Israel’s High Court of Justice has rejected the appeals of two extremist political factions against the Central Elections Committee’s decision banning them from the June 23 Knesset elections.
The appeals were filed by the rival Kach and Kahane Chai parties, both self-proclaimed heirs of the original Kach party founded by the late Rabbi Meir Kahane.
In ruling against their appeals, a five-justice panel of the High Court said Tuesday it is convinced that the platforms offered by both movements, and their actual behavior, conflict with the law banning incitement to racism.
Kahane’s Kach party was elected to the Knesset in 1984 on a platform calling for the expulsion of all Arabs from Israel and the administered territories.
It was barred from re-election in 1988 because of its racist polemics. Kahane was killed in New York in November 1990.
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