Rabbis Demonstrate at US Supreme Court Building
A demonstration took place on Friday, April 22 to give publicity to the views of anti-Zionist Orthodox Jewry during a session of the US Supreme Court in Washington DC, during which the court decided whether to hear the case of Zivotofsky v. Clinton, in which the petitioner demands that the United States officially recognize the city of Jerusalem as part of the State of Israel.Â
About two dozen rabbis stood at the steps of the Supreme Court building and expressed their fear of the harm to the Jewish religion and Jewish people that might result from a decision to legitimize the above claim.
Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss, a spokesman for Neturei Karta International, said, “The issue of Jerusalem is just one part of the traditional Orthodox Jewish opposition to the philosophy of Zionism and the establishment of a sovereign homeland for the Jews.
“A fundamental part of Jewish belief is that since the destruction of the Second Temple approximately 2000 years ago, Jews have been in a Divinely decreed exile, and are forbidden to create their own State or to rebel against any nation.
“Jews once lived in peace in all Arab countries, including Palestine. It was only the nationalistic Zionist immigration, starting around the beginning of the 20th century, that gave rise to today's conflict. The local Orthodox Jews, who had been in Palestine before the days of Zionism, strongly opposed the new movement.
 “In fact, in the summer of 1947, when the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine was in Jerusalem compiling its report, Rabbi Joseph Zvi Dushinsky, chief rabbi of the old religious community of Jerusalem, appeared before the committee to plead with them not to recommend a Jewish state, and if they did, at least not to include Jerusalem in that state. This position was shared by the vast majority of religious Jewish leaders in Europe and in the Middle East. And indeed, the UN plan called for Jerusalem to be an international zone, not part of the State of Israel. Although Israel captured the western half of the city and claimed it as its capital, the US, along with most countries in the world, has never recognized that move as legitimate.
“To this day, our Orthodox Jewish communities have been vocal in our opposition to Israeli rule over Jerusalem and all parts of the Holy Land. Our community in Jerusalem would vastly prefer living under Palestinian rule to living under the Zionist government.
“We are outraged at the transgressions of Jewish teachings and violations of human rights committed by the Israelis when they established their state in 1948, and then proceeded to expand it in 1967 by capturing East Jerusalem and the West Bank in violation of international law. We feel that these acts of aggression were the fundamental cause of the terrible conflict in Palestine, which has led to mistrust and acts of violence between Jews and Arabs throughout the world."
Rabbi Weiss concluded, “We sincerely hope and pray that this case will be rejected by the Supreme Court, and that the United States will maintain its longstanding policy of not considering Jerusalem as part of the State of Israel. We also hope and pray that the United States and the world will soon recognize a Palestinian State and call for the peaceful dismantlement of the entire State of Israel." |
