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February 25, 2019

Israel: Netanyahu Allies with Far-Right, Racist Group
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In Israel, embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made a pact
with several far-right parties to form a new coalition ahead of
elections in April. One of the groups, Otzma Yehudit, or Jewish Power,
has been compared to the KKK for its racist, anti-Arab and homophobic
beliefs. The party has called for annexing the occupied Palestinian
territories, expelling Israeli Arabs and a ban on relationships between
Jews and Arabs.

The group was formed by supporters of the fundamentalist Rabbi Meir
Kahane. An earlier iteration of Otzma Yehudit was banned by Israel and
designated a terror organization in the 1990s by both Israel and the
U.S. The move was swiftly condemned, including by pro-Israeli government
groups such as AIPAC and the Anti-Defamation League.


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