Born Again Into the Family of God or the Family of Israel?

Neturei Karta is a Jewish group whose controversial solution to the bloodshed in Gaza is to bring about the end of the Israeli land. RT.com spoke to Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss, who explained why they think this is necessary.

It's not often you encounter a Rabbi with a Palestinian flag pinned to their jacket. But then Neturei Karta are annihilation but conventional.

They are a religious grouping of Haredi Jews whose name in Aramaic means 'Protectors of the Urban center'. The city in question is Jerusalem and the grouping is founded on their refusal to accept or recognise the country of Israel. Confused?

One of their main figures, Rabbi Weiss, explained their position to RT. He said, "Zionism is the transformation of Judaism, from organized religion, from subservience to God, into a material concept of nationalism. This is unacceptable to the ones who want to serve God. In order to create this nationalism, they are removing God from the equation.

"We were warned by the prophets that nosotros would exist expelled from the state and that happened with the destruction of the temple [in Jerusalem] 2,000 years ago. We were non to return in mass – it'south a godly decreed exile – and we're also not to rebel confronting whatever nation nosotros reside in. We are to be loyal citizens and pray for the well-existence of the land that is our hosts. We also should never brand any attempt to end exile."

For those unfamiliar with the Torah – the cardinal part of the Jewish bible – these sentiments may be fairly revolutionary. Neturei Karta believe they are following their holy book, and that leaving Palestine was an act of God. They besides think their religion commands them to publicly protest against what they deem transgressions in the name of Judaism. They particularly desire to make people empathize there is a fundamental difference between an Israeli and a Jew.

Rabbi Weiss continued, "[Zionists'] goal was to have their textile state, and whatever stood in their way didn't bother them. The Torah says thou shall not steal' then every concept of Zionism is breaching the Torah. They knew our organized religion does not phone call for the states to take upward arms and have over the country. On the contrary, nosotros are forbidden."

Israel was formed in 1948 and the post-obit twelvemonth was admitted into the United nations. There's a widely accepted narrative of how Israeli forces seized the state and property of the Palestinians, who were generally Muslim. This was all washed under the premise of creating "a national abode for the Jewish people" and the British government had set up this in motility during Globe State of war I with the Balfour Declaration.

Israel is now a modern land with a formidable army and successful technology industry. All the same, the way the country has treated the Palestinian people, who have been annexed into Gaza and the West Bank with limited rights, has left it open to criticism.

Rabbi Weiss said, "They mooched the Star of David from u.s.a. and claim to the world they are doing God's volition, that is to intimidate so that anybody who dares to speak up confronting them is an anti-Semite. Information technology's ludicrous, and a tragedy, equally they don't stand for our Torah. "

Neturei Karta claims to represent Jewish communities and says State of israel has created a fake legitimacy. Although State of israel has a Chief Rabbi and a Rabbinate, the Jewish organized religion also has this structure independently. Information technology's via this religious doctrine that Israel justifies its continued seizing of Palestinian country, which Israeli settlers then alive on – and this process is one of the major flashpoints between the ii states. It was an endeavour to remove Palestinians from Sheikh Jarrah that sparked the recent spate of disharmonize.

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Rabbi Weiss added, "The Zionists constantly try to incorporate the Torah into their monster chosen the land of Israel. They have a Chief Rabbi, a Rabbinate; it's all window dressing, they rubber stamp whatever Israel does and create an aura of holiness.

"There are, unfortunately, many college students, most from non-religious families or nominally religious, who autumn into the trap of Zionist propaganda and speak with emotion by proverb 'for 2,000 years nosotros've been in exile, we've suffered and God is giving us back the land'. But that's ignoring what it says in the Torah.

"People recollect to be a hero for Judaism they have to get back to Israel and go to the settlements. We're not condoning violence, merely they are inciting it by throwing out the Arab people like they're doing now in Sheikh Jarrah. An action beings a reaction; what do you lot expect? That's why there is bloodshed."

Simply not everyone agrees and there are those who are critical of Neturei Karta's "willingness to come across with the vilest of extremists." Group members admit they've met the leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah, both regarded by many countries as terrorist organisations. They've also spoken to old Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the late PLO leader Yasser Arafat and Gaza's de facto ruler Ismail Haniyeh. And they have even shared a platform with the former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Knuckles.

Rabbi Weiss said, "The leadership of Hamas say they have nothing against Jews and desire to live together. Both Hamas and Hezbollah want a peaceful dismantlement of the land; we also want that. Nosotros understand the core event is not Hamas, the problem is in 1948 they ratified a monster called the Zionist country of Israel that came and occupied some other people. Everything that is happening is only a reaction to this terrible injustice.

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"Before I starting time interviews, they ask me do you condemn Hamas? And if not, psychologically they say 'he is not condemning them, so it's not worth information technology to mind to him because he is a terrorist'."

"The terrorism is the creation of the state and the ongoing existence of that country, so that every day a kid is born in Palestine and they suffer. They see their family members die and they have an ingrained hate for the Jewish people if information technology'due south not antiseptic to them. It'southward beingness done in our proper name, with our symbols; the hypocrisy is beyond words."

Some other accusation levelled at Neturei Karta is that they are Holocaust deniers. Rabbi Weiss refutes this. He stressed, "My grandparents were killed in Auschwitz as were the majority of my family [on] both sides. My begetter escaped when the Nazis came to Hungary and near entirely all of our anti-Zionist communities are immigrant people who are the remnants of families who escaped from Hitler. So, nosotros don't deny the Holocaust considering it'south in our blood."

According to Rabbi Weiss, office of the complexity of the situation is that many Jews in Israel experience no loyalty to the state, merely are unable to speak out.

He confirmed that if he was to visit State of israel, he would await to be arrested and put in jail. "Many of usa don't go visit on principle… [and] eastward very boy and girl from our customs becomes a criminal when they turn 17 as they refuse to go in that location to do national service in the IDF [Israel Defence Forces].

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"They are always accusing us of beingness evil only because nosotros're practising Judaism; they tin can only vilify the Jews who stand and say, 'I've been living with my Palestinian neighbours in peace for years', we have a distinctly different faith but we lived together in peace. They came with their selfish, politically flawed concept without asking the ethnic people."

Neterei Karta's mission is non just to highlight the difference between Zionism and Judaism; it wants to see the peaceful devastation of Israel. Understandably, many come across the removal of a land and its 9.four-million population as a bizarre concept.

Rabbi Weiss explained, "Every 10 years or so the land of Israel has a war, they never have true peace. Nosotros believe it'south what God told us. Nosotros believe Israel will end because it's a directly rebellion against God, we are forbidden to have a Jewish country. We have to speak up and endeavour to plead with world leaders to stop supporting this occupation and try to bring relief to the Palestinian people, merely ultimately, it'south the Omnipotent who will bring an terminate.

"Yous may call up Israel is gear up in stone but it doesn't accept to go along. It was only 73 years ago and the globe went on hunky dory without them coming along. We could live without them."

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The Rabbi believes State of israel should be renamed and a Palestinian state created in its place. He then feels it could be a home to both Jewish and Muslim people, like it was for hundreds of years before.

He reflected, "South Africa looked hopeless, but once at that place was pressure to finish apartheid, the whole concept inverse. The whole concept of Palestine could exist changed from a then-chosen Jewish state to a Free State of Palestine. What would be then bad? It'south only an aberration of the terminal 70-odd years that we've not been living in peace. We lived together as brothers and sisters in Palestine, and flourished."

Some critics decline to offer Neutrei Karta a platform due to the accusations around its acquit and relationships. But the group is adamant it will continue to do its piece of work, as, for them, it's a God-given mandate.

Rabbi Weiss admitted, "We're jaded a lilliputian; we accept seen so many atrocities… in Gaza and the West Bank. There are e'er people who are pleasantly surprised and some who are shocked. Of class, the ones who are Zionists are aghast; they say we're anti-Semitic and what nosotros are doing volition crusade Jewish bloodshed.

"They attack Gaza with drones, people are murdered twenty-four hour period in, day out – and every person has a family unit. Every member is affected and all those in the refugee camps living in squalor, do yous think they abound up loving Jews?

"Nosotros tell them we hurt with you, and tell them the Jewish people don't accept what Zionists are doing. It totally defies logic on every level, but the globe buys into the Zionist propaganda and their PR machine. We want to stop the bloodshed and build bridges."

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The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and practice not necessarily represent those of RT.

Born Again Into the Family of God or the Family of Israel?

Source: https://www.rt.com/op-ed/524455-neturei-karta-rabbi-weiss-israel/

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