Police today blocked Rabbi Meir Kahane and a band of his Kach Party followers from entering the Arab village of Taibe in central Israel.
They acted in compliance with a motion adopted by the Knesset yesterday limiting the Kach leader’s parliamentary immunity to prevent him from visiting Arab villages where his presence would be provocative and likely to cause public disorder.
Kahane, who had vowed to defy the ban, was halted at a police road-block seven miles from Taibe. He did not argue with the police, and returned to his car and drove away. A busload of his cohorts, following his car, was stopped at Kfar Saba, some distance southwest of Taibe. Police found the vehicle’s lights were not working properly and ordered the driver to return to Tel Aviv.
Kahane, who was elected to the Knesset last July on a platform calling for the expulsion of all Arabs from Israel and the occupied territories, stated that his purpose in visiting Taibe and other Arab villages was to exhort the residents to emigrate from Israel, and persuade Jewish women married to Arabs to desert their husbands.
His attempt to enter the Arab village of Umm el-Fahm over a month ago was blocked by police although at that time he had full parliamentary immunity which allowed him complete freedom of movement.
MANY MKS VOTE AGAINST THE MOTION
The Knesset voted 58-36 by secret ballot yesterday in favor of the limiting motion which was sent to the plenum with a strong positive recommendation from the Knesset’s House Committee after eight public hearings on the issue. Political observers expressed surprise today at the relatively large number of MKs who voted against the motion.
Committee chairman Micha Reiser, of Likud’s Herut bloc, declared before the voting that “no political movement from Tehiya (far right ) to Rakah (Communist) has concealed its disgust at Kahane.” Nevertheless, more than 26 percent of the ballots cast opposed any infringement on his immunity.
The secret ballot, which Knesset rules require in cases involving a member’s immunity, allowed MKs to vote their conscience rather than along party lines.
The Labor Party had urged all of its members to support the motion, and the various left-of-center factions are believed to have backed it unanimously. But many Likud and Tehiya MKs and some from the religious parties apparently opposed it.
CONCERN OVER DANGEROUS PRECEDENT
Observers noted that during the House Committee hearings some Laborites appeared uncomfortable with the motion, not out of support for Kahane but because it would set a dangerous precedent with respect to Knesset immunity.
The two religious parties in the unity coalition — the National Religious Party and Shas — which hold eight Knesset mandates between them — were absent during the vote.
Kahane was openly backed by three Likud-Herut MKs–Uzi Landau, Gideon Gadot and Meir Cohen Avidov — who denounced the motion from the rostrum. Kahane himself, exercising his right to speak in the debate, fulminated against the House Committee and announced he would defy the restrictions and go where he pleased.
The Knesset action means that the police can treat Kahane as they would any other potential trouble-maker and may curtail his freedom of movement if they believe it is in the public interest to do so. Kahane’s other rights of immunity, including freedom from prosecution, remain intact.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
