Far-right politics in Israel
Far-right politics in Israel encompasses ideologies such as ultranationalism, Jewish supremacy, Jewish fascism, Jewish fundamentalism, anti-Arabism, and ideological movements such as neo-Zionism and Kahanism. In the 2020s, the term "far-right" has been mainly used to describe advocates of policies such as the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, opposition to Palestinian statehood, and imposition of Israeli sovereignty over the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem.
Mandatory Palestine (1920–1948)
Revisionist Zionism
's ideological and cultural roots were influenced by Italian fascism. Ze'ev Jabotinsky, the founder of Revisionist Zionism, believed that Britain could no longer be trusted to advance Zionism, and that Fascist Italy, as a growing political challenger to Britain, was therefore an ally.Betar (founded 1925)
was a secular Zionist and an extremist nationalist. He was exiled from the British Mandate for supporting armed struggle against the British.In 1923, Jabotinsky established the Revisionist Zionist youth movement Betar at a meeting in Riga, Latvia. 2 years later in 1925, the Revisionist "Hatzohar" Party was established, as a movement that existed separate from the main Zionist movement, the World Zionist Organization. The term "revisionist" referred to a revision of the World Zionist Organization's policies at the time. The Irgun, a Revisionist Zionist paramilitary organization, established by Avraham Tehomi in 1931, opposed British rule over Palestine, and was engaged in acts of terrorism against British officers and Arabs, in an attempt to expel them from the land and achieve Jewish sovereignty. The Irgun joined forces with Betar and Hatzohar in 1937.
Revisionist Maximalism
was a short-lived right-wing militant political ideology that was a part of the Brit HaBirionim faction of the Zionist Revisionist Movement created by Abba Ahimeir. Ahimeir was born in Russia in 1897 and migrated to Palestine at the age of fifteen. In 1928 Ahimeir joined Jabotinsky's Revisionist movement and became one of the movement's important activists.In 1930, Brit HaBirionim under Ahimeir's leadership publicly declared their desire to form a fascist state. The Revisionist Maximalist movement borrowed principles from totalitarianism and fascism and it also drew inspiration from Józef Piłsudski's Poland and Benito Mussolini's Italy. Revisionist Maximalists strongly supported the Italian fascist regime of Benito Mussolini and wanted the creation of a Jewish state based on fascist principles.
The goal of the Maximalists was to "extract Revisionism from its liberal entrapment", because they wanted Ze'ev Jabotinsky's status to be elevated to the status of a dictator, and desired to forcibly assimilate the population of Palestine into Hebrew society. The Maximalists believed that authoritarianism and national solidarity was necessary to have the public collaborate with the government, and to create total unity in Palestine.
Irgun (1931–1949)
The White Paper of 1939
The White Paper's publication also intensified the conflict between the Zionist militias and the British Army; a Jewish general strike was called, attacks were launched against Arabs and British police, telephone services and power lines were sabotaged, and violent speeches of protest were held for several months. A week after the publication of the White Paper of 1939, the Irgun planted an explosive device in the Rex cinema in Jerusalem, injuring 18 people, including 13 Arabs and 3 British police officers. On that same day, 25 Irgun members attacked the Arab village Biyar 'Adas, forced their way into 2 houses, and shot 5 Arab civilians to death.Lehi (founded 1940)
The Lehi, also known as the Stern Gang, was a Revisionist Zionist militant group, founded by Avraham Stern in Mandatory Palestine in 1940. The group split from the Irgun, and sought a similar alliance with Fascist Italy. Lehi also believed that Nazi Germany was less of an enemy of the Jews than Britain was, and attempted to form an alliance with the Nazis, proposing a Jewish state based on "nationalist and totalitarian principles, and linked to the German Reich by an alliance". Avraham Stern, then commander of the Lehi, objected to the White Paper of 1939, British plans to restrict Jewish immigration and Jewish land purchase in Palestine, and proposed the creation of a binational Jewish-Arab Palestine. calling for an armed struggle against the British instead.History in Israel
1948-1967
Far right activity in the early years of the State of Israel was partly inspired by the legacy of the British mandate. In 1948, Irgun and Lehi refused to disband and challenged the authority of the Israeli government under David Ben-Gurion. In 1951, a failed attempt to blow up the Knesset was made by an extreme Jewish organization that advocated Halakha-based state.After the 1967 Six-Day War
In the aftermath of the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel captured the Golan Heights, the West Bank, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip. This victory resulted in the revival of "territorial maximalism", with aspirations to annex and settle these new territories. leading some Israeli political leaders to argue for the redefinition of the country's borders in accordance with the vision of Greater Israel. The Movement for Greater Israel, which emerged about a month after the Six-Day War ended, advocated for the control over all of the territories captured during the war, including the Sinai Peninsula, West Bank, and Golan Heights. The members of the movement demanded immediate imposition of Israeli sovereignty over the territories. The supporters of the movement were united by a territorial maximalist ideology. During the summer of 1967, far-right nationalists began to establish settlements in the occupied West Bank to establish a Jewish presence on the land. Menachem Begin's agreement to return the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt, as well as his initiation of the Autonomy Plan, caused parts of the political right to radicalise and adopt far-right political ideologies.Kach party (1971–1994)
The Kach party, founded by Meir Kahane in 1971, was a far-right Orthodox Jewish, Religious Zionist political party in Israel. The party's ideology, known as Kahanism, advocated the transfer of the Arab population from Israel, and the creation of a Jewish theocratic state, in which only Jews have voting rights. Kach additionally argued that Israel should annex the 1967 Israeli-occupied territories because of their religious significance. The party's motto, "Rak Kach", was derived from the motto of the Irgun, a Zionist militant organization active in the 1940s. In the 1973 Israeli legislative election, Kach won 0.81% of the total votes, falling short to pass the electoral threshold, which was 1% at the time. In the next elections in 1977, Kach failed once again to win enough votes for parliamentary presence. Kach earned a single seat in the Knesset in the 1984 Israeli legislative election.Shortly after Meir Kahane was sworn in as a member of the Knesset, he made his first media-oriented provocation by announcing his plan to open an emigration office in the Arab village of Umm al-Fahm. He stated that his plan was to offer residents of the village financial incentives to leave their homes and the country. The town declared a general strike shortly after, and roughly 30,000 people, including liberal Jews, arrived at Umm-al-Fahm to prevent Kahane from entering the town. The Israel Police initially decided to accompany Kahane with 1000 police officers as he marched, but later decided to cancel Kahane's march altogether, in concern of negative consequences.
Kach activists frequently entered Arab localities in Israel, distributing propaganda leaflets in demonstrations, provocatively raising the Israeli flag, making Arabs sign the Israeli Declaration of Independence, threatening them against moving to majority-Jewish towns, and convincing Arabs to leave the country. Some of Meir Kahane's legislative initiatives were mostly related to the "Arab problem" in Israel, intending to separate Jews and Arabs in public swimming pools, banning romantic relations between Jews and Arabs, and revoking the citizenship of Arabs in Israel. In his book, "They Must Go", Kahane wrote: "There is only one path for us to take: the immediate transfer of Arabs from Eretz Yisrael. For Arabs and Jews in Eretz Yisrael there is only one answer: separation, Jews in their land, Arabs in theirs. Separation. Only separation."
One bill which he proposed required the imposition of a mandatory death penalty on any non-Jew who either harmed or attempted to harm a Jew, as well as the automatic deportation of the perpetrator's family and the perpetrator's neighbors from Israel and the West Bank. The Supreme of Israel struck down his initiatives, on the grounds that there was no precedent and provision for them in the Basic Laws of Israel. To limit the potential influence of anti-democratic parties such as Kach, the Knesset, in 1985, proposed a new amendment to exclude parties that negate the democratic character of Israel. Kach was later barred from the 1988 elections, and its appeal was denied by the Supreme Court. 1994, following Baruch Goldstein's massacre of 29 Palestinians at the Cave of the Patriarchs, Israel designated Kach, for which Goldstein previously stood as a Knesset Candidate, as a terror organization.