Jerusalem police have recommended that Rabbi Meir Kahane, leader of the extremist Kach Party, be stripped of his parliamentary immunity so that he can be brought to trial on charges of incitement to violence, Israel Radio reported Monday.
The charges stem from Kahane’s remarks on television six weeks ago calling for the establishment of a “second Jewish underground.” That was Kahane’s reaction to a police search for concealed weapons in the Shuvu Banim Yeshiva in the Old City whose students had been attacking and harassing Arabs. The incidents followed the fatal stabbing of 22-year-old yeshiva student Eliahu Amdi whose alleged assailants were promptly arrested.
Kahane’s public advocacy of a new Jewish underground was seen as incitement because 27 members of a Jewish underground in the West Bank were convicted two years ago of acts of violence against Arabs. Several of its members are still serving their prison sentences.
If convicted of incitement, Kahane would face up to five years in prison.
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