“I think we must keep them in Israeli prison for a few months, so they can get a taste of the terrorist wing."
-Ben Gvir
Een nieuwe documentaire van The Rights Forum laat zien hoe de Israëllobby in Nederland opereert. De ruim 30 minuten durende film onthult een informeel netwerk van politici dat zich inzet voor een uitgesproken pro-Israëlische agenda.
In de documentaire onderzoek The Rights Forum de invloed van de Israëllobby in Nederland, met name de rol van de Israel Allies Foundation Europe, een netwerkorganisatie die politici uit verschillende landen en partijen verbindt rond een uitgesproken pro-Israël-agenda.
‘Het begon met een eenvoudig onderzoek’, vertelt Simcha de Vries, één van de makers van deze documentaire. Welke Nederlandse politici zijn aangesloten bij de Israel Allies Foundation (IAF) en wat doen ze precies? Voormalig SGP-leider Kees van der Staaij en voormalig ChristenUnie-Kamerlid Joël Voordewind hebben de Nederlandse tak van de lobbygroep opgezet in 2013. In de documentaire focust The Rights Forum zich op de Kamerleden van christelijke huize, maar ook politici van BBB (parlementariër Claudia van Zanten), PVV (de Roon) en JA21 (de senatoren Ruben Baumgarten en Annabel Nanninga) zijn bij de groep betrokken.
De Vries: ‘Samen vormen zij een informele vriendengroep in de Staten Generaal. Het is geen formele lobby, maar een informeel netwerk. Maar door te kijken welke politici naar evenementen van IAF zijn geweest kan je wel raden wie er bij horen. Zo is van Zanten van de BBB al 2 keer geweest.’
Hoe ziet dat pro-Israëlische netwerk er precies uit?
‘Inmiddels zijn er volgens het IAF zelf wereldwijd 62 van dit soort ‘caucuses’ (Engels voor politieke vergaderingen, red.) verbonden aan de koepelorganisatie. In de Verenigde Staten is Mike Pence, voormalig vicepresident, een van de oprichters van de Amerikaanse tak. Ook voormalig minister van Buitenlandse Zaken Mike Pompeo is erbij betrokken. In Europa coördineert Leo van Doesburg de activiteiten. Hij was hiervoor voorzitter van de European Christian Political Movement, een Europese politieke beweging waar onder andere de SGP en de ChristenUnie bij zijn aangesloten. Het hoofdkwartier van de ECPM, die sinds 2025 de ECPP heet, zat op hetzelfde postadres als de Europese afdeling van IAF. Inmiddels zitten er een paar straten tussen, maar beide organisaties zitten nog steeds vrij dicht op elkaar in Amersfoort. Ook ex-Europarlementariër Bas Belder (SGP) werkt nu voor deze pro-Israëlische lobbyorganisatie.’
En hoe werken deze netwerken?
‘Ze organiseren bijeenkomsten, brengen Knessetleden naar Den Haag, en stemmen hun agenda’s af. Een van die Knessetleden was Sharren Haksel (tegenwoordig onderminister van Buitenlandse Zaken van Israël, red.), die ontvangen werd door parlementariërs van de kleine christelijke partijen, de rechtspopulistische partijen en de VVD. Het CDA liet deze ontmoeting aan zich voorbijgaan, de linkse partijen uiteraard ook.
‘Israëlische gasten worden tijdens hun bezoek aan Nederland vrijwel altijd geïnterviewd door Wierd Duk van De Telegraaf, ook een hartstochtelijke verdediger van de Israëlische regering.
‘Verder heeft de Israel Allies Foundation uiteraard een nauwe band met Christen voor Israël (CVI). Toen Haskel Nederland bezocht, zat ook hun huisjurist Andrew Tucker bij de gesprekken.’
Israëlische gasten worden tijdens hun bezoek aan Nederland vrijwel altijd geïnterviewd door Wierd Duk van De Telegraaf
De kleine christelijke partijen SGP en CU lijken hierin een sleutelrol te spelen. Hoe zie jij hun rol?
‘Ze zijn de lobby. Ze hoeven niet overtuigd te worden, ze trekken zelf aan de kar. Van der Staaij en Voordewind zijn altijd uitgesproken pro-Israël geweest en hebben voor hun lobbywerk ook prijzen gekregen in Israël.
‘Je ziet dat de SGP sinds de oprichting van de Israel Allies Foundation in 2013 veel actiever pro-Israël is geworden. Kees van der Staaij dient veel moties in over Israël, waarbij hij steun kreeg van andere rechtse partijen. CU en SGP waren ook fel tegen de genocidezaak tegen Israël bij het Internationaal Gerechtshof in Den Haag. Jack van der Tang, een evangelische voorganger in Den Haag, organiseerde met geestverwanten een internationale conferentie, genaamd The Trial. Op deze conferentie, waar ChristenUnie-Kamerlid Don Ceder een acte de présence gaf, zeiden sprekers dat het Internationaal Gerechtshof moest ‘instorten’ en de vijanden van Israël moesten worden uitgeroeid. Ceder zegt zelf deze denkwijze niet te delen, maar omringt zich wel consequent met dit soort figuren.’
Hoe succesvol is de Israëllobby?
‘Hun grootste successen liggen in het bestrijden van pro-Palestijnse organisaties. Denk aan de motie om Samoudin op de terroristenlijst te zetten. Ook het criminaliseren van de BDS-beweging (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions, red.) is een typisch voorbeeld.
‘Maar op dit moment maakt Israël het zichzelf moeilijk: de bombardementen op Gaza en de humanitaire crisis daar maken het lastiger om politieke steun te blijven mobiliseren. Je ziet dat de ChristenUnie inmiddels wel iets voorzichtiger is: ze steunen bijvoorbeeld de medische evacuatie van kinderen uit Gaza. Dat is een stap in een andere richting.’
De bombardementen op Gaza en de humanitaire crisis daar maken het lastiger om politieke steun te blijven mobiliseren
Zijn de PVV, JA21 en VVD niet logischer om te targeten, gezien hun zetelaantallen?
‘De lobby verbindt politici over de partijen heen. Je hoeft je niet aan te melden of lid te worden, het is een informele club. VVD-politicus Ruben Brekelmans was bijvoorbeeld aanwezig toen Sharren Haskel in de Kamer was, maar de VVD is verder niet betrokken bij de club.
‘Ook de PVV doet tegenwoordig mee. Voormalig PVV-Kamerlid Wim Kortenoeven klaagde ooit dat de PVV-fractie weliswaar een grote mond had, maar in de praktijk weinig voor Israël betekent. Dat is inmiddels veranderd. Raymond de Rhoon dient veel pro-Israëlische moties in, met succes.’
Wat wil je met je documentaire bereiken?
‘Dat er meer aandacht is vanuit de journalistiek voor de Israel Allies Foundation. Sinds de oprichting van de Europese tak, die dus in Nederland is gehuisvest, hebben ze dus Haskel naar de Kamer gehaald, maar ook was er een exclusief diner met een extremistische hoogleraar Mordechai Kedar en er is een Jeruzalemdag in Den Haag georganiseerd in het teken van een ondeelbaar Jeruzalem.
‘Er was veel aandacht voor de reis van Wilders naar Israel, maar dat Don Ceder inmiddels in zijn korte kamertijd drie keer naar bezet gebied is geweest en extreme figuren zoals kolonistenleider Israel Ganz heeft bezocht bleef tot nu toe onder de radar.’
Kahane was known in Israel as a man with nazi-ideas. This is what Wikipedia has to say about him:
Born in 1932 in Brooklyn, New York City, to an Orthodox Jewish family, Kahane received his education there, starting with Jewish scripture studies, and eventually gaining an M.A. in International Relations from New York University. In 1968, he founded the Jewish Defense League (JDL) in New York City, whose self-described purpose was to fight anti-Semitism. Several JDL members, including Kahane, were subsequently convicted of acts related to domestic terrorism, including leading the attack on the Soviet United Nations mission in 1975. Later that same year, Kahane was convicted of conspiring to kidnap a Soviet diplomat, bomb the Iraqi embassy in Washington, and ship arms abroad from Israel. He consequently served a one year imprisonment, albeit in a hotel.
In 1971, Kahane moved to Israel and became a citizen, where he initiated protests calling for the expulsion of both Palestinian citizens of Israel and Palestinians of the Israeli-occupied territories, which led to his arrest dozens of times. In the same year, he founded Kach, a political party that initially failed to gain any seats in the Knesset. In 1980, Kahane was arrested for the 62nd time since his emigration, and he was jailed for six months for planning armed attacks against Palestinians. Kahane was held in prison in Ramla, where he wrote the book They Must Go. In the 1984 elections, his Kach party gained one seat in the Knesset, which was taken by Kahane, but he was later barred from running in 1988. In 1990, he was giving a speech to an audience of Orthodox Jews from Brooklyn, urging American Jews to emigrate to Israel, when he was assassinated by El Sayyid Nosair, an Egyptian-American national. Kahane was buried in West Jerusalem.
During his lifetime Kahane publicized his Kahanism ideology throughout the United States. In Israel, he proposed enforcing halakha (Jewish law) as codified by Maimonides[3] and hoped that Israel would eventually adopt it as state law.[4] While serving in the Knesset in the mid-1980s Kahane proposed numerous laws, none of which passed, to emphasize Judaism in public schools, reduce Israel's bureaucracy, forbid sexual relations between Jews and non-Jews, separate Jewish and Arab neighborhoods, and end cultural meetings between Jewish and Arab students.[5] He went so far as to demand that non-Jews in Israel either become slaves or face deportation.[6] He also popularized the slogan "For Every Jew a .22."[7] He supported the restriction of Israel's democracy to its Jewish citizens, and endorsed the annexation of the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.[8]
In 1966, Kahane, under the alias of Michael King and while already married, had an affair and became engaged to marry the 21-year-old model Gloria Jean D'Argenio (who used the stage name Estelle Donna Evans).[22] Kahane sent a letter to D'Argenio in which he unilaterally ended their relationship. D'Argenio was never aware of Kahane's real identity and at the time she received the letter, she had been expecting him to marry her in two days and had recently learned she was pregnant by him.[22] Upon receiving the letter, D'Argenio jumped off the Queensboro Bridge and died of her injuries the next day.A number of the JDL's members and leaders, including Kahane, were convicted of acts related to domestic terrorism.[43] In 1971, Kahane was sentenced to a suspended five-year prison sentence and fined $5,000 for conspiring to manufacture explosives.[44] In 1975, Kahane was arrested for leading the attack on the Soviet United Nations mission and injuring two officers, but he was released after being given summonses for disorderly conduct. Later the same year, Kahane was accused of conspiring to kidnap a Soviet diplomat, bomb the Iraqi embassy in Washington, and ship arms abroad from Israel. He was convicted of violating his probation for the 1971 bombing conviction and was sentenced to one year in prison.[45] However, he served most of it in a hotel, with frequent unsupervised absences, because of a concession over the provision of kosher food.[46]
In a 1984 interview with Washington Post correspondent Carla Hall, Kahane admitted that the JDL "bombed the Russian [Soviet] mission in New York, the Russian cultural mission here [Washington] in 1971, the Soviet trade offices".[47][48]
In September 1971, Kahane moved to Israel. At the time, he declared that he would focus on Jewish education.[49] He later began gathering lists of Palestinian citizens of the State of Israel who were willing to emigrate for compensation, and eventually, he initiated protests that advocated the expulsion of Palestinian citizens of Israel, and Palestinians of the Israeli-occupied territories. In 1972, Jewish Defense League leaflets were distributed in Hebron, calling for the mayor to stand trial for the 1929 Hebron massacre.[50] Kahane was arrested dozens of times by Israeli law enforcement.[51] In 1971, he founded Kach, a political party that ran for the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, during the 1973 general elections under the name "The League List". It won 12,811 votes (0.82%), just 2,857 (0.18%) short of the electoral threshold at the time (1%) for winning a Knesset seat. The party was even less successful in the 1977 elections, winning only 4,836 votes.
In 1980, Kahane was arrested for the 62nd time since his emigration, and he was jailed for six months after a detention order that was based on allegations of him planning armed attacks against Palestinians in response to the killings of Jewish settlers.[52] Kahane was held in prison in Ramla, where he wrote the book They Must Go. Kahane was banned from entering the UK in 1981.[53]
In 1981, Kahane's party again ran for the Knesset during the 1981 elections, but it did not win a seat and received only 5,128 votes. In 1984, the Israeli Central Elections Committee banned him from being a candidate on the grounds that Kach was a racist party, but the Supreme Court of Israeloverturned the ban on the grounds that the committee was not authorized to ban Kahane's candidacy.[54] The Supreme Court suggested that the Knesset pass a law excluding racist parties from future elections. The Knesset responded in 1985 by amending the "Basic Law: Knesset" to include a prohibition (paragraph 7a) against the registration of parties that explicitly or implicitly incite racism.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
In the 1984 legislative elections, Kahane's Kach party received 25,907 votes (1.2%), gaining one seat in the Knesset, which was taken by Kahane.[55] He refused to take the standard oath of office and insisted on adding a Biblical verse from Psalms to indicate that national laws were overruled by the Torah if they conflict. Kahane's legislative proposals focused on Jewish education, an open economy, transferring the Arab population out of the Land of Israel, revoking Israeli citizenship from non-Jews, and banning Jewish-Gentile marriages and sexual relations.
While his popularity in Israel grew, Kahane was boycotted in the Knesset, where his speeches were often made to an empty assembly except for the duty chairman and the transcriptionist. The Knesset revoked his Parliamentary immunity to prevent his freedom of movement in areas where his inflammatory rhetoric could cause harm. Kahane's legislative proposals and motions of no-confidence against the government were ignored or rejected. Kahane often pejoratively called other Knesset members "Hellenists," a reference to Jews who assimilated into Greek culture after Judea's occupation by Alexander the Great.
In 1987, Kahane opened a yeshiva ("HaRaayon HaYehudi") with funding from US supporters to teach "the Authentic Jewish Idea". Despite the boycott, his popularity grew among the Israeli public, especially for working-class Sephardi Jews.[56] Polls showed that Kach would have likely received anywhere from four to twelve seats in the coming November 1988 elections.[57][58]
In 1985, the Knesset passed an amendment to the Basic Law of Israel, barring political parties that incited to racism. The Central Elections Committee banned Kahane a second time, and he appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court. However, the Supreme Court this time ruled in favor of the committee, disqualifying Kach from running in the 1988 legislative elections.[59] Kahane was thus the first candidate in Israel to be barred from election for racism. Shaul Magid writes that "This law was clearly legislated for Kahane and KACH alone; it was never successfully invoked again."[60] The law was criticized as being anti-democratic by the well-known lawyer and professor Alan Dershowitz.[61][non-primary source needed]
After Kahane's election to the Knesset in 1984, the United States government attempted to revoke his U.S. citizenship, an action which Kahane successfully challenged in court.[62][63] However, in 1987, the Knesset passed a law declaring that a Knesset member could only be an Israeli citizen.[64] To remain eligible for office, Kahane renounced his United States citizenship, but after being banned from the Knesset for his politics, he again filed suit to get his U.S. citizenship reinstated based on the argument that he was compelled to relinquish it by the Knesset. The court rejected this argument, but he was permitted to continue traveling to the United States.[65][66]
In November 1990, Kahane gave a speech to an audience of mostly Orthodox Jews from Brooklyn,[67] in which he warned American Jews to emigrate to Israel before it was "too late".[67][68] As a crowd gathered around Kahane in the second-floor lecture hall in Midtown Manhattan's New York Marriott East Side, Kahane was assassinated[69][70][71] by El Sayyid Nosair, an Egyptian-born U.S. citizen. He was initially charged and acquitted of the murder.[72] Nosair was later convicted of the murder in a U.S. district court for his involvement in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Prosecutors were able to try Nosair again for the murder because the federal indictment included the killing as part of the alleged terrorist conspiracy.[73] He was sentenced to life imprisonment and later made a confession to federal agents.[74]
Kahane was buried on Har HaMenuchot, in Jerusalem. He was eulogized by supporters in both the U.S. and in Israel, including Rabbi Moshe Tendler and the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel, Mordechai Eliyahu, who spoke of how little the people understood of Kahane's true value.[citation needed]
A few hours after news of the assassination of Kahane reached Israel, two elderly Palestinians, Mohammed Ali (73) and Mariam Suleiman Hassan (71), were gunned down in an incident ascribed to Kach militants. Noam Federman was quoted as saying that the slayings had been committed as revenge by Kahane supporters, and that more violence was in the pipeline.[75]
| Part of a series on |
| Far-right politics in Israel |
|---|
 |
Kahane argued that there was a glory in Jewish destiny, which came through the observance of the Torah and halakha (Jewish law). He observed, "Democracy and Judaism are not the same thing."[76] Kahane was of the view a Jewish state and a Western democracy were incompatible, since Western democracy is religion-blind, and a Jewish state is religion-oriented by its very name. He feared non-Jewish citizens becoming a majority and voting against the Jewish character of the state: "The question is as follows: if the Arabs settle among us and make enough children to become a majority, will Israel continue to be a Jewish state? Do we have to accept that the Arab majority will decide?"[77] He also said that "you cannot have Zionism and democracy at the same ... Western democracy has to be ruled out. For me, that's cut and dried: There's no question of setting up democracy in Israel, because democracy means equal rights for all, irrespective of racial or religious origins."[78]
Kahane proposed an "exchange of populations" that would continue the Jewish exodus from Arab lands: "A total of some 750,000 Jews fled Arab lands since 1948. Surely it is time for Jews, worried over the huge growth of Arabs in Israel, to consider finishing the exchange of populations that began 35 years ago." Kahane proposed a $40,000 compensation plan for Arabs who would leave voluntarily, and forcible expulsion for those who "don't want to leave".[77] He encouraged retaliatory violence against Arabs who attacked Jews: "I approve of anybody who commits such acts of violence. Really, I don't think that we can sit back and watch Arabs throwing rocks at buses whenever they feel like it. They must understand that a bomb thrown at a Jewish bus is going to mean a bomb thrown at an Arab bus."[77]
In some of his writings, Kahane argued that Israel should never start a war for territory but that if a war were launched against Israel, Biblical territory should be annexed.[79] However, in an interview, he defined Israel's "minimal borders" as follows: "The southern boundary goes up to El Arish, which takes in all of northern Sinai, including Yamit. To the east, the frontier runs along the western part of the East Bank of the Jordan River, hence part of what is now Jordan. Eretz Yisrael also includes part of Lebanon and certain parts of Syria, and part of Iraq, all the way to the Euphrates River."[77] When critics suggested that following Kahane's plans would mean a perpetual war between Jews and Arabs, Kahane responded, "There will be a perpetual war. With or without Kahane."[80]
In 1994, following the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre that saw Kach supporter Baruch Goldstein indiscriminately kill 29 Palestinian Muslim worshippers in Hebron, the Israeli government declared both parties to be terrorist organizations.[101][102] The US State Department also added Kach and Kahane Chai to its list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
In the 2003 Knesset elections, Herut, which had split off from the National Union list, ran with Michael Kleiner and former Kach activist Baruch Marzel taking the top two spots on the list. The joint effort narrowly missed the 1.5% barrier. In the following 2006 elections, the Jewish National Front, led by Baruch Marzel, fared better, but it also failed to pass the minimum threshold. A follower of Kahane who was involved with Kach for many years, Michael Ben-Ari, was elected to the Knesset in the 2009 elections on renewed National Union list. He stood again in the 2013 elections as the second candidate on the list of Otzma LeYisrael, but the party failed to pass the minimum threshold.
In 2007, the FBI released over a thousand documents relating to its daily surveillance of Kahane from the early 1960s.[103]
In 2015, Kahane's grandson, Meir Ettinger, was detained by Israeli law enforcement. He was the alleged leader of the radical Jewish group "The Revolt".[104] In an online "manifesto" echoing some of his grandfather's teachings, Ettinger promotes the "dispossession of gentiles" who live in Israel and the establishment of a new "kingdom of Israel", a theocracy ruled according to the Halacha. Ettinger's writings condemned Israel's government, mainstream rabbis, and the IDF, and also have denounced Christian churches as "idolatry".[105]
Libby Kahane, his widow, published the first volume of a biography Rabbi Meir Kahane: His Life and Thought Vol. One: 1932–1975 around 2008. A contributor to Haaretz said the book "lacks serious analysis", "ignores important unflattering details" and "serves as an apologetic".[19] In 2016, Libby Kahane claimed that modern Jewish extremists in Israel do not follow the ideology of her late husband. She justified that claim by arguing that, unlike modern Jewish extremists, Rabbi Kahane had a more mature approach that did not encourage illegal activities.[106]
In 2017, The Forward reported that some of Kahane's followers were aligning themselves with white nationalists and the alt-right.[107] Other Kahanists declared that such moves did not reflect Kahane's teachings, and they supported that declaration by arguing that Kahane worked together with African Americans.[108]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meir_Kahane
Meir David Kahane (Hebreeuws: מאיר דוד הכהן כהנא) (Brooklyn (New York)), 1 augustus 1932- New York, 5 november 1990) was een Israëlische extreemrechtse, religieus zionistische rabbijnen stichter van de beweging Kach. Hij kwam oorspronkelijk uit de Verenigde Staten. Meir David Kahane werd in de Verenigde Staten veroordeeld voor aanklachten waaronder terroristische aanslagen.[bron?]
Kahane richtte in 1968 in de Verenigde Staten de Jewish Defense League op als reactie op antisemitische aanvallen op de lokale Joodse bevolking. Volgens de FBI was de Jewish Defence League een extreemrechtse terreurgroep, tevens zouden ze verantwoordelijk zijn voor 'domestic terror attacks' in de Verenigde Staten. In september 1969 emigreerde hij naar Israël, waar hij in 1974 de Kach-beweging oprichtte. Deze had als doelstelling het verdrijven van de Arabieren uit Israël. In 1980 werd Kahane na het voorbereiden van een provocatieve actie bij de Tempelberg tot zes maanden gevangenisstraf veroordeeld.
In 1984 werd Kahane (na twee eerdere mislukte pogingen) in de Knesset gekozen. Zijn volgeling en rechterhand Baruch Marzel werd secretaris van zijn partij. Als reactie op zijn verkiezing nam de Knesset in augustus 1985 een amendement op de basiswet aan waarin de volgende partijen werden uitgesloten van deelname aan verkiezingen:
Aan de verkiezingen van 1988 kon de Kach-partij van Kahane daarom niet meer deelnemen.
In 1990 kwam Kahane bij een aanslag in New York om het leven. De hoofdverdachte van de moord, El Sayyid Nosair, was in 1993 betrokken bij de bomaanslag op het World Trade Center. Terroristen als Baruch Goldstein (tevens Kach-lid) lieten zich naar eigen zeggen door Kahane inspireren bij hun aanslagen.[bron?] Na Kahane's dood zijn er verschillende organisaties opgericht die worden beschouwd als de opvolgers van Kach, waaronder Kahane Chai ("Kahane Leeft") en Otsma Jehudit ("Joodse Kracht").
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meir_Kahane
