Kahanism

People wear Israeli flags as they take part in celebrations marking Israel's 71st Independence Day in Jerusalem, May 8, 2019. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

The sad truth behind Israeli ‘happiness’

How can a country that administers constant violence and suffers deep inequalities be ranked the fourth happiest in the world?

By Asaf Calderon April 17, 2023

Bezalel Smotrich, February 6, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The danger of treating Smotrich as an anomaly

By marking one Israeli politician as unacceptable, U.S. Jews are sidestepping the need to reckon with the wider system that enables his genocidal views.

By Edo Konrad March 9, 2023

Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir at the scene of a shooting attack in Neve Yaakov, Jerusalem, January 27, 2023. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Why Ben Gvir wants more guns on the streets

The Israeli far right sees widespread gun ownership as a means of enforcing racial supremacy — a lesson taken straight out of the American playbook.

By Nate Orbach February 1, 2023

Latest

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shakes hands with Otzma Yehudit party head Itamar Ben Gvir during a Knesset session to vote on forming the government, December 29, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Land grabs. Homophobia. Radicalized police: What to expect from Israel’s far-right government

The new coalition is set to deepen colonization on both sides of the Green Line, while expanding its tools to oppress Palestinians, leftists, and LGBTQ people.

By Natasha Roth-Rowland December 29, 2022

Head of the Otzma Yehudit party MK Itamar Ben Gvir arrives to the opening session of the 25th Knesset in Jerusalem, November 15, 2022. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Ben Gvir’s dream ministry brings Kahane’s vision one step closer

With the portfolio he’s craved, the far-right lawmaker can accelerate Israel’s colonial violence against Palestinians on both sides of the Green Line.

By Natasha Roth-Rowland November 30, 2022

Itamar Ben Gvir visits the Jewish settlement of Beit Orot near the neighborhood of At-Tur, occupied East Jerusalem, October 13, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The generals are the supremacists of the past. Ben Gvir is the supremacist of now

The Kahanist lawmaker offers a ‘democratized’ version of supremacy: taking power from the old elites and handing it to the marginalized Jewish masses.

By Orly Noy November 3, 2022

Young Orthodox Israelis wave flags during the annual Jerusalem Day Flag March outside Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City, May 15, 2021. (Keren Manor/Activestills)

The radicalizing rebellion of Israel’s Haredi youth

Once staunch anti-Zionists, Haredi parties have become ensconced in the Israeli right. Now, a generation of disenfranchised Haredi youth is defying its elders and seeking meaning in the most extreme forms of supremacism.

By Pnina Pfeuffer October 31, 2022

MK Itamar Ben Gvir, head of the Otzma Yehudit party, and activists protest in support of the deportation of asylum seekers in southern Tel Aviv, October 12, 2022. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

In the war on African asylum seekers, Ben Gvir finds a hero’s welcome

Left-wing activists confronted the Kahanist lawmaker's visit to south Tel Aviv, but his supremacism appears to be mobilizing a growing base in the city.

By Ben Reiff October 17, 2022

MK Itamar Ben Gvir seen during a plenum session in the assembly hall of the Knesset in Jerusalem, June 20, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Kahanism’s triumphant makeover

Itamar Ben Gvir, the star of Israel’s most far-right party, is thriving off of a national political discourse that allows him to accomplish what his predecessors could not: bringing Kahanism to the mainstream.

By Noam Sheizaf October 3, 2022

Rabbi Meir Kahane. (Moshe Shai/Flash90)

Is Kahane more mainstream than American Jews will admit?

A new biography explores the American roots of Meir Kahane's far-right ideology — and how the U.S. Jewish establishment embraced his beliefs.

By Hadas Binyamini December 30, 2021

Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Aryeh King, flanked by settlers and Kahanist activists, mocks Palestinian activist Muhammad Abu Hummus during a visit to the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, May 6, 2021. (Screenshot)

J’lem deputy mayor to Palestinian activist: It’s a ‘pity’ you weren’t shot in the head

Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Aryeh King openly mocks a Palestinian activist who had been previously shot. The municipality deems his remarks a 'personal matter.'

By Orly Noy May 7, 2021

Israeli security forces outside Damascus Gate, East Jerusalem, April 22, 2021. (Oren Ziv)

I write to remember the brutality of Jewish violence I saw in Jerusalem

There was the Palestinian father who tried to save his daughter from the police, the young Kahanists chanting 'death to Arabs' in the streets, the fear I felt when asked if I am a leftist. I write to remember it all.

By Orly Noy April 24, 2021

Meir Kahane addresses followers during a demonstration in Jerusalem, January 8, 1984. (Anti Harnik)

Kahanism doesn’t need a seat in the Knesset

Israelis may fear the racist Itamar Ben-Gvir could enter the Knesset next week, but the government has been carrying out his vision just fine without him.

By Orly Noy March 21, 2021