Normalising Extremism in Israel

JVL Introduction

When Kahane was elected to the Knesset in 1984, his “anti-Palestinian racism and Jewish supremacist ideology made him an outsider in the Knesset. His beliefs included expelling Palestinians and Arabs from Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories and advocating for a state dictated by Jewish law…other MKs would often boycott his Knesset speeches and ignore his proposed legislation. Kahane only served a single parliamentary term due to the Knesset passing an amendment banning parties that incite racism from running.” (from 2022 New Arab report)

However, the abhorrence for his vile views has largely disappeared in Israel and, indeed, seem pretty mainstream now and are being normalised and so legitimised more and more. As this article notes: “Racism was always a central part of the Israeli DNA. A racial state ends up being a racist state…Even though Arab citizens are used to it, since October 7 the most racist, inflammatory statements… have been allowed free rein in the media, government, Knesset, academia, workplaces, television talk shows, advertisements, stand-up comedy shows, social media and everywhere else.”

LL

This article was originally published by Ha'aretz on Sun 24 Nov 2024. Read the original here.