Baruch Marzel - Political Activity

Political Activity

From his youth he participated in the Kach movement, and for nearly a decade he served as its spokesperson.

Marzel was elected head of the Kach movement's secretariat after Kahane was assassinated in New York. A splinter group from Kach, Kahane Chai, was led by Kahane's son Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane.

In 2003, Marzel joined Herut and Paul Eidelberg's Yamin Israel party to become the number two candidate on the party list, after Michael Kleiner, in the bid to enter the 16th Knesset session. The election advertisements featured him prominently with the traditional Hebrew saying "Hazak U'Baruch" (literally strong and blessed, Hebrew: חזק וברוך‎), a pun on Marzel's first name. Herut narrowly missed the minimum number of votes needed to enter the Knesset.

In 2004, he founded the Jewish National Front and headed its Knesset list in the 2006 elections. During the election campaign, Marzel called on the Israeli military to "carry out a targeted killing against (left-wing figure) Uri Avnery and his leftist collaborators." This came in reaction to Avneri earlier saying on Israeli radio station Kol Israel that the assassination of Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Zeevi was a Palestinian "targeted killing," like the Israeli military's "targeted killings" of Palestinian political leaders. According to Gush Shalom, "the radio did not quote next words: 'I am against all assassinations, both by Israelis and Palestinians.'"

Ultimately the Jewish National Front received 24,824 votes (0.79%), less than half the minimum 2% required to enter the Knesset.

In 2009, after fellow party member Michael Ben-Ari won a seat in Knesset on the National Union (Israel) list, Marzel agreed to serve as Ben-Ari's parliamentary aide.