Rabbi Meir Kahane’s extremist Kach Party held its convention at the Binyanei Haooma last night under heavy police protection as thousands demonstrated outside against the party’s racist program.
The anti-racist rally drew such notables as Mayor Teddy Kollek of Jerusalem and Absorption Minister Yaacov Tsur. It was peaceful, but scuffles developed as some protestors tried to keep Kach members from entering the convention center. Mounted police intervened and 17 demonstrators were arrested. About 300 Kach activists heard Kahane and other speakers expound their views.
There was anger, meanwhile, in the Knesset where Labor MKs tried unsuccessfully to speed action on an anti-racism bill that would bar from parliament any political faction advocating racist acts. Laborites wanted the anti-racist legislation adopted yesterday, before the Kach convention. The bill has gone through most of the committee stages. But its presentation to the plenum for a final reading yesterday was held up because of the illness of the chairman of the Legal Committee, Likud MK Eli Kulas.
Last week, a resolution by the World Zionist Organization to cancel the agreement to rent Binyanei Haooma premises to Kach was overruled by the courts.
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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.
