Kahane promoted a violent, anti-Arab ideology that advocated the transformation of Israel into a theocracy in which non-Jews would either be expelled or accept no civil and voting rights.

Kahane was the founder of the political party Kach and the militant Jewish Defence League, which have both been banned as terrorist organisations in a number of countries, including Israel and the US.

Kach was banned from participating in elections in Israel in 1988 over its racist policies, before being banned outright in 1994 following the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre in which a Kahane supporter shot dead 29 Palestinian worshippers in Hebron.