstein, de facto chief of Kach, passed on his mantle to his circle who shares personality traits, religion, ethnicity, race, culture and inheritance as him, such as Baruch Marzel/Mike Guzovsky, who used to lead the movement until 2003, when Baruch Marzel once ran for Kleiner's Herut List and founded the Jewish National Front (JNF) party in 2004.

The former chairmen of Kach and Kahane Chai party, Baruch Marzel/Ben-Yaakov shares the same credentials with their Brooklyn-bred friends, Shmuel Sackett and Moshe Feiglin, who co-founded Manhigut Yehudit party, who own real estate at Karnei Shomron, a Jewish settlement in the West Bank.

Another election where Kahanists received political representation was in 2009, when Kahanist activist, Michael Ben-Ari, a fellow Jewish settler at Karnei Shomron, ran on the National Union's ticket.

Later on, Ben-Ari (of Chayil) and Aryeh Eldad (of HaTikva) left the Eretz Yisrael Shelanu party and founded _“Otzma Yehudit”_.

This conservative party, “Jewish Power” failed to pass the electoral threshold since 2013.

Kahanism gained no political legitimacy until the April 2019 Israeli election.

As a result of the 2018–2022 Israeli political crisis, Prime Minister Ben Netanyahu and his office sought to evade or bypass his trials for corruption, arrest warrant and wasting right-wing votes, so they brokered a deal between Otzma Yehudit, Jewish Home and Tkuma.

The party received enough seats for Otzma Yehudit to be represented, though Marzel, Ben Ari, supposed to represent the fifth slot on the Union of Right-Wing Parties list was barred from running after the list was submitted.

Otzma Yehudit eventually achieved parliamentary representation in 2021, when Itamar Ben-Gvir, chairman of the Otzma Yehudit party won a seat as part of a joint list with the RZP.

The “Religious Zionist Bloc”, composed of Otzma Yehudit, Religious Zionist Party and Noam each won six, seven and one seat respectively, winning a total of fourteen seats in the Knesset, forming the "most right-wing government in Israel’s history", which includes Benjamin Netanyahu as Prime Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir (of Otzma Yehudit) as Security Minister, Betzalel Smotrich (of RZP) as Finance Minister, Ofir Sofer (of RZP) as Immigration Minister, and Amichai Eliyahu (of Otzma Yehudit) as Heritage minister. In November 2022, after a memorial event for Kahane attended by the Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, the U.S. State Department hosted a press briefing, saying, "Celebrating the legacy of a terrorist organization is abhorrent. There is no other word for it. It is abhorrent." Otzma Yehudit, Religious Zionist Party (RZP) and Noam left the Government temporarily on 21 January 2025 because the government had agreed to a ceasefire during the Gaza-based war. That ceasefire collapsed on 18 March, and the party rejoined the government the next day.

## Ideology

_Kahanism_ is a form of revisionist Zionism incorporating Hasidic and Haredi elements that denotes the controversial positions espoused by the Kahane family. Kahane proposed that Israel should enforce Jewish rabbinical law, as codified by Maimonides, under which non-Jews who wish to dwell in Israel would have three options: remain as "resident strangers" with all rights but national ones, which would require non-Jews to accept resident-stranger status with all rights but political ones. Those unwilling to accept such a status will be required to leave the country with full compensation and those who refuse to do even that will be forcibly removed.

Kahanism's central claim is that the vast majority of Arabs in modern-day Israel and the Palestinian Territories, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt are and will continue to be enemies of Jews, or Zionism itself, and that they must be exiled or stripped off their rights, in order to pave way for a "homogenous" Jewish state.

### Allegations of fascism

Kahanism has been controversially been described as a form of neo-fascism. News outlets and organizations such as _Haaretz_, the Institute for Middle East Understanding, and _+972 Magazine_ have called it explicitly fascist. Kahanism's ideological tenets of violent expansionism, extreme racism, and ultranationalist messaging have been cited as proof that it is a form of Jewish fascism. Israeli scholar  has described Kahanism as "quasi-fascism" due to its overt racism. Kahane's appeal that the "enemy is within" has been called a "classic position of fascists".

Kahane denied these allegations throughout this life, instead calling his opponents "leftists" and "fascists". He likened his struggle for an ethnically pure Israel to the Jewish people's struggle against fascist powers during the Holocaust. Some doubt the label's accuracy; historian Matthew N. Lyons argues that Kahanism's religious fundamentalism could be more accurately described as "religious nationalism".

## Criticism and legal action

Since 1985, the Israeli government has outlawed Kahanist parties as racist, and forbids their participation in the government. Kach was banned from running for the Knesset in 1988, while the two Kahanist movements formed after Kahane's assassination in 1990 were ruled illegal terrorist organizations in 1994 and the groups subsequently disbanded. Followers with militant Kahanist beliefs remain active, as listed below. In 2001, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights called the official Kahanist website a hate site, saying it espoused prejudiced views in which "Arabs generally and Palestinians, in particular, are vilified".

### U.S. designation

The United States added Kahane Chai, a Kach splinter to its Foreign Terrorist Organizations list in 1997.

In 2004, the U.S. State Department designated Kach a Foreign Terrorist Organization. In 2022, it was removed from the U.S. terror blacklist due to "insufficient evidence" of the group's ongoing activity in the most recent five-yearly review, but it remains a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) entity.

### Canadian designation

The Canadian government has listed Kach, Kahane Chai as a terror entity since 2005.

In February 2025, Eli Schwarz, a self-confessed member of Kach and Kahane Chai, was arrested and charged with making threats at a demonstration in Toronto. Police seized clothing branded with the Kach, Kahane Chai name and crest, a soft-body armour vest, a rifle, a scope, and ammunition from his residence.

## List of Kahanist groups

|Name|Country|Description|Status|
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|Kach and Kahane Chai|Israel|Original political parties||
|Jewish Defense League|Global|Militant activist organization, founded by Kahane||
|Terror Against Terror|Israel|Militant group||
|Sicarii|Israel|Militant student group founded in 1989||
|Lehava|Israel|Activist organization||
|Jewish Task Force|US|US based Kahanist media organization||
|Otzma Yehudit|Israel|Political party||
|Jewish National Front and Hatikvah (political party)|Israel|Political parties||
|Jewish Defense Organization|US|Militant self defense organization||

## Non-Jewish support

James David Manning, Pastor of ATLAH World Missionary Church has endorsed aspects of Kahanism.