Baruch Marzel

Baruch Meir Marzel (ברוך מאיר מרזל, born 23 April 1959) is an Israeli politician and activist.

He is an Orthodox Jew originally from Boston who now lives in the Jewish community of Hebron in Tel Rumeida with his wife and nine children.

He was the leader of the far-right-oriented Jewish National Front party.

He is now a member of Otzma Yehudit.

He was the "right-hand man" of assassinated Rabbi Meir Kahane, acting as spokesman for the American-born rabbi's Kach organization for ten years.

The mainstream Israeli press has described him as an "extreme right-wing activist".

Marzel was born in 1959 in Boston, Massachusetts, and emigrated to Israel with his family when he was 6 weeks old, settling in Jerusalem's Bayit Vegan neighbourhood.

Although his father Shlomo was a respected educator who did not deal much with politics, Baruch joined Kahane's Jewish Defense League at age 13.

He gave up his US citizenship when he ran for the Knesset.

He served in the IDF Armored Corps and fought in the 1982 Lebanon War, participating in battles along the Beirut-Damascus highway, after which he served in the United States as a representative for Sar-El.

Marzel and his wife Sarah have nine children.

According to a 2003 report in the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, "Marzel had acquired a police record of some 40 files before he was 30".

The report goes on to detail his criminal record, including assaults on Palestinians (one earning him a 12-month suspended prison sentence), an Israeli police officer, an Israeli left-wing activist, and the journalist Uri Avnery.

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 Avnery 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 [Avnery's] next words: 'I am against all assassinations, both by Israelis and Palestinians.'"

Marzel was considered too far-right for Israel's hard-right parties, such as the National Union or the National Religious Party (today's HaBayit HaYehudi party).

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.

Marzel had originally planned to run independently.

They eventually agreed not to submit their party's list on their own, and instead placed Ben-Ari on the National Union party list.

In August 2012, Israeli police arrested Baruch Marzel at the entrance to the town of Kiryat Arba over his failure to report for questioning.

He was suspected of being involved in several incidents in Hebron that took place six months prior, in which several Palestinians allegedly were attacked.

In 2013, Marzel ran for the Knesset again, this time on the third slot of the newly founded Otzma LeYisrael party, which splintered from National Union.

However, the party failed to cross the electoral threshold.

Prior to the election, other right-wing parties, such as the Jewish Home party, had rejected including or co-operating with Marzel, considering him to be too outspoken and too far-right.

In 2014, Yariv Oppenheimer, chairman of Peace Now, signed a police complaint against Marzel alleging threats against his life by his followers.

Prior to the 2015 Israeli election, Marzel was put 4th on the Yachad-Otzma Yehudit technical bloc.

Marzel's inclusion came as a result of a compromise between the two parties, including the exclusion of Michael Ben-Ari and the inclusion of Marzel.

In February 2015, the Election Committee disqualified Marzel, along with Arab MK Haneen Zoabi, from running in the election.

The decision squeaked by with a 17 to 16 majority.

The decision came after past attempts to block Marzel failed.

The reasons given for the disqualification of Marzel were several statements attributed to him, which groups petitioning the move claimed qualified as "racism".

Following Marzel's appeal, The Supreme Court accepted the appeals by both MK Haneen Zoabi and Marzel, against the decision of the Central Election Committee (CEC), which decided to disqualify them from participating in the next Knesset.

In the end, the Yachad-Otzma bloc failed to pass the election threshold by a mere 11,000 votes, thus not entering the Knesset.

Marzel and Ben-Ari started the process in November 2022 of launching a new party that would be to the right of Otzma Yehudit.

He is a writer for the Israeli newspaper Arutz Sheva.

Baruch Marzel was first arrested by police at age 14.

His first conviction followed three years later.