Mike Guzovsky
Mike Guzovsky, also known as Mike Guzofsky[1] and Yekutiel Ben-Ya'acov,[2] is an American-Israeli follower of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane. He lives in the settlement of Kfar Tapuach in the West Bank.[2]
Guzovsky was part of Terror Against Terror (TNT), a militant group organized by Rabbi Meir Kahane's Kach organization.[3] He and several other American immigrants stepped up TNT's violence in 1983 arson, beatings, and on March 4, 1984 shooting a bus of Arab workers near Ramallah, wounding six.[4] Guzovsky was charged with four others, one of whom was to testify for the prosecution but fled. Guzovsky was acquitted while the others were convicted. Guzovsky would continue to serve in leadership roles in Kahane Chai (an offshoot of Kach) and was jailed several times in later violent activism.[4]: 194
The Anti-Defamation League reported that by the mid-1990s, Guzovsky was the leader of Kahane Chai (an offshoot of Kach)[2] in the United States, where he demonstrated against Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and for Baruch Goldstein, who killed 29 Muslims.[5] When Rabin was assassinated in 1995, Guzovsky stated that "Rabin was bad for Jews" and said of his murderer, Yigal Amir, that "An intelligent man, one like this law student, had to act."[1]
He has organized peaceful resistance against the dismantlement of settlements.[2]
In 2005, Guzovsky said in the PBS documentary Israel's Next War: "We have thousands of civilians with the military know-how to instigate a mega-attack against Arabs, unidentified people, like Rabin's assassin, Yigal Amir, who can do such a deed. No matter how much the security service and the police harass us, it won't do them any good."[6]
According to the British Government, Guzovsky is a Jewish militant and is on the list of individuals banned from entering the United Kingdom.[7][8]
References
[edit]- ^ a b McAlary, Mike (6 November 1995). "THE HATE BEHIND THE GUN RABIN'S FOES HAIL 'HERO' KILLER". New York Daily News. Archived from the original on 10 May 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-06.
- ^ a b c d Izenberg, Dan (8 August 2005). "Traffic-blocking girls released after spending 39 days in custody". Jerusalem Post. Archived from the original on May 10, 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-06.
- ^ Marshall, Edgar S. (2002). Israel: Current Issues and Historical Background. Nova. p. 229. ISBN 9781590333259. Retrieved 2022-07-17.
- ^ a b Hirschhorn, Sara Yael (May 22, 2017). City on a Hilltop: American Jews and the Israeli Settler Movement. Harvard University Press. PT169. ISBN 9780674975057. Retrieved 2022-07-17.
- ^ "Extremism in the Name of Religion: The Violent Record of the Kahane Movement and its Offshoots" (PDF). Anti-Defamation League. 1995. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-05-29. Retrieved 2009-05-06.
- ^ Setton, Dan (2005). "Israel's Next War?". Frontline. PBS. Retrieved 2009-05-06.
- ^ "Home Office name hate promoters excluded from the UK". Press Release. UK Home Office. 5 May 2009. Archived from the original on 2009-05-07. Retrieved 2009-05-06.
- ^ "Who is on UK 'least wanted' list?". BBC News. 5 May 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-06.