Victor Vancier

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Victor Vancier (born December 25, 1956 ), also known by his Hebrew name Chaim Ben Pesach (חיים בן פסח), is an American political activist , former chairman of the Jewish Defense League (JDL) and founder and leader of the extremist Jewish Task Force ( JTF). Because of his involvement in 18 explosives attacks in New York City and Washington , he was on trial in three different cases and was most recently incarcerated in a federal prison in Texas for over five and a half years . He is banned from entering Israel because of his activities in Kahanist organizations, which Israel has classified as terrorist organizations since 1994 .

biography

Youth and Terrorist Activities

Victor Vancier was a follower of the Orthodox Rabbi Meir Kahane in his youth . In 1978 he became chairman of the JDL, founded by Kahane, but was forced to resign when he was sentenced to imprisonment for bomb attacks on Egyptian targets in protest against Israel's withdrawal from Sinai . After his release he was again chairman of the JDL from April 1985 to November 1986. During this time he started a fundraiser that falsely pretended to raise money for then New York Governor Mario Cuomo to participate in the 1988 US presidential election . In truth, however, the money raised was used to fund the JDL.

On October 26, 1987, Vancier was sentenced to ten years in prison for his involvement in six explosive attacks between 1984 and 1986. Among the attacks was an incendiary bombing attack on Avery Fisher Hall on October 20, 1986, when a symphony orchestra from the Soviet Union was supposed to perform there. Vancier's attorney said of him in 1987 that it was fair to call him “a little bit crazy”. The judge Leo Glasser assessed Vancier as "a danger to this society". Vancier had carried out his attacks with several accomplices. One such accomplice, Jay Cohen, then 24, died of suicide after receiving a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Vancier said at the time that he felt personally responsible for Cohen's death.

Jewish Task Force

In 1991 he founded the Kahanist Jewish Task Force ( Hebrew הימין האמיתי, ha-jamin ha-amiti, something like: "The true rights "), which describes itself as an association of "right Jews and upright non-Jews " after the JDL based itself on began to distance himself from the damage to his image caused by his actions. The very extreme and violent JTF, which claims to be the only legitimate Kahanist organization, is controversial even in the Kahanist scene. It is currently neither supported by the JDL nor by the organizations Kach and Kahane Chai . Vancier, for example, describes the Koran as the "terrorist Bible of Islam" and worships the assassin Baruch Goldstein as a hero he knew personally and who killed 29 praying Muslims in the Machpelah cave in 1994 . The main task of the JTF is to collect donations to support Jewish settlers in the West Bank .

Vancier has operated a television station with JTF since 1991, currently through Queens Public Television (QPTV) in Queens , New York. Outside the United States, he and his organization sponsored the Islamophobic blog Politically Incorrect . In February 2011, the English Defense League announced the collaboration with the JTF on its Facebook page, which Vancier confirmed in a podcast. However, this collaboration was ended again by the EDL in August 2011. The EDL named Vancier's terrorist past as well as his offensive and seditious remarks against blacks, Christians and homosexuals as reasons for the separation. She further alleged that the collaboration with Vancier had only come from individual members of her organization and that they had acted without the authority of the EDL leadership.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Robert I. Friedmann: Herbert London's most racist friends . In: New York Magazine . November 14, 1994, p. 22 .
  2. ^ Elisabeth Bumiller : The Gladiators of Borough Park; Rivals Compete for Power in an Orthodox Arena. In: New York Times . March 17, 1996, p. 4 , accessed May 13, 2011 (English).
  3. ↑ a b c Jessica Elgot: EDL partners with far-right US Jewish group. In: Jewish Chronicle Online. February 16, 2011, accessed May 21, 2011 .
  4. ↑ a b Cuomo disavows Letter Seeking to Raise Funds in: New York Times , October 12, 1986th
  5. ^ A b Shultz Denies Congressman's Request to Close Jdl Offices in: Jewish Telegraphic Agency , January 11, 1988.
  6. ^ A b Leonard Buder: Prison for Ex-JDL Chief in Bombing. In: New York Times. October 27, 1987, accessed May 13, 2011 .
  7. ↑ a b c d e Prison for Ex-JDL Chief in Bombing New York Times Archives
  8. ↑ a b c d Yassin Musharbash. Demagogy on the Internet: Alliance of Islamophobes in: Spiegel Online , May 30, 2008, accessed on May 13, 2011
  9. ↑ a b c http://englishdefenceleague.org/the-english-defence-league-standing-firm/
personal data
SURNAME Vancier, Victor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pesach, Chaim Ben
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American political activist
DATE OF BIRTH December 25, 1956