White House anger at Itamar Ben-Gvir for honouring terrorist rabbi

The United States has criticised an Israeli parliamentarian for commemorating the anniversary of the killing of a terrorist rabbi in 1990.

U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price took aim at the newly-elected Knesset member Itamar Ben-Gvir late last week after he attended a commemoration of the 32nd anniversary of the death of Rabbi Meir Kahane.

Referring to Ben-Gvir’s support for Kahane Chai, an organisation that was on Washington’s list of foreign terrorist organisations for years, Price said: “Celebrating the legacy of a terrorist organisation is abhorrent, there is no other word for it.”

He added: “We remain concerned by the legacy of Kahane Chai and the continued use of rhetoric among violent right-wing extremists.”

Not all Jewish groups shared those thoughts, however. Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV), which claims to represent more than 2,000 rabbis in American public policy, backed Ben-Gvir and called Kahane “a victim” who “never murdered anyone”.

Kahane was convicted of plotting to blow up the Libyan embassy in Brussels. Among his many controversial positions was his plan to forcibly remove of non-Jews from Israel if they did not agree to live as second-class citizens.

“Attending a memorial for a murder victim is hardly celebrating terror, especially as Ben-Gvir carefully said that he did not agree with the deceased’s positions,” said CJV Rabbinic Circle Chair Rabbi Avrohom Gordimer.

“The bottom line is that Rabbi Kahane never murdered anyone, while the Palestinian Authority, a union of terror organisations, instigates and lauds murders on a daily basis,” said CJV Israel regional vice-president Rabbi Steven Pruzansky.

“The State Department is funding the PA’s ongoing support for terror while rushing to wrongly condemn Ben-Gvir for attending a memorial service for someone who died over three decades ago… an egregious violation of American law.”

Founded after Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election, CJV claims to be “the largest rabbinic public policy organisation in America”. With charitable status, it exists to “promote religious liberty, human rights, and classical Jewish ideas”.

Pruzansky has called Arabs “savages” and described the government of former Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin as the “Rabin Judenrat”. Last week he described Ben-Gvir as “a respected legislator who has denounced racism many times”.

CJV’s international liaison officer is the UK-based Rabbi Jonathan Guttentag, who was fired from his role as shul rabbi in 2019 after members of Whitefield Hebrew Congregation in Manchester voted to have him removed.