Moshe Feiglin

Moshe Zalman Feiglin (מֹשֶׁה זַלְמָן פֶייגְּלִין; born 31 July 1962) is a far-right Israeli politician and activist, and the leader of libertarian Zionist party Zehut.

He fought in the 1982 Lebanon War.

Feiglin ran a company that used rope rappelling in the construction industry.

Feiglin is married, and has five children, and lives in the settlement of Karnei Shomron.

This would have prevented Feiglin, who served a six-month sentence in the mid-1990s for civil disobedience, from running for either an MK or leadership position in the future.

Prior to becoming a Knesset member, Feiglin co-founded the Zo Artzeinu ("This is our Land") movement with Shmuel Sackett in 1993 to protest the Oslo Accords.

On 8 August 1995, eighty intersections throughout the country were blocked in a massive act of non-violent civil disobedience against the Oslo process.

In November 1996, Feiglin established the Manhigut Yehudit movement; it joined Likud in 2000, with Feiglin declaring that he would be a candidate for chairmanship of the party as a springboard for premiership of the State of Israel.

Feiglin co-founded the Manhigut Yehudit movement in 1996.

It began as a brainchild of Feiglin and a friend of his, Moti Karpel, who established the organization as the continuation of the Zo Artzeinu protest movement.

The main tactical difference between the two in Feiglin's thought is that Zo Artzeinu protested government policy without suggesting an alternative, whereas Manhigut Yehudit seeks to become the government and be the alternative.

Lacking the tools to do this, and without a political party with which to stake his run, he was approached by a founding member of the Likud party and participant in the Zo Artzeinu protests who proposed that Feiglin register for the Likud party and register, in turn, the thousands who participated in the protests, thereby building a support base for himself in the party, from which he could run for the party presidency and, in turn, Prime Minister.

According to Feiglin's own words, Manhigut Yehudit was started to "return the country to the people and lead the State of Israel through authentic Jewish values".

Feiglin says that the movement's leadership will arise from "those who have a deep commitment to Torah values".

As a result of his activities, Feiglin was sentenced to six months in prison in 1997 for sedition against the state by Israel's Supreme Court.

The sentence was later commuted to community service.

Feiglin was a minor candidate in the 2002 Likud leadership election.

Still, 30 percent of its present members are secular (2005).

He opposes the surrender of what he regards as Jewish land, and has demanded the government take action against the estimated 50,000 illegal Arab structures built throughout the country.

Feiglin has stated that Likud had "given up true Likud values and acquiesced in the Gaza evacuation".

In 2005, Feiglin again ran for Likud chairman and won 12.5% of the votes, coming third out of seven candidates, after Benjamin Netanyahu and Silvan Shalom.

He attempted to run for a slot on the party's Knesset list, but encountered severe opposition from Netanyahu, who delayed party elections and advocated making changes to its charter to bar "anyone who has served three or more months in prison" from running as a Likud MK.

Feiglin withdrew from the race on 3 January 2006, following the release of a statement from the Likud party election chairman declaring, in agreement with a prior decision by the Israeli High Court, that Feiglin's conviction was not for "dishonorable" violations of the law, allowing him to participate in future Likud affairs.

In the 14 August 2007 primaries, Feiglin nearly doubled his previous showing and received 23.4% of the votes to Netanyahu's 72.8%.

Netanyahu, fearing a strong showing by Feiglin, tried to have him ousted from the party prior to the vote, and said he would continue such efforts.

A member of Likud, he headed the Manhigut Yehudit (Jewish Leadership) faction within the party, and represented Likud in the Knesset between 2013 and 2015.

In early January 2015, Feiglin announced that he was leaving the Likud and forming his own party, after the Likud primaries the previous month.

Feiglin complained about efforts that were done to try to keep him out of Israel's parliament, the Knesset.

He referred to alleged political corruption in the Likud primary and legal maneuvers Benjamin Netanyahu took in the past to move him down the party’s list, accusing the prime minister of trying to assassinate him politically.

As a result of the above issues and timing, Feiglin did not form a new party for the Knesset elections in March, and instead decided to take his time to build a strong new party ("If we have to give up on the coming Knesset to build ourselves well and fundamentally, we will do so. We will take the time that we need to build ourselves in the proper and most exacting way.").

In July 2021, Feiglin returned to the Likud.

Feiglin's former party Zehut was in favor of legalizing marijuana.

Moshe Feiglin was born in Haifa, the son of Ya'akov Zvi and Esther Feiglin.

His ancestors moved to Israel from Imperial Russia during the First Aliyah.

His grandfather was the first child born in Metula, and some of his ancestors were among the founders of several settlements, including Mishmar HaYarden, Hadera, and Kinneret.

His father served in the Jewish Settlement Police during the British Mandate era.

His family later moved to Rehovot, where he attended the local Tachkemoni school of the Mizrachi movement, and subsequently graduated from Rabbi Haim Drukman's Yeshivat Or Etzion.

They are also related to Rebbes of The Chabad Dynasty.

During his IDF national service, Feiglin served in the Engineering Corps.

He later signed on to one additional year as a career soldier, and attained the rank of captain.