Between January 15 and January 22, 2022, an international campaign was held in support of having Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian terrorists freed from Israeli prisons. At some of these demonstrations were Jews in religious garb waving Palestinian flags and displaying anti-Israel banners, including one reading: “Authentic rabbis always opposed Zionism and the state of Israel.”
These people are members of an ultra-orthodox group of Jews known as the Neturei Karta.
And a video of their participation in the initiative was posted to a Youtube channel with 2.1 million subscribers. This is just one of the latest examples of Neturei Karta being co-opted by anti-Zionists to “justify” their anti-Israel and antisemitic agendas.
‘Guardians of the City’: A Brief History of Neturei Karta
Neturei Karta, which means ‘Guardians of the City’ in Aramaic, rejects the existence of the State of Israel, Members believe that Jewish sovereignty in the Holy Land can only be established following the arrival of the Messiah.
During the early 19th century, various Jewish religious denominations held such beliefs. They perceived Zionism as standing in opposition to the Talmud, which teaches “that we are forbidden to rebel against the nations and that we should remain loyal citizens and we shall not attempt to leave the exile which G-d sent us into, ahead of time.”
Agudat Yisroel initially supported this notion, however, as the body gradually embraced a more Zionist outlook, some of its members defected and formed Neturei Karta in Jerusalem in 1938.
Neturei Karta Today: 0.03 percent of the Worldwide Jewish Population
Today, the Neturei Karta reside mostly in the Israeli neighborhoods of Batei Ungarin and Meah Shearim. They also have a presence in London and New York, where they continue to publicly express their opposition to Israel.
For example, Jews on January 2 held a rally in Brooklyn after two 21-year-olds wearing IDF shirts were harassed and called “dirty Jews.” A counter-rally was held across the street, organized by Neturei Karta along with the pro-Palestinian group Al-Awda. Neturei Karta posted a Youtube video of the event. In the accompanying description, Neturei Karta claimed that the pro-Israel protest effectively “defend[ed] a boy who engaged in provocation in a Palestinian neighborhood in New York.”
Related Reading: The Roots of Zionism
On July 31, 2021, an ‘Honor the Martyrs of Palestine Memorial and Rally’ was held in Brooklyn. Despite the fact that the event was scheduled on the Sabbath when driving is prohibited in traditional Judaism, Neturei Karta members journeyed an hour and a half in order to attend. They thereafter posted another YouTube video and accused Israel of “murder[ing] in one week a number of Palestinian civilians including children.”
Neturei Karta currently consists of some 5,000 members — a mere 0.03 percent of the worldwide Jewish population. Yet, the fringe group somehow manages to make it into the news on a regular basis.
Iran, PLO, Hamas, Hezbollah Use Neturei Karta to Deflect Antisemitism Charges
Despite their increasingly small numbers, some of the world’s leading anti-Zionists attempt to depict Neturei Karta as maintaining views that are representative of the Jewish people as a whole. This false impression enables others to argue that if, ‘even Jews are against the existence of a Jewish state, why shouldn’t I too?’
Indeed, Neturei Karta’s actions do not end with anti-Israel protests. Members of the group have met with Iranian officials as well as leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Also, Neturei Karta has associated with internationally recognized terrorist groups, having gone so far as to bring to Beirut in 2018 a gift for Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, and traveling to the Gaza Strip in 2009 to meet with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Related Reading: All You Need to Know About the Hezbollah Threat to Israel
On October 26, 2005, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad held a conference in Tehran titled, “The World Without Zionism.”
It was an antisemitic speech that generated a worldwide backlash, including condemnations from the United States, Britain, France and Russia. Yet, Ahmadinejad was lavished with praise by Rabbi Yisroel David Weiss, one of Neturei Karta’s most influential figures at the time. Weiss stated that “Orthodox Jews over the world are saddened by the hysteria which has greeted the recently stated desire of the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to see a world free of Zionism.”
Weiss asserted that the desire to end Zionism is “a yearning for a better, more peaceful world.”
Related Reading: The Iran Regime’s Incitement to Destroy Israel
Jewish Holocaust Deniers
Neturei Karta does not only associate with groups committed to the destruction of the Jewish state but also with Holocaust deniers. For example, members took part in the 2006 Holocaust Denial Convention in Tehran. During this convention, Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss stated that “They [Jews] have used the Holocaust as a device to justify their oppression.”
Rabbi Dovid Feldman, a spokesman for Neturei Karta, said on January 27 2014 at an Auschwitz memorial press conference that “The Zionists’ use of the Holocaust for their political purposes is an insult to the memories of the victims.”
Related Video: Twitter CEO Says Holocaust Denial Posts A-OK
Rabbi Moshe Dov Ber Beck, a leader of Neturei Karta who passed away in 2021, is another Holocaust denier. This, even though Beck spent his early years hiding along with his brother from the Nazis during World War II. He then immigrated to Israel in 1948 but decided to move to New York in 1970 due to his opposition to Zionism.
Despite having experienced the horrors of the Holocaust, Beck stated: “The Zionist policy during the Holocaust was that only Jewish bloodshed on a massive scale could help them achieve their state after the war. They provoked antisemitism and sabotaged rescue efforts, all for their political goals.”
PLO: Neturei Karta Leader Was ‘Part of the Palestinian People’
Furthermore, Neturei Karta has close ties to the Palestine Liberation Organization. Rabbi Moshe Hirsch, a former leader of the group, became a companion of the late PLO chairman and notorious terrorist Yasser Arafat. Arafat chose Rabbi Hirsch to be his adviser on Jewish affairs. When Hirsch passed away in 2010, senior Fatah leaders visited the Jerusalem neighborhood of Mea Shearim to offer their condolences.
Related Reading: Media Ignore Growing Despotism Inside Abbas’ PLO as Palestinians Protest Corruption
During this time, Hatem Abdel Qader, an adviser on Jerusalem affairs to current Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, told The Associated Press: “We consider Rabbi Hirsch a part of the Palestinian people. He is one of the Palestinian Jews whom we give all respect, and this is to confirm that our problem is not with the Jews as a religion, it’s with Zionism.”
Media’s Problematic Fixation
Why is it that Neturei Karta so frequently generates worldwide media coverage (See here, here, here, and here)?
Focusing on such a fringe group calls into question the judgment of leading news organizations, which are tasked with providing balance within the context of the complicated, nuanced Israeli-Palestinian conflict. News outlets’ disproportionate reporting on Neturei Karta risks effectively mainstreaming the group’s radical agenda, and serves to whitewash the antisemitism espoused by governments and terrorist groups across the globe that are committed to the Jewish state’s destruction.
Originally from Johannesburg, South Africa, Dina Leah Kay is a recent high school graduate who plans to study law and political science.
She is a Winter 2022 intern for HonestReporting.
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