Baruch Marzel, an Israeli right-wing extremist from the Jewish settler community in the divided West Bank town of Hebron, clashes with a fellow Israeli left-wing activist during a protest against settlements in Hebron on May 8, 2009. Tens of Israeli left-wing activists and Palestinian land owners demonstrated against the settlers of Kharsina settlement in Hebron after they built wooden rooms on Palestinian land. Israeli settlements on occupied land are viewed as one of the main stumbling blocks in the Middle East peace process and Israel’s main ally Washington has on numerous occasions spoken out against the continued expansion. AFP PHOTO/HAZEM BADER (Photo by HAZEM BADER / AFP)

Source: Arab News

BY RAY HANANIA

Marzel emerged from hate activist Meir Kahane’s shadow to become a figurehead for Jewish radicalism in Hebron

Marzel takes part in aggressive activities against Palestinian residents and hosts Israeli troops for meals

Baruch Marzel, who lives in a Jewish outpost built in the heart of the Palestinian city of Hebron, has confronted many Palestinians who have tried to witness Israeli restrictions on non-Jews visiting the Ibrahimi Mosque.

Suggested reading: The Muslim Times’ Collection to Show, Islam or the Holy Quran are Not Anti-Semitic

The mosque is famous for being the burial ground of the Prophet Abraham, and for being the site of the massacre in February 1994 of 29 Muslim worshippers by Chicago-born Israeli settler Baruch Goldstein, who was a close colleague of Marzel.

In 1995, when I was president of the Palestinian American Congress, Marzel’s colleagues threatened to beat me with clubs as I walked up to the Ibrahimi Mosque to view a memorial set up for Goldstein’s victims.

It was only because I am Christian and was holding a US passport that Israeli soldiers stood between me and Marzel’s settler friends.

BIO
• Name: Baruch Marzel
• Nationality: Israeli-American
• Place of Residence: Hebron, West Bank
• Organization: (Eretz Yisrael Shelanu, Jewish National Front)
• Occupation: Former spokesman of Meir Kahane’s Kach party
• Medium: Through interviews, videos and articles

Marzel was one of the early leaders of hate activist Meir Kahane’s Jewish Defense League (JDL). After Kahane was killed in November 1990, Marzel played a larger role in the organization, which has changed names several times and was represented in Israel’s Knesset (Parliament) as the Kach political party.

Marzel has run for political office in the Knesset and is a member of the Otzma Yehudit political party, which was reorganized from the outlawed Kach.

He has openly advocated the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. “There’s no way we’ll have quiet or peace inside Israel as long as we have here millions of supporters of terror, people that believe in their religion that all of the Land of Israel … is theirs, and that we’re occupiers, and the Jews have no right to a state or can even exist here,” he said. “The only way to have peace is to get them out of Israel.”

Born in Boston, Marzel’s family moved to Israel when he was an infant. He joined the JDL at the age of 13.

Marzel claims to have joined the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, and to have shot dead several unarmed Syrian soldiers he had taken prisoner.

He said he did this as he was wounded by a captured Syrian commando who let off a concealed grenade and thought he might die, so he wished to exact revenge. Marzel took the same spirit of confrontation into his political activism.

“It’s a religious war. And they believe they have to destroy us … to kill us … And we believe that … they can’t stay here,” he said.

Read more:

Suggested reading and viewing for proper understanding of universal brotherhood and anti-Semitism

BBC Video: The Big Questions: Is anti-Zionism anti-Semitic

As an Israeli American, I agree with Ilhan Omar much more than the US politicians weaponising antisemitism

Debunking the myth that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitic

Bernie Sanders Hires First-Ever Muslim Presidential Campaign Manager

The Muslim Times’ Collection to Show, Islam or the Holy Quran are Not Anti-Semitic

CNN Documentary: Ultra-orthodox Jews and Israel’s Struggle with Secularism

Why Did Muhammad Fly to Jerusalem?

How can we build the Third Temple together?

True Fasting: A Message of Compassion and Love from the Old Testament