November 14, 2004
With G-d’s help, may He bestow on me His
wisdom and enable me to convey His truth to this
esteemed gathering.
May the Creator’s blessings be upon you,
our dear brethren, the long suffering Palestinian
people.
Asalum Alaicum
Prior to conveying my message in regard to the
ongoing conflict in Palestine, permit me to express
the feelings of the Jewish people who are true
to their Torah, in regard to the sad event that
has occurred yesterday, the passing of the President
Abu Ammar, President Yassir Arafat.
We feel with the loss of the Palestinian people,
President Abu Ammar was a person who lived his
life in suffering and put his life on the line
and actually gave his entire life for the Palestinian
people. He had a clear vision and knowledge to
differentiate between Jews, Judaism, and its nemesis,
Zionism and the State of “Israel”.
He understood that Jews who are true to their
religion, are not enemies of the Palestinian nation.
The proof to this is that he appointed Rabbi Moshe
Hirsh to be the Jewish representative in the Palestinian
authority. Rabbi Hirsh is a G-d fearing Orthodox
Jew.
Jews who know that the Torah forbids a Jewish
State, and that we must be loyal to the people
amongst whom we reside, and that we are forbidden
to oppress a people, to steal their land etc.
know to hold in high esteem a Palestinian leader.
G-d should help that the successor to President
Arafat should have great success, to do righteousness
and goodness and may he constantly be aware of
the clear difference between Judaism, the Jewish
nation and its diametric opposite, Zionism and
the State of “Israel”.
We, of Neturei Karta International, salute you
from Jerusalem, New York, London, Montréal
and around the world. As many of you already know
the Zionist movement has been opposed by observant
Orthodox Jews from its inception. Zionism’s
first advocates were atheists, men who rejected
and betrayed their own Jewish faith. Orthodox
Jews have always believed that it is a Divine
decree that the Jewish people are to remain in
exile as loyal citizens to their host nations
until the Almighty will choose to redeem all of
mankind.
Thus, it matters naught to us if the Zionist
state be religious or secular, whether it be of
the right or of the left. Whatever form it should
adopt, Torah True Jewry throughout the world including
in the Holy Land itself, will never recognize
its existence. A large number of Jews who live
in the Holy Land refuse to accept any government
monies and do not participate in the electoral
process, and of course reject to serve in the
occupying military forces.
Further we see the ongoing oppression and humiliation
for decades of the Palestinian people, especially
what is happening currently through the criminal
policies of Sharon as a monstrous evil. The Torah
calls upon us to deal justly with all men. The
Torah calls upon us to exhibit kindness and loyalty
to all men, especially with the people of the
lands in which we reside throughout our exile.
Thus, it is inevitably the true Jewish position
to sympathize with the plight of the persecuted
and the downtrodden.
The idea of creating a wall to protect against
the reactions of a frustrated, subjugated people
is ludicrous and borders on insanity. It is the
most elementary truism of psychology that the
more you stifle the emotions of an oppressed people,
the greater the revolt will be. But our purpose
here is to convey the Torah truth that this apartheid
wall is only another notch carved on the list
of transgressions of G-D's oaths of exile, G-d's
commandment of "thou shall not steal"
etc. and G-d's requirement of compassion for one’s
fellow human being. The apartheid wall takes the
oppression of the Palestinian people one giant
step further. How we mourn the pain, sorrow and
endless rivers of bloodshed that has befallen
the Arabs and Jews due to the existence of the
State of Israel and its actions. It is so painful
to see the animosity created between Arab and
Jew, cousins who have co-existed in harmony for
so long. Through their actions, the Zionists continue
to create wholesale, universal anti-Semitism –
an ingredient that has been Zionism's main staple
for growth and success. And where thay have not
seceded, thay ensist and demand that the voices
of protest against their villainous deeds, that
is the voice of anti-Zionism is nothing but anti
Semitism, this is patently an outrageously false.
It is unthinkable to us that the Jewish people
should ever appear as the bully, the persecutor
or the dispossessor. And, in fact, it is only
those Zionist Jews estranged from their own true
faith and confused by the incessant propaganda
of the last fifty-six years who are responsible
for the current suffering.
Throughout the world there are untold numbers
of believing Jews who are horrified by the Zionists
criminal and racist treatment of the Palestinians.
These Jews regard the State of Israel as one of
the greatest tragedies in Jewish history. Even
though the Zionist propaganda machine portrays
to the world that they are representing the Jewish
people as a whole, thank G-D true believing Jews
succeeded on numerous occasions to remove the
mask, the cover-up of this unthinkable falsification.
Not to long ago a large delegation of Neturei
Karta in Jerusalem delivered a declaration of
peace and loyalty in the name of Orthodox Jewry
to the Palestinian representatives in the Orient
House, East Jerusalem. Their desire and our desire
is one and the same, to witness the peaceful dismantling
of the illegitimate Zionist state.
We seek the return of all the land, of course
including Al-Aqsa, to Palestinian rule.
We seek the return of all Palestinian refugees
to their rightful land.
And finally we seek the immediate and peaceful
dismantlement of the Zionist State.
We seek to live in the land of Palestine as anti
Zionist Jews, to reside as loyal and peaceful
Palestinian citizens, in peace and harmony with
our Muslim Brethren, just as our ancestors lived
in Palestine for centuries.
May the Creator grant that the current occupying
State should end speedily and peacefully in our
days, and again the Jew and Muslim may yet live
joyfully in harmony and peace under Palestinian
sovereignty throughout the Holy Land.
May we merit in the near future, to the day when
all humankind will recognize and serve the One
G-D, together, in harmony, AMEN.
|