Kahanism (Hebrew:כהניזם) is areligious Zionist ideology based on the views of RabbiMeir Kahane, founder of theJewish Defense League and theKach party inIsrael. Kahane held the view that mostArabs living in Israel are theenemies of Jews and Israel itself, and believed that aJewish theocratic state, where non-Jews have no voting rights, should be created.
The Kach party has been banned by the Israeli government. In 2004, theU.S. State Department designated it aForeign Terrorist Organization. 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.
The KahanistOtzma Yehudit party won six seats in the2022 election and is a member of theIsraeli government, though it left between 21 January and 19 March 2025 because the government had agreed toa ceasefire in theGaza war during that time. The party, and the Kahanist movement as a whole, have been described as espousing Jewishfascism.
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The Kach party saw electoral success in 1984, winning 26,000 votes, equivalent to one seat.[1] 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.[2][3] In August 1985, the Kach party was barred from participating in elections.[1] Some Kahanist groups, such as theSicarii, began pursuing their political goals through violent means instead.[4] On November 5, 1990, Meir Kahane was assassinated byEl-Sayyid A. Nosair, who was associated with terror cells that eventually becameal-Qaeda.[5]
Kahane's assassination led to the splintering of the Kach party, withBinyamin Ze'ev Kahane leading Kahane Chai fromKfar Tapuach and Kach led byBaruch Marzel, who eventually became a member ofOtzma Yehudit.[6] In 1992 both groups were banned completely from participating in elections. In 1994, due to theCave of the Patriarchs massacre committed byBaruch Goldstein, they were declared illegal terrorist organizations by the Israeli government.[7][8][4] After the ban, Kahane Chai's leaders created an extraparliamentary advocacy group, "The Kahane Movement", which archived media content from Kahane online.[4]
The next election where Kahanists received political representation was in 2009, withMichael Ben-Ari, who ran on theNational Union ticket. Ben-Ari split from the National Union after the election, forming Otzma Yehudit. Otzma Yehudit failed to pass the electoral threshold in the2013 Israeli election.[9]
Kahanism gained no political legitimacy until theApril 2019 Israeli election. As a result of the2018–2022 Israeli political crisis,Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu attempted to gain seats by appealing to Kahanist voters by making a deal withthe Jewish Home party to have them run on a joint list with Otzma Yehudit as theUnion of Right-Wing Parties.[10][4] The party received enough seats for Otzma Yehudit to be represented, but Ben Ari, who was supposed to represent the fifth slot on the Union of Right-Wing Parties list, was barred from running after the list was submitted.[11] Otzma Yehudit eventually achieved parliamentary representation in2021, whenItamar Ben-Gvir won a seat as part of a joint list with theReligious Zionist Party.[12]
Otzma Yehudit won six seats in the2022 Israeli legislative election, forming what has been called the most right-wing government in Israeli history.[13] In November 2022, after a memorial event for Kahane attended by 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."[14] The party left the coalition on 21 January 2025 because the government had agreed toa ceasefire in theGaza war.[15] That ceasefire collapsed on 18 March, and the party rejoined the government the next day.[16]
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Kahanism is areligious Zionist[17] ideology that denotes the controversial positions espoused by RabbiMeir Kahane. Kahane proposed that the State of Israel should enforceJewish law (Halakha), as codified byMaimonides,[citation needed] 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.[18]
Kahanism's central claim is that the vast majority of theArabs of Israel are and will continue to be enemies of Jews and Israel itself, and that aJewish theocratic state, governed byHalakha law, absent of a voting non-Jewish population that includesIsrael,Palestine, areas of modern-dayEgypt,Jordan,Lebanon,Syria andIraq, should be created.[19]
Kahanism has been controversially been described as a form ofneo-fascism. News outlets and organizations such asHaaretz, theInstitute for Middle East Understanding, and+972 Magazine[20][21][22] have called it explicitly fascist. Kahanism's ideological tenets of violent expansionism, extreme racism, andultranationalist messaging have been cited as proof that it is a form of Jewish fascism. Israeli scholarEhud Sprinzak [he] has described Kahanism as "quasi-fascism" due to its overt racism.[23] Kahane's appeal that the "enemy is within" has been called a "classic position of fascists".[24]
Kahane denied these allegations throughout this life, instead calling his opponents "leftists" and "fascists".[25] He likened his struggle for an ethnically pure Israel to the Jewish people's struggle against fascist powers duringthe Holocaust.[26] Some doubt the label's accuracy; historian Matthew N. Lyons argues that Kahanism's religious fundamentalism could be more accurately described as "religious nationalism".[27]
Since 1985, theIsraeli government has outlawed political parties espousing Kahane's ideology asracist, and forbids their participation in the government. TheKach party was banned from running for theKnesset in 1988, while the two Kahanist movements formed after Kahane's assassination in 1990[28] were ruled illegal terrorist organizations in 1994 and the groups subsequently disbanded. Followers with militant Kahanist beliefs remain active, as listed below. In 2001, theOffice of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights called the official Kahanist website ahate site, saying it espoused prejudiced views in which "Arabs generally and Palestinians in particular are vilified".[29]
The United States added Kahane Chai to its Foreign Terrorist Organizations list in 1997.[30]
In 2004, theU.S. State Department designated Kach aForeign Terrorist Organization.[31][32] 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.[33]
The Canadian government has listed Kahane Chai (Kach) as a terrorist entity since 2005.[34]
In February 2025, Eli Schwarz, a self-confessed member of Kahane Chai, was arrested and charged with making threats at a demonstration in Toronto. Police seized clothing branded with the Kahane Chai name and crest, a soft-body armour vest, a rifle, a scope, and ammunition from his residence.[35]
| Name | Country | Description | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kach and Kahane Chai | Israel | Original political parties | Defunct |
| Jewish Defense League | Global | Militant activist organization, founded by Kahane | Active |
| Terror Against Terror | Israel | Militant group | Defunct |
| Sicarii | Israel | Militant student group founded in 1989 | Defunct |
| Lehava | Israel | Activist organization | Active |
| Jewish Task Force | US | US based Kahanist media organization | Active |
| Otzma Yehudit | Israel | Political party | Active |
| Jewish National Front | Israel | Political party | Defunct |
| Hatikva | Israel | Political party | Defunct |
| Jewish Defense Organization | US | Militant self defense organization | Defunct |
The deadliest Jewish terrorist attack occurred whenBaruch Goldstein, supporter ofKach, shot and killed 29 Muslim worshipers, and wounded another 150, at theCave of the Patriarchs massacre inHebron, in 1994. This was described as a case of Jewish religious terrorism byMark Juergensmeyer.[36] Goldstein was a medical doctor who grew up in Brooklyn and was educated at theAlbert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx. He resettled in theKiryat Arba settlement in theWest Bank, and was politically active for years. Goldstein saw Kahane as a hero,[37] and was Kahane's campaign manager when he ran for the Israeli parliament through the Kach party.[38] When Goldstein was threatened with acourt-martial for refusing to treat non-Jewish soldiers in the Israeli Defence Force, he declared: "I am not willing to treat any non-Jew. I recognize as legitimate only tworeligious authorities:Maimonides and Kahane."[39]
Goldstein was denounced "with shocked horror" byOrthodox Jews,[40] and most Israelis denounced Goldstein as insane.[41] Israeli prime ministerYitzhak Rabin condemned the attack, calling Goldstein a "degenerate murderer", "a shame onZionism and an embarrassment toJudaism".[42][43][44] At the same time, Goldstein's actions were praised by some extremist settlers; Yochay Ron said that he "felt good" when he heard the news, and also said that Jews were "at war with the Arabs" and "all Arabs who live here are a danger to us... they threaten the very existence of the Jewish community on the West Bank."[45] Goldstein and other religious settlers atBeit Hadassah (both Kahanist andGush Emunim) believe that the biblical lands on the West Bank are sacred, that Jews are required byGod to occupy them, and that the presence of Muslims desecrates theHoly Land.[46] After this attack, members of the Kach Party praised Goldstein's actions, and in the ensuing political turmoil, the Knesset banned Kach in Israel. TheShamgar Commission concluded that Goldstein acted alone.
In October 1982,Yoel Lerner, a member of Kahane's Kach, attempted to blow up theDome of the Rock in order to rebuild theTemple Mount site.[47] He was sentenced to two and a half years in prison.Mark Juergensmeyer identified him as a Jewish religious terrorist, writing that he "yearned for a Jewish society in Israel. He hoped for the restoration of the ancient temple in Jerusalem, the exclusive right of Jews to settle on the West Bank of the Jordan River, and the creation of a state based on biblical law."[47] Lerner had previously served a three-year sentence for heading a group that plotted to overthrow the government and establish a state based upon religious law.
On August 4, 2005,Eden Natan-Zada, anAWOLIsrael Defense Forces soldier, killed fourIsraeli Arab citizens and wounded several others when he opened fire on a bus in the northern Israeli town ofShfaram. Natan-Zada had recently moved to the settlement of Tapuach, site of a Kahanist yeshiva.[48] He was handcuffed by Israeli police, then lynched by a mob.
Roadside shootings, stabbings and grenade attacks against Palestinians have been carried out inJerusalem and theWest Bank by individuals or groups suspected of having ties to the former Kach group. Aliases such as "The Committee for the Safety of the Roads",[49] "The Sword of David" and "The Repression of Traitors" have been used. The US government claims that these are all aliases of "Kach".[50] In 2002, a Kahanist group known as "Revenge of the Toddlers" claimed responsibility for a bombing attack at Tzur Baher, anEast Jerusalem secondary school for Arab boys, that wounded seven. The group also claimed responsibility for the 2003 bombing of a Palestinian school inJaba that injured 20 and was also thought to be linked to the 2002 Zil Elementary school bombing.[51][52]
James David Manning, chief pastor ofATLAH World Missionary Church, has endorsed aspects of Kahane's ideology.[53]
In 1985, The New York Times described Kahane as the most talked about politician in Israel. At one point that year, polls showed his party winning up to 12 seats if new elections were held.
All Arabs who are prepared to accept the State of Israel as the exclusive state of the Jewish people and of no one else, will be allowed to remain in the land with the status of 'resident stranger,' as per Jewish laws. They will be granted personal rights but no national ones. They will have general economic, social, cultural, andreligious freedom but will not be citizens of the Jewish State and will have nothing to say in its future in any way. Accepting this status, they are welcome to remain and are entitled to all the respect and decency thatJudaism demands we grant to all humans who are resident strangers in our land and who bow to its laws and concepts.
