Likud MK Nissim Vaturi stated at the Knesset plenum on Wednesday that "Kahane was right" and that his party was wrong to "ostracize him."
“I think Kahane was right - about many things. Absolutely not, he was not a terrorist,” Vaturi said, referring to far-Right nationalist Meir Kahane, who was convicted of terrorist activity in both Israel and the United States.
During a Knesset debate on a bill to approve tax benefits for communities in the West Bank and the Gaza border area, MK Yorai Lahav Hertzanu (Yesh Atid) slammed Likud's policies.
“From a proud liberal nationalist movement, you’ve turned into a pathetic branch of Kahane Chai,” Hertzanu stated.
Vaturi sharply criticized Hertzanu and praised far Right nationalist Meir Kahane, who was convicted of terrorist activity in both Israel and the United States.
Likud MK says Kahane modern-day 'saint'
“Believe me, today he would be considered a saint and would receive the Israel Prize. We’re not afraid, and you can shout as much as you want,” he said.
MK Gilad Kariv (Democrats) strongly condemned Vaturi’s remarks, pointedly commenting on what he called his “remarkable honesty.”
“We thank MK Vaturi for letting the cat out of the bag and for his remarkable honesty,” Kariv said.
“Under Netanyahu’s leadership, Likud has become a Kahanist, nationalist, and anti-democratic party. It’s good that the Israeli public is receiving firsthand evidence of the ruling party’s loss of direction and its dramatic departure from the founding values of the State of Israel and from the values of the majority of the public,” he said.
Rabbi Meir Kahane was born in 1932 in Brooklyn, New York, to an Orthodox Jewish family. He was ordained as a rabbi and became a controversial public activist in the United States. In 1968, he founded the Jewish Defense League (JDL), which sought to combat antisemitism and protect Jewish communities but faced widespread criticism for its use of violence and extremist rhetoric.
In 1971, Kahane immigrated to Israel and established the Kach terrorist organization, which promoted a far-right nationalist agenda and the separation of Jews and Arabs. He was elected to the Knesset in 1984, but his faction was later banned from future elections on the grounds of racism.
Kahane was assassinated in 1990 in New York by an Egyptian-American gunman.