The Jewish Agency is expected to appeal a Jerusalem magistrate’s ruling yesterday that Binyanei Haooma, Jerusalem’s convention center, cannot deny Rabbi Meir Kahane’s extremist Kach Party the right to hold its convention there next week after agreeing to rent the premises to Kach.
Zionist leaders who learned of the rental agreement after the fact were outraged. Leon Dulzin, chairman of the Jewish Agency and World Zionist Organization Executives, declared that the Zionist movement would not serve as the platform for an “anti-Zionist, anti-democratic body” such as Kach. The WZO Executive subsequently adopted a resolution to cancel the rental agreement. The Binyanei Haooma is owned by the Jewish Agency.
Kach appealed to the courts, and the chief magistrate, Judge Aharon Simha, found in its favor. He said the political views espoused by Kahane’s party had no bearing on its legitimate right to rent public premises.
Akiva Levinsky, Jewish Agency treasurer, said today that he hoped the Agency’s legal advisors would know how to handle the matter. An appeal to a higher court to overrule Judge Simha is the most likely step.
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