Brit HaKanaim (Hebrew: בְּרִית הַקַנַאִים, lit. Covenant of the Zealots) was a radical religious Jewish underground organisation which operated in Israel between 1950 and 1953, against the widespread trend of secularisation in the country. The group was made up of students at the Porat Yosef Yeshiva in Jerusalem and had more than 35 members at its peak.[1] Among its members were Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, who later served as the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel, and Shlomo Lorincz who later served as chairman of the Knesset Finance Committee as a member of Agudat Yisrael.[2]
The ultimate goal of the movement was to impose Jewish religious law in the State of Israel and establish a Halakhic state.[3] The organisation's members trained using stolen weaponry, and would torch the vehicles of individuals who drove during Shabbat and the shops of butchers that sold non-kosher meat.
Brit HaKanaim planned to disconnect the flow of electricity to the Knesset and throw a smoke bomb into the Knesset Plenum during the course of a debate about the drafting of women into the Israeli Defense Forces. However, the group had been infiltrated by the Shin Bet, and its members were arrested before this attack could be carried out.[4] Four of those arrested were sentenced to short periods of imprisonment.[5] During the period of their detention there surfaced allegations of police misconduct in the treatment of the detainees, and a parliamentary inquiry was established to investigate the conduct of the police forces.
They completed their terms of imprisonment prior to the completion of the trial in the Jalmi prison, near Sha'ar HaAmakim. Since, the group has also sometimes been referred to as the Jalmi Underground.
Another radical Jewish underground organisation which operated at this time was the Kingdom of Israel.
Pedahzur, Ami, and Arie Perliger (2009). Jewish Terrorism in Israel. Columbia University Press.