Mosque-Bombing Suspect is Grandson of Terrorist-Group Founder Meir Kahane

UPDATED (see below)

Several Israeli publications are reporting that the grandson of terrorist-group founder Meir Kahane was arrested today on suspicion of burning and vandalizing a mosque on December 11 in the occupied West Bank village of Yasuf.

The 17-year-old’s name was withheld by mainstream media, although a West Bank settlers’ publication, Arutz Sheva, identified him as Meir David Kahane, a resident of a settlement called Kfar Tapuach, located just south of the major northern West Bank city, Nablus.

Meir Kahane, a Brooklyn-born rabbi, Israeli politician, and founder of Kach, which the U.S. and Israel consider a terrorist group.

Some of the settlement’s residents are associated with the Kahanist movement and its outlawed Kach party, founded by Brooklyn-born Meir Kahane, a rabbi and politician whose views are considered racist and far from the mainstream by both American Jews and Israelis. The New York Times described the settlement earlier this year:  ”Kfar Tapuah has a reputation as an extremist settlement, having become a base for the followers of the virulently anti-Arab Rabbi Meir Kahane after he was assassinated in 1990.”

The Kach party has been banned in Israel since 1988. The State Department has listed Kach as a terrorist organization since 1994 and noted in a 2006 report that Kfar Tapuah is one of its bases. An affiliated group, Kahane Chai (Kahane Lives) was declared a terrorist group by the Israeli cabinet in 1994 and by the State Department in 1997.

The parents of the younger Meir Kahane, who were residents of Kfar Tapuah, were assassinated in 2000 in a drive-by shooting.

Arutz Sheva quoted a settler activist whom it identified as the younger Meir Kahane’s uncle: “This is a very clear case of harassment. The Shin Bet are obviously clueless on leads to any real suspects so they started fishing around, throwing out a hook, hoping to bring in a catch.”

In Yasuf village, where the mosque vandalism occurred, the council head Abdel Rahim Muslah, thanked the Israeli security services: “The news about the arrest is positive,” he said, “and I hope the development will help calm things down and that the culprit will be punished. If the report is true, I highly appreciate the quick Israeli response and action.”

A Palestinian spokesman, Ghassan Dargeles, said he hoped the arrest of Meir Kahane “will end this affair and will mark the beginning of handling the settlers….This affair has enraged the Palestinian street and I hope the arrest and a real Israeli effort ti reach the truth and prosecute those responsible will calm us down.”

Earlier this month, after the mosque was torched and vandalized, Israel’s Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger made a peace pilgrimage to Yasuf, delivering a new Koran to village elders, and comparing the vandalism to Kristallnacht:

“I came here to expression my revulsion at this wretched act of burning a place holy to the Muslim people,” Metzger told the residents after he was escorted into the village under the protection of the Israel Defense Forces and Palestinian police. “This is how the Holocaust began, the tragedy of the Jewish people of Europe.”

UPDATE: The Jerusalem Post is reporting that the young Meir Kahane was released on bail, citing a police spokesman who said “the youth remains a suspect and that police would continue to investigate his alleged role in the attack.”