The Kahanes: Like father, like son

Binyamin Kahane [C] with his wife and father

Binyamin Zeev Kahane, who was shot dead in a Palestinian ambush on Sunday, was one of the most extreme leaders of the Jewish settler movement.

His death came 10 years after the assassination in New York of his militantly anti-Arab father, Rabbi Meir Kahane.

The Kahanes' car was riddled with bullets

It is not clear if the Arab gunmen knew who they were shooting - the Intifada Martyrs, which claimed responsibility for the attack, simply referred to the occupants of the Kahanes' car as ''settlers''.

But, whether by chance or design, their ambush caught one of the bitterest opponents of the Palestinian cause.

Mr Kahane, whose wife Talia was also killed in the attack, was an extremist by any definition and had been jailed by Israel for his activities as part of militant anti-Arab groups.

The party he led was banned in the United States as a foreign terrorist organisation, and in Israel for being racist and anti-democratic.

Last month, Israel's Supreme Court upheld his conviction on a charge of sedition for distributing pamphlets advocating violence against Arabs.

Kach

Mr Kahane, who lived in the militant West Bank settlement of Tapuah, had dedicated himself to the teaching of his father who founded the US-based Jewish Defence League.

Binyamin Kahane: Jailed for his anti-Arab activities

Rabbi Kahane had also led Israel's outlawed Kach movement, in New York, which advocates the removal of Arabs from Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.

He said Jews and Arabs could not live there together and that the Arab population should be expelled.

Rabbi Kahane also believed that, as the Arab population of Israel increased, democracy would be incompatible with the survival of the Jewish state.

After his death a new party called Kahane Hai (Kahane Lives) was set up, led by his son.

Revenge

In 1994, Israel branded both Kach and Kahane Hai terrorist organisations.

Officials said both groups were devoted to creating a state based on Jewish law in the biblical land of Israel while uprooting Arabs.

Mr Kahane's friend Noam Federman told Israel's Army Radio: "There is no turning of the other cheek in Judaism. . .Judaism is revenge.

"Whoever says there are military solutions speaks incorrectly, because there will always be another Arab and another Arab who will want to kill Jews. If there won't be Arabs in the country, there won't be attacks."

As the Palestinian uprising has gathered force in recent weeks, there has been a revival of these sorts of views among Jewish right-wingers.

Graffiti and posters have been appearing both in Israel and in New York's Jewish neighbourhoods, saying simply, "Rabbi Kahane was right".