By Munir K. Nasser
Chief Correspondent, Washington, DC
Albawaba.com
The Washington Post has called on the US Justice Department to investigate the activities of the Jewish terrorist groups in the United States, which raise funds to support right wing Zionist groups in Israel.
The Post’s editorial followed a request by Muslim Americans to the State Department last week to investigate the fundraising activities in New York by followers of Rabbi Meir Kahane, the assassinated Jewish extremist whose political organizations have been designated by the United States as foreign terrorist groups.
“But as long as the ban is law, there can't be different standards for Arab and non-Arab terrorist groups,” the Post said. “It's hard to imagine that a self-described front group for Hizbollah could set up a fundraising Web site in this country, boast about it in a major newspaper and invite prominent leaders of its movement to this country. The Justice Department owes an explanation.”
The Post wrote that sometimes it is hard not to sympathize with complaints by Arab Americans that they bear the brunt of anti-terrorism enforcement in this country -- especially after one examines the Web site of the Kahane movement.
“Its adherents have been responsible for serious acts of violence in the Israeli-occupied territories. Yet the Web site, run by Kahane followers in Brooklyn, openly invites viewers to ‘make a donation’ and attend a dinner for the Kahane Memorial Fund, at a cost of $100 per person.”
The Post noted that “Unlike Arabs accused of raising money for foreign terrorist groups, who have been locked up for long periods based on secret evidence and faced deportation proceedings, [Kahane leaders] seem entirely unafraid of the law.”
Meanwhile, supporters of Anti-Arab terrorist groups in the United States have raised almost $80,000 last week for the benefit of the right-wing Israeli Zionist terrorist groups Kahane Chai and Kach. The funds were raised by 250 followers of the late Rabbi Meir at a Brooklyn dinner addressed by leaders of the two Israeli groups. The US State Department designated them terrorist organizations in 1995, making it a crime to support them financially or by other means.
The two groups, which advocate mass expulsion of Arabs from Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, have routinely praised acts of violence against Arab civilians by its members.
But speakers at the fund-raiser denounced the ban by the US government and defended their support as legitimate activity of free speech protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution.
According to press reports, Rabbi Binyamin Kahane, the Kahane Chai leader and son of the late militant rabbi, told the Brooklyn audience his group looks forward to the day the Israeli Army leaves the West Bank and Gaza. Then, he said, "The settlers will be free to fight for themselves" without being restricted.
Asked afterward if mass expulsion of Arabs from the occupied territories and Israel would not require killing hundreds of thousands, Kahane replied, "I think the day they'll hear the settlers are free to protect themselves they'll get up and flee." He cited a 1948 massacre of Arab civilians by Jews in 1948. "I know what the Arabs are," he said. "Two hundred died then and thousands fled."
In a related development, a Brooklyn company temporarily pulled the plug on the Web site posted by followers of Rabbi Meir David Kahane. A company official said the site, kahane.org would be shut permanently on Wednesday. He said the company has received a lot of phone complaints and decided to sever ties with the terrorist group.
Once the site was restored temporarily, the Kahane followers moved quickly to raise money to find a new server. A request for donations, under the headline, "Apology and S.O.S. — They Are Trying to Close Us Down," was posted on the site.
"A $50,000 check to our tax-deductible 501c3 U.S. charity would be a nice way to show the enemies of Israel and the enemies of free speech how their actions will not succeed in shutting out the truth and will only backfire," the statement said.
The complaints about the Web site resulted from an article last week in The New York Times about the activities of the Kahane followers in Brooklyn, including their operation of the Web site. The provider company said it contacted an official in the counter terrorism section of the State Department before deciding to end the company's relationship with Kahane. The State Department advised that the content posted on kahane.org was legal and protected by the First Amendment. After conversations with the Justice Department, the State Department determined that this was a First Amendment issue and it could not ask the Web site provider to take down the Web site.
A spokesman for Kahane said pressures on their Web operations would not deter Kahane supporters from continuing to promote the beliefs of the rabbi. He said the government will not succeed in shutting out people from free speech and new contributions will be raised to buy a new server.
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
