Israel Strips Kahane of Free Postal Service
Parliament stripped extremist legislator Meir Kahane of his right to free postal service because he sent letters urging Arabs to leave Israel, a spokeswoman said today.
Spokeswoman Sarah Yitzhaki said Parliament voted 34 to 10 in favor of the step, proposed by Communications Minister Amnon Rubenstein.
“It is hard to imagine a worse misuse of parliamentary privilege,” Rubinstein told legislators, adding that the free postal service “was not given in order to terrorize citizens or spoil Parliament’s good name.”
Kahane, a New York-born rabbi who is head of the Kach Party, was a founder of the New York-based Jewish Defense League and holds dual Israel-U.S. citizenship.
Rubenstein cited a letter Kahane sent to an Arab Israeli “calling on him to give up his citizenship or emigrate from the country.”
Rubenstein quoted Kahane as saying in the letter that if the Arab did not comply, he would “have to face the full power of the State of Israel.”
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