Netanyahu turns to extremist party that calls for expelling Arabs from Israel

By Shira Rubin and Steve Hendrix
March 20, 2021 at 4:00 a.m. EDT

TEL AVIV — Itamar Ben Gvir hails from a fringe of Israeli politics so extreme it was outlawed. A lawyer known for defending Jewish settlers accused of violence against Arabs, he has roots in the overtly racist Kach party, founded by radical American rabbi Meir Kahane and banned by Israel decades ago.

But now, Ben Gvir and thousands of new-generation Kahanists are on the verge of a political comeback, thanks to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s need for parliamentary seats in Tuesday’s national election.

Backed by Netanyahu, Ben Gvir’s Jewish Power party is poised to gain its first spot in Israel’s Knesset and possibly even a cabinet position in the next government, providing the ultranationalist group with a foothold in its bid for legitimacy.

That prospect has electrified thousands of modern-day Kahanists, who see Ben Gvir as the kind of polished leader who can make their ideology palatable to an increasingly right-wing electorate. He advocates expelling Arabs deemed “disloyal” from Israel and the occupied territories and calls for Israel to annex the entire West Bank, which is home to some 3 million Palestinians.

“Itamar is this new generation, a generation that knows that the way to participate in public discourse is to talk positively — not about hating Arabs, but about loving the Jewish nation, though the core ideology is the same,” said Nati Smadar of the far-right advocacy group Lahava, whose members have been convicted of arson attacks on mixed Arab-Jewish schools and have protested at weddings between Jews and Arabs.

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