US removes Jewish Kahane movement from terror blacklist

The US will remove a Jewish extremist group linked to late rabbi Meir Kahane as well as a Palestinian militant group from a terror blacklist.

Meir Kahane.

The US will remove a Jewish extremist group linked to late rabbi Meir Kahane as well as a Palestinian militant group from a terror blacklist after years without violence.

The State Department designated Kahane Chai as a foreign terrorist organisation in 1997, three years after its supporter ­Baruch Goldstein massacred 29 Palestinians in the West Bank city of Hebron.

The group was founded by ­Kahane, a US-born rabbi and former Israeli MP who advocated the expulsion of Arabs from Israel and was assassinated in New York in 1990.

The State Department informed congress it would withdraw the designation, which was contested in court by the group, as Kahane Chai “has not been linked to a terrorist attack since 2005”, an official said.

The official said the department was also delisting the Mujahidin Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem, linked to rocket attacks a decade ago.

AFP