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PAGE 12
PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, AUGUST 3, 1984
The Kach movement, under pressure from several Israeli organizations and
prominent individuals, was at first banned by the General Elections Commit
tee on the grounds that it was racist.
Israel's Supreme Court, however,
overturned the disqualification, putting Kahane's party on the ballot.
During the election campaign, Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek, among others,
complained
about
Kahane's political campaign approach
on television.
Kahane's television clip featured headlines of Jews he alleged were mur
dered by Arabs, drops of blood dripping onto
a
tiled floor, and
a
cross
armed Meir Kahane, speaking against the backdrop of the Temple Mount, say
ing "just let me deal with them" (the Arabs}.
Kahane's youthful supporters, incidentally, like to wear their "uniforms"
in his presence--yellow T-shirts adorned with a fist on a black Star of
David.
Vows to Drive Israel "Crazy"
After his election triumph, Kahane was carried through the Arab-populated
section of Old Jerusalem by his jubilant followers. His followers taunted
Arabs by shouting at them:
"Arabs out of the country.
What is better, a
dead dog or an Arab?"
Of his supporters' intimidating tactics,
Kahane
said, "The Arabs were frightened. That was the purpose."
The next day Kahane told a news conference that he planned to act in defi
ance of the laws of the state.
"I want to do things that today are opposed
to the law as the police see it. That is, if there is a law from the Torah
and it is opposed to the laws of the state, then I say the law of the Torah
is above and beyond the law of the state."
Significantly, from now on,
Kahane will be protected from prosecution by
parliamentary immunity once he takes his seat in Parliament.
At the revered Western
(Wailing) Wall,
Kahane also declared that "in my
first speech
[in Parliament] I am going to raise the issue of throwing out
the Arabs so that it will become on the next day a national debate." Every
newspaper in the world, he said, "will have to report that a melee broke out
in the Knesset when I presented
a
bill to move the Arabs out of here."
The super-confident Kahane further predicted: "After the next election, we
will have 10 seats and� will drive this country crazy. We will make this
country Jewish again."
In the July 29 issue of the LOS ANGELES TIMES, Norman Kempster, TIMES staff
writer in Jerusalem, revealed more about the Kahane phenomenon and what it
could portend for Israel:
Firebrand Rabbi Meir Kahane said Saturday that as soon as he ob
tains parliamentary immunity from arrest, he will go to Jerusa
lem's Temple Mount to restore a Jewish religious presence there
and evict the Muslim shrines that have stood for more than 1000
years.
"I want the Arabs off that mountain--let them find someplace
eise;n-Kahane told several hundred people'-; - most orthem enthusi
astic supporters, at a Jerusalem rally.
"As � as ! � immu-