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Can Israel’s religious right rid itself of racists?

United Right head Rafi Peretz tries wriggling himself out of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s grasp and undoing the merger established before the April elections with the far-right Jewish Power Party.
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On July 4, the extreme right-wing Jewish Power Party launched its election campaign, centered on the slogan “This Time We Won’t Compromise.” Heading the party of the late nationalist Rabbi Meir Kahane’s followers is former Knesset member Michael Ben Ari, whom the high court banned from running in the last election in April on the grounds that he has incited to violence. However, the high court authorized the candidacy of attorney Itamar ben Gvir, although his views and ideological acts accord with Ben Ari’s views and actions. 

In his speech at the launch conference, Ben Ari wondered what is racist in the demand to transfer all the Arabs from the “earth of the land of Israel,” as he called it. “We want to resettle our enemies in their countries,” he said. “They said that’s why they disqualified me, they told me ‘why did you say that.’ … I said that we’ll give them water, a sandwich and we’ll find their countries of origin. … They told me that it’s racism.” 

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