Rabbi Kahane Drops U.S. Citizenship

American-born Rabbi Meir Kahane, who advocates expelling all Arabs from Israeli-held territory, has renounced his U.S. citizenship so he can run again for an Israeli Parliament seat, his spokesman said Thursday.

The Brooklyn-born Kahane, who founded the militant Jewish Defense League in the United States in 1968 and emigrated to Israel in 1971, successfully contested a State Department move in October, 1985, to strip him of his American citizenship after he was elected to the Israeli Parliament.

A spokesman said that Kahane, leader of the right-wing Kach Party, gave up his citizenship Wednesday in a letter addressed to the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv. A 1986 Israeli law prohibits Israelis who hold dual citizenship from serving in Parliament.

Another spokesman said, “It was not a matter of choosing to give up his citizenship because he didn’t want it,” adding that Kahane’s move was “not an act of defiance or anger toward America.”

A U.S. Embassy official would not confirm receipt of the letter but said such a notice would be insufficient to renounce American citizenship, adding that a sworn affidavit is required.