Neturei Karta - the Orthodox Jews who refuse to accept Zionism
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Neturei Karta take part in a march across the Brooklyn Bridge, titled March for Gaza, August 20, 2014. Photo by Heather Tenzer.
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Neturei Karta, the Orthodox Jewish Anti-Zionist group are both a
historical anachronism as well as an enduring phenomenon. At a time when much of
Jewish Orthodoxy has morphed into the vilest Jewish neo-Nazism, with its
doctrine of racial hatred, genocidal paradigms and blood worship, Neturei Karta
has stood out as the jewel amongst the Jewish Orthodox dross.
There was a time when 90% of the Jewish Orthodoxy were opposed to Zionism. Zionism was held to be a blasphemy, an attempt
to force God’s hand. Exile had been
decreed by God and it was not for man to defy this condition. Agudat Yisrael, which was
founded in 1912 to oppose Zionism, ended up in coalition governments in Israel.
See Early
Opposition to Zionism
The founder of political Zionism, Theodor Herzl, was unable to win over
any significant support from the Hasidic or Orthodox Jews of Europe. His own Chief Rabbi Morris Gudeman of Vienna
opposed him and it was the Orthodox Jews of Munich who led the opposition in
1897 to holding the First Zionist Congress there (it had to be transferred to Basel
in Switzerland).
However as time has gone on much of the Orthodox opposition to Zionism has
dissipated. Not so with Neturei Karta.
There are now efforts to document the history and contribution of Neturei
Karta.
Certainly NK represent the right-wing of the Palestine solidarity
movement. They are not progressive on questions such as women or gays. However
they are also no different from their Zionist religious counterparts in that
respect. Where they differ from the latter is that they don’t use the Jewish religion
and the Bible in order to rationalise a form of Nazi style racism against the Palestinians.
Whereas the most adored part of the Zionist bible is the story of Joshua,
the mythical Jewish leader who wiped out the City of Jericho and all its
inhabitants, yeah unto every suckling babe, NK disavow such racism.
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| Grand Rabbi Chaim Elazar Spira - fiercely opposed to Zionism |
Religious Zionism is the most racist and bigoted of any wing of Zionism.
It has morphed into the most atavistic settler ideology. Leaders such as Rabbi
Dov Lior of Kiryat Arba, famous
for saying that a Jewish fingernail is worth more than a thousand Palestinian
lives and that ‘during
warfare, killing non-Jewish civilians is permitted if it saves Jewish lives’.
There
is Rabbi
Shmuel Eliyahu, Chief Rabbi of Safed who
issued an edict barring Jews from renting property to Arabs. In 2007, Eliyahu
advocated mass slaughter of Palestinians in order to deter rocket fire from
Gaza, while defending a ruling by his late father that Israel was permitted to
indiscriminately kill civilians. “If
they don’t stop after we kill 100, then we must kill a thousand,”
Shmuel Eliyahu advised, adding, “And if
they do not stop after 1,000 then we must kill 10,000. If they still don’t stop
we must kill 100,000, even a million. Whatever it takes to
make them stop.” Some people will
say it is ‘anti-Semitic’ to call such a monster a Jewish Nazi but I can’t think
of another more accurate description.
There
was the Chief Military Rabbi and settler Brig.-Gen.
Avichai Ronski, who distributed material to soldiers invading Gaza such as
“it is forbidden under the [Jewish] Law to concede one millimetre of the
Land of Israel to the Gentiles. We will not leave it in the hands of another
people, not even a finger of it, not even a fingernail”.
Ronski told
the soldiers that
“there is no innocent population ... the morality of the Torah says ‘woe
unto the wicked’ [Isaiah 3:11] and woe unto his neighbour. We appeal for the
disregard of foreign doctrines and orders of all kinds that distort the logical
process of combat - the destruction of the enemy.”
In other
words the civilian population, including women, children and old people was
part of the enemy that must be destroyed.
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| Rabbi Eyal Karim |
Or there is Rabbi Eyal Karim the Israeli Army’s Chief Rabbi. Karim implied
that it was permissible to rape ‘attractive’ non-Jewish women during wartime in
order to keep the morale of soldiers up.
Further that it is permitted to kill wounded suicide bombers and gay
people should be treated as people “sick or disabled.”
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| Sephardic Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef |
Not forgetting of course Sephardic Chief Rabbi, Ovadia Yosef who believed
that gentiles (non-Jews) should
be treated thus:
“Goyim were born only to serve us. Without that,
they have no place in the world – only to serve the People of Israel.”
“In Israel, death has no dominion over them… With
gentiles, it will be like any person – they need to die, but [God] will give
them longevity. Why? Imagine that one’s donkey would die, they’d lose their
money.
“This is his servant… That’s why he gets a long
life, to work well for this Jew.”
“Why are gentiles needed? They will work, they will
plow, they will reap. We will sit like an effendi and eat… That is why gentiles
were created.”
There can be no doubt that compared to these savages Neturei Karta are a model
example of anti-racism. They have for example gone to Gaza and been welcomed by
the population and Hamas thus demonstrating another Zionist lie that Hamas and Palestinians
are inherently anti-Semitic.
Those who are involved in Palestine solidarity will be aware that NK
regularly appear at Palestine solidarity demonstrations and are thus living
proof that to be Jewish is not to be anti-Semitic. In recent times, of course,
more and more secular Jews have moved into opposition to Zionism so there is,
in a sense a competition between the different forms of Jewish opposition to Zionism,
not in itself a bad thing when some idiots in the Labour Party still believe
that anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism are one and the same thing.
Tony Greenstein
Emmaia
Gelman on December 3, 2018
Heather Tenzer is a filmmaker straddling three worlds: she grew up in a
modern Orthodox Jewish community that was Zionist, she left it for
non-religious life in New York, and she’s an activist for Palestinian freedom.
Her upcoming film, The Rabbis’ Intifada (http://therabbisintifada.com),
uniquely stitches together these three vantage points. Tenzer follows the
strictly-Orthodox rabbis of Neturei Karta – long-time supporters of Palestinian
rights, and opponents of Israeli colonialism – from the US to Jerusalem and
Gaza.
In this interview, Tenzer talks about navigating tensions in the
Palestine solidarity movement between religious and progressive frameworks for
liberation – and about her own challenges as a female documentary filmmaker
making boundary-pushing work.
Emmaia
Gelman: Why is Neturei Karta important in the Palestine
solidarity movement?
Heather Tenzer: Neturei Karta has a long history
of standing in solidarity with Palestine. Over the years, they’ve built a
reputation among Palestinians and their supporters as a Jewish voice with a
consistent presence at Palestine solidarity demonstrations. They unequivocally
express support for Palestinian rights. They speak out against Israeli
occupation, violence, and colonization. Because of that, they are appreciated
by many many Palestinians – but especially religious Palestinians.
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Palestinians are diverse. The Palestine solidarity movement is perhaps
even more diverse. And I think that Neturei Karta has a unique role to play in
that movement. Because NK are deeply religious Jews with socially conservative
values, they are able to identify with and relate to the sector of the
Palestinian community which is also deeply religious and also socially conservative.
Muslims in Gaza who are suffering under Israeli occupation were so touched by
NK’s visit and by their expressions of support. I saw it with my own eyes
– not just in Gaza, but also in Egypt, Turkey, Jordan… Religious Middle Eastern
communities appreciate their support, perhaps even more deeply than expressions
of support from Leftist or secular communities.
Neturei Karta often meet people who don’t necessarily know that Judaism
and Zionism are different. For example, when I was with the rabbis in Gaza, the
children there were initially afraid of them because they look religious
Jewish. For a lot of people around the world, Jewish means Zionist or even
Israeli. It means an occupier and an attacker and a purveyor of violence.
Israel is pretty effective at creating that illusion. Neturei Karta disrupt
that.
I was one of the people Neturei Karta reached! My first experience with
Neturei Karta was when I was a kid, marching in the Israel Day parade. I grew
up in an Orthodox community. Neturei Karta appeared to be very religious, much
more religious than my community. I was shocked to find out that religious Jews
opposed Israel.
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Neturei Karta protest Israel Day Parade – May 2018. Photo by Alex Laser.
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EG: There are
many critiques about Neturei Karta. A big one is that they’re not actually
interested in Palestinian human rights, but instead – what?
HT: The critique – and the myth, actually
– is that they’re just interested in following the Torah text, and everything
that they do is about allegiance to their Rebbe, and they can’t think for
themselves, and they’re backwards, and they don’t care about Palestinians, they
just care about being anti-Zionist. The only reason for supporting Palestine is
because they oppose Zionism, and the only reason they oppose Zionism is because
in the Torah is says that you must wait till the Messiah comes in order to have
a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
EG: That
critique would put them in the company of the Christian right: trying to hustle
the messiah into place.
HT: Neturei Karta – like all
religious Jews – are waiting for the coming of Messiah. I don’t think there is
a universally accepted idea among religious Jews of what will happen when
Messiah comes. However, there is an idea that Jews would be returned to the
Holy Land by God. That idea of return, as I understand it, is completely the
opposite of Zionism. It is not a violent forceful man-made return to the land
of Palestine, in which Palestinians are massacred or dispossessed. It is a
peaceful return of Jewish people to the Holy Land carried out by God. That does
not require violence against Palestinians. It does not require a nation state
at all, and we may well be living without nation states at all during this
imagined anarchic future.
EG: Neturei
Karta are controversial on the Left because their gender politics don’t sit
well with progressives. But their anti-Zionism puts them to the Left of major
Jewish groups in the Palestine solidarity movement on that issue. They also
break pretty sharply with other forms of Jewish Orthodoxy. Do you think of
Neturei Karta as radicals?
HT: Like other anti-Zionist Orthodox
Jews, Neturei Karta oppose a Jewish state for theological reasons. But, Neturei
Karta are unique in that they also support the rights of Palestinians to live
in peace in their homeland, to be free of Israeli occupation and violence.
Neturei Karta are unique in their efforts to speak out around the world in
support of Palestinian rights and liberation. That’s a step further than most
other Haredim.
I think it’s a mistake to talk about them in terms of Right and Left,
because it’s not how they define themselves. Their actions emanate from religious
and moral convictions. But if you look at Neturei Karta as a whole, often their
language and beliefs are more radical than other parts of the
Palestine solidarity movement. I can compare a Neturei Karta demonstration in
Jerusalem with a Leftist demonstration I saw on the streets of Tel Aviv. The
Neturei Karta demonstration was much more radical and clearly anti-Zionist.
They held signs calling Israeli actions in Gaza a “massacre.” At the Tel Aviv
protest, some progressives carried Israeli flags. They were critical of Israeli
policy, but still supported a Jewish state
So, yes, I think Neturei Karta’s approach is sometimes more radical than
that of those on the Left, whether that’s in Israel or here in the United
States. Interestingly, in the Israeli Left, now there are people slowly making
coalitions with Neturei Karta. They’re breaking with decades of animosity and
hostility.
EG: How did
Palestinians in Gaza respond to Neturei Karta?
HT: Religious Palestinians were
incredibly appreciative of Neturei Karta’s words and actions. When Neturei
Karta would visit Muslim families impacted by Israeli violence, I saw how
deeply their presence there was appreciated. Some people who identified more as
Leftist or communists or whatever were a little bit more on the fence, and not
really sure about how they felt about Neturei Karta.
I think the social conservatism of Neturei Karta is very similar to what
you find in a lot of different religious communities in the Middle East. And
that’s why, when they go there, one of the reasons they’re so welcome is
because of this cultural similarity and similarity in world view.
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Neturei Karta take part in a march across the Brooklyn Bridge, titled March for Gaza, August 20, 2014. Photo by Heather Tenzer.
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EG: In the
course of your work, what kind of conversations did you have with women or
queers inside Neturei Karta?
I have gotten to know several Neturei Karta women and many did not feel
comfortable being interviewed. I met one woman on the street in Williamsburg.
She talked about her support for Palestinians. I wanted to interview her, but
she felt uncomfortable with that. This is for cultural reasons, as women in
their religious culture generally feel a sense of modesty that prohibits their
participation in such things. Off camera, however, they were always very kind,
interested and supportive of my project in ways that pleasantly surprised me.
They’ve talked to me about milking their goats, about their children, and
sometimes even feminism. In one case, there’s a woman who speaks much more
fluent English than her husband. Because of that, she often serves as the
translator between us.
One time I was with a woman and her 12-year-old daughter in their
backyard. The daughter was jumping up and down so her skirt was bouncing. The
mother shouted at her daughter that she wasn’t being modest enough. It’s a very
rigid society where the laws of the Torah are in their every day,
moment-to-moment lives. To me, that level of modesty feels oppressive, but if
it is working for them, then who am I to say that my worldview is better?
One time, two Neturei Karta women were speaking with each other. One
woman says to the other something like “the men make the decisions, but the
women turn the man’s will.” It was a Yiddish expression that doesn’t translate
that well in English, but the idea was that women have the power to control
their husbands – in a sense, talking about women’s power. I’m hoping to do more
to include Neturei Karta women in the film.
I didn’t meet anyone who said that they were unhappy and wanted to leave
the community. But based upon what I have read and what some Haredim have told
me, it’s very hard to leave. You’re losing your entire family and community,
there’s not a middle ground. And yeah, it’s deeply difficult for those who
choose to leave.
EG: LGBTQ
rights are a major part of human rights conversations right now. How do you reconcile
Neturei Karta’s concern for human rights with their apparent lack of support
for LGBTQ rights?
HT: Neturei Karta and many other
Haredim don’t use the language of human rights, because they don’t have access
to secular education. Some are not familiar with Martin Luther King, Jr. for
example. Secular thinking is not a part of their world. They define everything
that they do, whether it’s going to sleep at night or joining a Palestine
demonstration, in religious terms. To explain their concern for Palestinians’
rights, they’ll quote the Torah text on the most basic things. For example,
Rabbi Meir Hirsch of Neturei Karta, who is featured in the film, quotes the
Torah – saying in Hebrew: ‘Love thy brother as thyself!’” He cites this text as
a reason why Jews are obligated to show solidarity with the Palestinians, and
“feel their pain,” as he says.
These are common Torah passages that have nothing to do with anything
esoteric, but are passages related to the ethical or moral obligations of Jews
about caring for fellow human beings.
As far as LGBTQ rights, as far as I know, nearly all strictly Orthodox
Jews don’t support homosexuality. I have a queer friend who was not in Neturei
Karta but was in another Haredi community. His Rebbe was, as he explained it,
sympathetic toward him in some ways, like: this is your struggle. But in the
end my friend who was married to a woman still felt like his identity as a gay
man was not reconcilable with living in that community. So, he left.
Interestingly, Jacob Israel de Haan is a figure whom Neturei Karta
consider as their martyr. He was assassinated in the 1920s by the Haganah. He
was an anti-Zionist Jew from Amsterdam living in Palestine. He was openly gay
and wrote homoerotic poetry that was published in Amsterdam. When he came to
Palestine, he went from being Zionist to anti-Zionist, and from secular to
religious. His was the first Jewish on Jewish political assassination in modern
history.
EG:
Are de Haan’s writings part of Neturei Karta life?
HT: His homoerotic poetry is
certainly not! He was a journalist/poet/novelist before he came to Palestine,
so those writings are not part of the Neturei Karta canon. But he became
friendly with Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld, the chief rabbi of the anti-Zionist
Haredim of Jerusalem. De Haan became the community ambassador. De Haan and
Sonnenfeld went to Transjordan to meet with the prince there, to say, “Look, we
represent the Haredi community of Jerusalem, and we oppose what the Zionists
are doing.” That was the purpose of their visit, to visit the prince and say,
“We want to live in coexistence with the indigenous people here.”
Then de Haan wrote to the British to say, “We, the Jewish community
of Jerusalem, do not want there to be a Jewish state here.” That was very
threatening to the Zionists.
EG: Are there
any other surprising characters in Neturei Karta?
HT: There’s Ruth Blau, who was a
Christian in the French resistance during WWII. She converted to Judaism, moved
to Israel and married Rabbi Amram Blau who was the head of Neturei Karta at
that time. It was a very controversial marriage because she was a convert, and
much younger than he. Rabbi Amram Blau was a religious guy, and he’s been
described to me as fearless. The Israeli police were very violent toward all
the anti-Zionist Haredim of Jerusalem since the beginning of the state.
Like, very violent. There’s news footage of these attacks. But
Rabbi Moshe Beck, one of the subjects in my film who knew Rabbi Blau, recalls
how Rabbi Blau would lead the demonstrations – despite the police violence, and
be totally fearless, and have all of the followers stand there and urged them
not lift a finger against the Zionists.
EG: What was it
like to reach out to them, when you’d decided to make this film?
HT: I reached out to Neturei Karta,
and to my pleasant surprise, they agreed to meet with me. I first met Rabbi
Meir Hirsch in Jerusalem. He’s the leader of Neturei Karta there. I was
surprised that the rabbi was so at ease with me and with my friend Sammy who
was translating; surprised that he was willing to speak with me as a woman
conducting the interview and at his willingness to speak frankly, to trust in
our capacity to represent him fairly. But most of all I was very shocked
by his forthcoming and radical language around what Israel was doing to
Palestinians. Rabbi Hirsch called Israeli actions ‘crimes against humanity.’
EG: Following
your first impressions, did your opinions about Neturei Karta change as you
worked on the project?
HT: I didn’t go into it having a lot of negative stereotypes about
religious people, in part because I grew up in a religious community. Still,
there were things they’d say that I strongly disagreed with and others that
would pleasantly surprise me. Our values are oftentimes deeply at odds and
oftentimes overlap. That’s the way things are with most of humanity.
The first time I heard them speaking in a way that I found intolerant of
LGBTQ communities, that was hard.
EG: What have
been the biggest hurdles in making this film?
HT: When I started the film, almost
immediately I got a little backlash. I started shooting in Jerusalem years ago.
Some Israeli Leftists were very supportive. But others were like, why are you
covering Neturei Karta? They’re horrible people, they’re homophobic, they’re
sexist… why? I was surprised by this reaction. It seemed to me mostly
immaterial what Neturei Karta’s religious beliefs are… I mean, their religious
ideology is followed by hundreds of thousands of Orthodox Jews around the
world. And the fact that they were supporting Palestinians and that
Palestinians were appreciating it, that makes it valuable. Whether or not they
have values that we would get on board with as Leftists, that felt very
secondary.
There are many legitimate critiques that can be made about Orthodox
communities at large. But I see secular men pointing the finger at religious
communities and being like, “Hey! Those women are really oppressed. Those
places are repressive for women and sexist.” While some of that is true, those
same critics tend to ignore these ways that women are oppressed in secular
society, when right now in the US secular women are fighting serious battles
against sexism (the #MeToo movement immediately comes to mind!), which is
pervasive in many secular workplaces, including in the documentary film
industry, and is often perpetrated by secular men.
I see a Zionist force at play in the effort to discredit Neturei Karta.
I think Zionists highlight Neturei Karta’s social conservatism as a way to undercut
the power of what Neturei Karta are doing by saying here’s how they don’t
measure up to liberal Western standards. Zionists have done the same thing to
Palestinians, criticizing them as “not liberal enough” as a way of trying to
push the Western Left away from supporting them.
EG: What
work are you hoping your film will do in the world?
HT: I hope first and foremost that
the film will humanize Palestinians and expand the conversation around
Palestine and Israel. A lot of folks in this country and abroad still think
that all Jews – especially religious Jews – support Israel and its
policies. Neturei Karta help to challenge that myth. Many folks tend to think
that what is happening in Palestine/Israel is a religious war between Islam and
Judaism. And I think Neturei Karta help to challenge that by talking both about
the history of Muslim/Jewish coexistence and about religious texts that
prohibit Jews from killing and occupying Palestinians—or any other people for
that matter. Neturei Karta come and say that that violence perpetrated against
Palestinians is perpetrated by a state which claims to be acting in the name of
Judaism but is actually only acting in the name of nationalism. I hope the film
will challenge stereotypes about Neturei Karta, Muslims, Palestinians, and
Arabs, and about religious Orthodoxy and what it means to be an activist. I
also hope that film will challenge American Jews – and Americas more broadly –
to learn about the history of persecution of Palestinians at the hands of
Israel. And I hope that by showing a community of religious Jews who are
critical of Israel, more Americans will feel licensed and safe to also critique
it – without fear of being called an anti-Semite.
