Neturei Karta

Neturei Karta (Aramaic: "Guardians of the Gates") is a group of Orthodox Jews which rejects Zionism and the establishment of the State of Israel. They belive that the true Israel can only be reestablished with the coming of the Messiah. They number some 5,000 and are concentrated in Jerusalem. Other, larger groups associated with Neturei Karta but not members of the group, can be found in Israel, London, New York City, and upstate New York state.

See [1] (http://www.netureikarta.org) [2] (http://www.netureikartauk.org) [3] (http://www.jewsnotzionists.org).

For the most part, the members of Neturei Karta are descended from Hungarian Jews that settled in Jerusalem's Old City in the early nineteenth century. They were tradesmen and craftsmen, who devoted most of their time to studying the Talmud and other sacred texts. Most of their livelihood was based on the halukah, or distribution of charitable donations from wealthy Jews in the Diaspora. In the late nineteenth century, they participated in the creation of new neighborhoods outside the city walls to alleviate overcrowding in the Old City, and most are now concentrated in the neighborhood of Batei Ungarin and the larger Meah Shearim neighborhood.

At the time, they were vocal opponents to the new political ideology of Zionism that was attempting to assert Jewish sovereignty in Ottoman-controlled Palestine. They resented the new arrivals, who were predominantly secular, and claimed that Jewish redemption could only be brought about by the Messiah. Among the proofs they brought for this argument was a talmudic Midrash (legend) that God, the Jewish People, and the nations of the world made a divine pact, when the Jews were sent into exile by the Roman Empire. One provision of the pact was that the Jews would not rebel against the non-Jewish world that gave them sanctuary; a second was that they would not immigrate en masse to the Land of Israel. In return, the legend states, the Gentile nations promised not persecute the Jews too harshly. By rebelling against this pact, they argued, the Jewish People were engaging in open rebellion against God.

In fact, this position was adopted by the bulk of the Orthodox world (with the exception of a small faction of Orthodox Zionists, led by Chief Rabbi Abraham Kook and his followers) well up until the United Nations voted to partition Palestine on November 29, 1947. Representatives of another Orthodox party, Agudat Israel, actually asked the General Assembly to vote against partition. Tensions were at their highest between the Zionist and non-Zionist Jewish communities in Palestine in the 1920s, following the assassination of Jakob de Haan[?], a Dutch poet, former Zionist, and spokesman for Agudat Israel against the creation of a Jewish State. De Haan was assassinated by the Haganah, the Zionist paramilitary group operating in the country. There were rumors that he was killed because of open homosexuality and predilection for Arab teens. Those rumors were the merest propaganda, and in november 1970 ( and eventually rebroadcast november 21, 1971), a program on Israel radio " zarkor" broadcast a program, that had Yehuda slutski editor of kitsur toldoth haganah and avraham tehomi, and police officer david tidhar discussing their foreknowledge and role in the assassination. yehuda slutski editor of kitsur toldoth haganah " ....The old yishuv refused to surrender and submit to secular domination... when they broke away and formed an independent community... no one disturbed them. Were it not for Dehaan, they would have organized their small community devoid of any communal or political significance. Dehaan used his connections to move the struggle into the realm of international politics. He aspired to establish a political organization to rival the zionist movement, which was still then in its infancy and not yet fully establsihed-- this was the danger of dehaan. " yosef hecht commander of the haganah received instructions to eliminate the traitor. He relayed orders to zechariah urieli, haganah commander of jerusalem, .....I do not want to enter into details, it is extremely unpleasant, but this was an order--- they could not allow him to remain" Avraham Tehomi said" This was not Hecht's decision alone. someone very important in the country was involved in this... this was a very high level decision ( I hope this does not appear in the broadcast...) He received permission....the time has still not come to reveal the truth... Interviiewer Chaninah Amotz, the producer, piped in " Who ordered this? Can't it be told after 50 years? Tehomi said, " I do not want to say"

Later in the broadcast police officer david tidhar said " I regret I was not chosen to liquidate him, My job was to protect those who did..............." i moved into the area and waited for the shots...... Naturally I appeared on the scene immediately. Since I knew in which direction the gunman had to escape... I directed the police to pursue them [ in the opposite direction]..."

Nevertheless, Agudat Israel reevaluated its position upon the establishment of Israel and has been a participant in most governments since that time (though it still will not accept a ministerial portfolio as a result).

This switch of allegiance by Agudat Israel caused a radical shift in the ideology of Neturei Karta, which felt betrayed by their Orthodox Allies. Their attacks against Israel and Zionism became all the more extreme, especially under the leadership of Rabbi Amram Blau and his wife, a convert and former member of the French Resistance, who had rescued Blau during the Holocaust. The community became more insular, while forming alliances with other sects that rejected the pragmatic support given by Agudat Israel to Israel's secular government after independence. Among their allies were the large and affluent Hasidic group Satmar, under the leadership of Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum, formerly of Hungary and later of New York City, as well as other hassidic groups, some in Israel and others in the Diaspora. With their help, Neturei Karta was able to withstand paying taxes to the state that they did not recognize and conversely, to avoid obtaining any benefits from that state by revitalizing the halukah distribution of funds that characterized earlier generations. As such they became a self-contained community within Israel with few formal ties to the surrounding political infrastructure.

While many in Neturei Karta chose to simply ignore the State of Israel, a fringe element took proactive steps to condemn it and bring about its eventual dismantling until the coming of the Messiah. Chief among these is Rabbi Moshe Hirsch, Neturei Karta's self-proclaimed "Foreign Minister," who serves in Yasser Arafat's cabinet as Minister for Jewish Affairs.

Hirsch and his followers oppose Israel on religious grounds. Devoutly committed to their faith, they reject Jews who do not share their level of observance as heretics. Nevertheless, they also maintain that an Orthodox community of Jews can and should be a viable minority in an Arab-dominated Palestinian state. According to their ideology, the Jews were first sent into exile for their sins, so that a secular Jewish presence in Israel could be grounds for further expulsions and exile. At their most extreme, they claim that the Holocaust was divine punishment for the sins of secular Jews, but at the same time they also believe that the time will come when all Jews will repent or be lost and the Messiah will come to redeem them. Their website claims that the Zionists deliberately condemned thousands of Jews to die in Nazi gas chambers, rather than allow them to emigrate to destinations other than Palestine, in order for the Zionists to claim a Zionist State.

They also claim that the mass media deliberately downplays their viewpoint and makes them out to be just a few, while there are a large number of Jews with the same beliefs.

External links

• Neturei Karta official home page (http://www.netureikarta.org)
• Neturei Karta in Britain (http://www.netureikartauk.org/)
• Jews not Zionists FAQ's, ten questions (http://www.jewsnotzionists.org)
• Analysis of Neturei Karta (http://www.washington-report.org/backissues/1196/9611040.htm)