Kahane Hai ("Kahane Lives," in Hebrew)

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KAHANE HAI ("Kahane lives," in Hebrew)

Israeli extremist splinter group, formed in 1991, after a split in the Kach Party, following the assassination of its leader, Meir Kahane. The latter's son, Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane, left Kach to found Kahane Hai, which advocated the instauration of a religious state based

on observance of the Torah. In March 1994, following the slaughter of Muslim worshipers in Hebron by Kach supporter Dr. Baruch Goldstein, this movement was banned by Israeli authorities. Members were arrested by the police, accused of being responsible for the death of a number of Arabs. Subsequent to the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin on 4 November 1995, members demonstrated publicly in approbation of this act. In October 2000, when the Israeli government was at the point of signing new accords with the Palestinians, Kahane Hai and Kach decided to merge in order to oppose them. On the following 31 December, Ze'ev Kahane and his wife were killed in a Palestinian attack on the Jewish settlement of Ofra.


SEE ALSO Kach Party;Torah.

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