Ettinger relative: Police arrested him because Kahane was his grandfather

Nitza Kahane, the daughter-in-law of the late Jewish ultranationalist Rabbi Meir Kahane, says the arrest of her nephew, far-right activist Meir Ettinger, was a show of force by police, who wanted the public to see they were taking action after the killing of a Palestinian baby.

She also claims Ettinger’s relation to Kahane, a mentor of present-day extremist settlers, was at play in the decision to arrest him.

“I think the fact that he’s Rabbi Kahane’s grandson was a far deeper motive in his arrest than any shred of information that they wanted to extract,” Kahane tells Galei Israel radio.

She also defends Ettinger’s aspirations to replace the Israeli government with a Jewish theocracy, saying, “It’s legitimate in a democratic country to want to change things. He wants to replace the laws of the state with the laws of the Torah, and that’s his right.

“If he succeeds in persuading enough people, he can realize it.”