The Rabbis’ Intifada – An Unbroken Chain of Jewish anti-Zionism and Solidarity

Neturei Karta - the Orthodox Jews who refuse to accept Zionism

Neturei Karta take part in a march across the Brooklyn Bridge, titled March for Gaza, August 20, 2014. Photo by Heather Tenzer.

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.

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.

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.”

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

Neturei Karta’s long history of solidarity with Palestinians is subject of upcoming documentary

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.

Documentarian Heather Tenzer, at Israel Day Parade – May 2018. Photo by Alex Laser.

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.

Neturei Karta protest Israel Day Parade – May 2018. Photo by Alex Laser.

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.

Neturei Karta take part in a march across the Brooklyn Bridge, titled March for Gaza, August 20, 2014. Photo by Heather Tenzer.

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.

Israeli Professor and Holocaust Researcher Daniel Blatman compares Israel's Political and Military elite to their Nazi equivalents

J'Accuse  - My Fiery Protest Is Simply the Cry of My Very Soul

J’Accuse was the title of the Open Letter by Émile Zola to the President of the French Republic, Félix Faure . It was written in support of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French army.  

Dreyfus had been convicted in December 1894 of treason after having been framed by fellow officers. J'Accuse was published in L’Aurore on Jan. 13, 1898. The letter denounced the army for covering up the wrongful conviction of Dreyfus. It was instrumental in building the campaign to free Dreyfuss.  Zola was himself tried on Feb. 7, 1898, for defamation of a public authority, the Army, and was sentenced to one year’s imprisonment and a fine of 3,000 francs. As a result of all the attention Dreyfus underwent a new court-martial. Although still found guilty, he was pardoned by the President of the Republic. Not until 1906 was Dreyfus formally cleared of all wrongdoing. See

The following article is based on Emile Zola’s famous letter.  It is penned by Professor Daniel Blatman who is a Holocaust researcher and head of the Institute for Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.  For background information on Professor Blatman, who is a Fellow of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum see.

Daniel Blatman’s letter is an accusation directed against the political and military echelons of Israel, their blatant disregard of the basic norms of a democratic society, their contempt for the most basic human rights of the Palestinians.  He openly compares the generals of the Israeli military to their equivalents in the German and Japanese armies:  ‘Senior German and Japanese officers and commanders gave exactly the same reasons when they tried to explain the injustices in occupied Russia and the Philippines.’

Unlike the pathetic apologists for Israel’s war crimes in the West, who believe that any comparison with the Nazis is anti-Semitic, Professor Blatman has no such scruples.  Unlike the fools who agreed to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism, Daniel Blatman know something about the atrocities of the Nazis as well as the atrocities and similarities of the mentality of Israel’s rulers with the Nazi state. See for example Professors Ofer Cassif & Daniel Blatman of the Hebrew University, Jerusalem Compare Israel to Nazi Germany

In Heading Toward an Israeli Apartheid State Blatman compared Germany’s Nuremburg Laws, South Africa’s Apartheid Laws and Israel’s ‘tsunami of racist laws’ passed in recent months.

Tony Greenstein

Professor Offer Cassif

Just like Emile Zola, people of conscience are protesting against the leaders who have sent Israel’s politics and culture down to levels worthy of a fascist beer hall

Daniel Blatman

  Apr 08, 2018 4:17 AM

The headline of this piece is taken from the open letter “J’accuse” by the novelist Emile Zola to France’s president on January 13, 1898. It’s about the injustice caused to Alfred Dreyfus, and about shattering France’s legacy of liberty, turning anti-Semitism into a force unifying the haters of equality. It’s about the lies and malice in the army and the corruption, distortion of truth, ignorance, violence and deceit. Zola protested all these things and accused those responsible. In Israel on the eve of our 70th Independence Day, we are also accusing.

Captain Alfred Dreyfus - Framed Jewish Officer

We are accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of selling his soul to the devil of incitement, fearmongering and racism. Circumstances gave him a chance to appear before the world as a leader who courageously says the right things: We will deal with the distress of tens of thousands of unfortunate human beings based on the values of justice and humanism.

Now, a few days before Holocaust Remembrance Day, when we remember the Jewish refugees who could find no safe haven to which to flee, we will put an end to this difficult humanitarian problem. My fellow citizens, a worthy leader would say, this is the way, it’s the right and proper way and there is no other. But Netanyahu, who is chiefly to blame for Israel’s current situation, chose to remain a pathetic and scared leader without moral backbone.

Emile Zola

We also accuse Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who defends an army that commits war crimes against civilians demonstrating against their poverty and distress while they are imprisoned between the sea to the west and fences, snipers’ rifles and tanks to the east. We accuse him of incitement against the country’s Arab citizens, corrupt politics and hooliganism, and of using the norms of a regime that no longer exists, which are poisoning the shaky Israeli democracy. We accuse him of encouraging incitement against elected officials – Jews and Arabs – who were legally elected to the Knesset and faithfully represent their constituencies.

We accuse the heads of the army and the security agencies of failing to protest against the political leadership and warn that after 50 years of occupation and oppression the Israel Defense Forces is losing the ability to distinguish between what is permissible and what is forbidden. The army’s spokespeople sometimes sound like the officers of armies whose leaders were accused of collaborating with the worst crimes of the 20th century. Senior German and Japanese officers and commanders gave exactly the same reasons when they tried to explain the injustices in occupied Russia and the Philippines.

There too, adhering to the mission, defending the homeland, strategic considerations, instructions from the high command and obeying orders served as excuses to justify firing at unarmed people, arrests in the dark of night and deadly collective punishment. And there too it began with 17 people murdered and ended with thousands.

We accuse Education Minister Naftali Bennett of brainwashing the next generation, of turning Israel into a country whose young people think democracy is a form of government that’s right only for Jews, preferably those who observe the appropriate religious ceremonies. He is guilty of emptying the school system of its universal messages and filling the minds of the country’s young people with inferior religious kitsch accompanied by messages with fascist content: the nation’s greatness and the value of sacrificing one’s life for it. He is guilty of nurturing martyrdom centering around the Holocaust and worshipping the rocks of Samaria, creating a philosophy composed of a sacred God, sacred soil and a sacred race.

We also accuse Culture Minister Miri Regev and Likud MKs David Amsalem, Miki Zohar, Nava Boker and their ilk – politicians whose vulgarity and hooliganism is second only to the depth of their ignorance. These are people who have turned the language of the marketplace into a language used in public discourse; people who proudly flaunt their ignorance (“I don’t read Chekhov”) as if they had won a prestigious prize for scientific research or a literary work; people who turn the elected official’s obligation to shun corruption into nothing more than a suggestion.

And despite the attempts to claim that this pathetic gang is the authentic representative of some (Mizrahi?) revolution, its members are guilty of the deterioration of Israel’s politics and culture into dark corners of the type that flourished in the beer halls where hatred, violence and racism reigned. Then it was the Jew, today it’s the liberal, the leftist, the Arab or any person who doesn’t agree with them.

We accuse Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and Tourism Minister Yariv Levin, two people whose goal is to take apart the last defender of Israeli democracy – the Supreme Court. They’re two educated young people who are advancing bills (the nation-state bill, for example) and appointments in the judiciary based on a new Zionist ideology, National Zionism, that represents an antithesis both to the traditional Zionism of the 20th century and the post-Zionism of the century’s end. This Zionism is a branch of European neo-fascism, which contains elements of xenophobia and ultranationalism, subordinating democracy to other values and restricting individual rights and the freedom and independence of the law.

We accuse the preachers of hatred who bear the title “rabbi”: Eli Sadan, Dov Lior, Shmuel Eliyahu, Yigal Levinstein and many others, for turning Judaism into a religion that supports ethnic cleansing and genocide, xenophobia, the exclusion and hatred of women and the harming of gay people. The guilt of these men is great because they educate hundreds and thousands of young people, and their hate-filled preaching has many listeners who accept their words because they wear skullcaps and sport beards and are therefore thought to have special wisdom and knowledge.

They are the spiritual force behind the gangs of young people who harass the Palestinian and his olive grove in the territories, they are the ones who grant religious justification for the acts of violence and murder committed by the kippa-wearing thugs. They are the greenhouse that nurtures politicians such as MK Bezalel Smotrich, a racist, homophobe and preacher of genocide. Only in Israel (or in benighted countries in the previous century) could someone like him become deputy Knesset speaker.

History — or if it isn’t too late, the Israeli voter — will pass judgment on all of them, and others. Confronting them is a gradually shrinking group of dissidents who are stubbornly marching against the prevailing atmosphere. These are the civil society activists who by their protest are halting the expulsion of asylum seekers, the Holocaust survivors who are helping lead the protest against the deportation, the members of the New Israel Fund who continue to support whatever promotes the values of equality and democracy in Israel. These are the people who petition the High Court of Justice against the injustice perpetrated by the government, the activists of the Jewish-Arab partnership, and everyone who still believes it’s possible to stop the wheel before it crushes us all.

Emile Zola concluded his letter as follows: “As for the people I am accusing, I do not know them, I have never seen them, and I bear them neither ill will nor hatred. To me they are mere entities, agents of harm to society. The action I am taking is no more than a radical measure to hasten the explosion of truth and justice. I have but one passion: to enlighten those who have been kept in the dark, in the name of humanity which has suffered so much and is entitled to happiness. My fiery protest is simply the cry of my very soul.”      

The Chief Rabbi of Safed, Shmuel Eliyahu, rules that rape in war is justified

Ellie Tzavieli - the Holocaust survivor who was threatened for defying Eliyahu and renting rooms to Arab students

Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu of Safed, notorious for incitement against Palestinians.

Just when I’ve taken a vow to abide by the Zionists' International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism (which defines anti-Zionism and support for the Palestinians as ‘anti-Semitic’) along comes Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu.  The IHRA definition of anti-Semitism stipulates that anti-Semitism might be

• ‘Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.

The problem is, what is someone behaves like a Nazi?  Is it still anti-Semitic to call them what they are?  Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu is an old favourite.  He is not any common or garden rabbinical Nazi.  

Shmuel is the son of the former Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel, Mordechai Eliyahu.  He is also a member of the Chief Rabbinate Council, who when it came to racism was no slough.

Mordechai Eliyahu gave a passionate eulogy to the neo-Nazi Rabbi Meir Kahane who was assassinated by a Palestinian in New York in 1990.  He ruled that Jewish settlers in the West Bank could harvest Palestinians' olive trees and steal their crops as the land really belonged to the Jewish people anyway. He told students at the ultra-nationalist Mercaz Harav Yeshiva following an attack that "even when we seek revenge, it is imperative to remember that a thousand Arabs are not worth one yeshiva student." During Operation Cast Lead in Gaza he wrote to the prime minister Ehud Olmert, that there was nothing wrong with indiscriminately bombing and killing Palestinian citizens if this would make the battlefield safer for Jewish soldiers.  Anshel Pfeffer / Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu – an Eloquent Racist

It is a case of like father like son.  Shmuel Eliyahu advocated genocide in Gaza in ‘retaliation’ for the firing of Quassem rockets.  Despite these rockets, which are mainly fired in retaliation for Israel's attacks, killing 44 people over 10 years, compared to 2,200 killed in Operation Protective Edge and another 1,400 in Operation Cast Led,  he said that:

‘If they don't stop after we kill 100, then we must kill a thousand," said Shmuel Eliyahu. "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."  

Eliyahu Advocates Carpet Bombing Gaza, Matthew Wagner, Jerusalem Post,  May 30, 2007 

Its not a long hop from one million to five or even six million.  There are those who argue that it is ‘anti-Semitic’ to compare Zionism with the Nazis.  But how else can one characterise Eliyahu other than to call him a Jewish Nazi?

None of this has prevented Eliyahu being appointed as the head of Israel’s Red Cross, Magen David Adom.

Shmuel briefly embarrassed the authorities a few years ago when he issued an edict forbidding Jews in Safed to rent or lease accommodation to Arabs.  When the international press got hold of this and made an issue of it, Netanyahu briefly condemned him.  But when the media circus moved on so did Israel’s Zionist establishmen.  Eliyahu remained a paid official of the state, which all Chief Rabbis are and he has continued to enforce his Nazi-style edict. [Nazi Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu - the Plan to Remove Arabs from Safed is Successfully Continuing]

The only Israeli Jew in Safed who stood up to Eliyahu was Eli Tzavieli, a Holocaust survivor, who understood the Nazi implications of forbidding a racial minority from renting property, since it was of course applied to Germany’s Jews. (see below)

Now Eliyahu has excelled himself. He has found a biblical justification for the rape of Palestinian women by soldiers.  It has to be said that he is not the first Zionist creature to advocate rape in war.  That accolade goes to the Israeli ‘academic’ and former colonel, Mordechai Kedar, a lecturer at Bar Ilan, a religious University in Tel Aviv. [see Sussex Friends of Israel Welcome Rape Supporter Mordechai Kedar] 

Perhaps when Hove MP next goes along to a meeting of the far-Right SFI he might bear in mind what their real attitude to such matters is.

Eliyahu argued, and you can see the whole article below, that Israel’s soldier, when he is away from home fighting the holy war ‘he is enflamed’.  Although ‘It is not proper to think of the Comely Woman – but he is.’

There you have it.  ‘he needs to fight, and you should moralize him!! ... Do not weaken his spirit!!’

Yes I hear you cry, rape is wrong in all circumstances but it is not that simple according to our revered Rabbi (& he is revered – when he was attacked over his edict banning renting land to Arabs hundreds of rabbis leapt to his defence).  Eliyahu explains that:

‘If you forbid him the Comely Woman, and he is enchanted by wily charms, he’ll think about her constantly, and may reach the point where the People of Israel will be defeated. What would you gain by that? That thousands of Jewish women will be raped by the accursed evildoers.’

So you see.  If the pure Israeli soldier is denied the ‘Comely woman’ he may think of her and forget to fight properly and then Israel may be defeated and thousands of Jewish women may be raped.  Framed like that of course, who would deny that one rape is preferable to thousands of rapes?

Indeed it is really her fault.  She ‘may have prettified herself specifically to entrap him and incriminate him, and may have not).’  So really it is her fault, just like women who wear short skirts.  She prettified herself to entrap him.  So any Palestinian women who are raped can be assumed to have wanted it anyway.

Eliyahu tells us to ‘Pay attention – her life was spared in war!!  She’s not even a war captive!!  He cannot live with her as with a wife, and then sell her as a slave!!  He lets her go!!  Scot free!!  Have you ever heard of such laws, in any country in the world?’ You must admit that there are relatively few countries with laws that allow rape. 

And this kind of argument is common amongst Israel’s pampered religious rabbinate who are paid by the state, revered, given a special position as the arbiters of personal law in Israel.  And then there are fools who parrot that Israel is a democracy!

Rabbi Col. Eyal Karim (left), nominated to become IDF chief rabbi, sits next to his predecessor, Brig. Gen. Rafi Peretz, on April 21, 2016 (Diana Khananashvili/Defense Ministry)

Prominent Israeli rabbi preaches rape in war time

Yossi Gurvitz on August 28, 2017

Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu is the Rabbi of the town of Safed, and is one of the most notoriously racist rabbis in Israel. Prosecutors twice considered indicting him for breaking the law against incitement, and twice backed down. He has publicly said he will not condemn “price tag” attacks (by settlers on Palestinians), saying “if the government won’t act, then the public should” (Hebrew). His most notorious act was signing a petition demanding no Jew rent or sell apartments to a non-Jew in his town of Safed; 300 rabbis joined the call. While the act was openly racist, and illegal, the Israel law against incitement to racism specifically excludes “religious debate” from the law; thus the case against Eliyahu was closed (Hebrew). Eliyahu’s ongoing racism, however, is likely to have cost him the 2013 election of the office of Chief Sephardic Rabbi, though he came relatively close (he got 49 votes, the winner got 68). Eliyahu, a member of the Chief Rabbinate Council, also failed to get elected in 2014 as rabbi of Jerusalem; at the time he was reputed to be the candidate of the Jewish Home (Hebrew).

An Israel blogger, Ruhama Weiss, exposed yesterday (Sunday) an old ruling (from 2002) of Eliyahu regarding the thorny issue of rape during war, the mizvah of the Comely Woman. Those who read Hebrew can read the original here.  Below is a translation of Eliyahu’s reply. Be advised: the text is rather brutal and I endeavored to keep the translation as close as possible to the original.

First, several necessary notes:

1. The Comely Woman issue appears in the Bible in Deuteronomy 21. (“If you notice among the captives a comely woman and desire her, you may take her as your wife.”) However, the Talmudic sages changed the law somewhat; as can be seen in Maimonides (Hebrew) the woman is first raped in the field, and the issue of the ritualistic humiliation takes place after the war.

2. Eliyahu is lying when he says that a Comely Woman is to be released if her kidnapper dislikes her. Perusing the same Maimonides chapter, you find that she is only released if she has converted to Judaism: otherwise, “A Comely Woman who refuses to refrain from idolatry after twelve months is killed.”

3. The current Chief Rabbi of the IDF, Eyal Qarim, was exposed by me as espousing much the same views (though his writing is more elusive and much less brutal) in 2012; and this came close to torpedoing his appointment. Qarim had to recant his views before the High Court of Justice would permit his appointment. The question of whether the rape of gentile women in wartime is permitted is apparently alive and well in some circles.

On to the translation, then. Keep your barf bags handy. Rabbi Eliyahu states:

Regarding this issue of “Comely Woman”, there are two different situations:

– One is in which a man goes to war with supreme holiness, and thereby saving the souls of converts and the like, as is in your quote of the saintly Or Ha’yim.

– Another is that of taking a woman in a storm of passion.

You’re assuming that the majority of the cases are of the second kind, maybe you’re right, and maybe not, and apparently it’s sometimes one way and sometimes the other.

Whether it’s the majority or the minority, your question is: Why permit a bad act because of a person’s weakness? Why not always say: “Better to transgress than to sin willfully”? Should we allow all transgressions?

The answer depends on what case the Jewish people are in. The case we’re talking about is one in which a man is going to sacrifice his life, and everything he has, for others. A battle for life or death.

Should Israel’s fighters fail – the foreigners will come and murder men, women and children. They’ll rape, pillage, and bring about a catastrophe on the whole nation, or a few towns.

If Israel’s fighters succeed – the lives of millions of people will be saved. And evil in the world will be reduced.

In that case, in which the warrior is separated from his wife for long months, and the urges burn in him, he may think of women during the fighting, become lax and fight less well.

Why?

Because this specific soldier is that way? Seeing the Comely Woman, he is enflamed!

It is not proper to think of the Comely Woman – but he is.

Now he needs to fight, and you should moralize him!! Do it at home, before the war, not in the middle of the war. Do not weaken his spirit!!

If you forbid him the Comely Woman, and he is enchanted by wily charms, he’ll think about her constantly, and may reach the point where the People of Israel will be defeated. What would you gain by that? That thousands of Jewish women will be raped by the accursed evildoers.

Therefore, the Torah said: in this case, if you’re so enflamed – take the Comely Woman!!

It’s not the best solution.

It may cause division within your house.

It may lead to the birth of a Rebellious Son.

It may bring you to great harm.

But the Torah said: In this case – the Comely Woman is permitted.

The eating of pork was permitted to those who are hungry and need the strength to fight.

The violation of the Sabbath was also permitted, as well as other very important issues, so as to prevent loss of life.

A similar case is what we say nowadays, not to listen to all those “bleeding hearts” who sit at their homes and preach morals to the dedicated IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] soldiers, why did they shoot and accidentally hit a Palestinian child or “the innocents”? Don’t listen to them and don’t listen to all those who judge IDF soldiers for taking a popsicle and not paying a full price, VAT included. Remember that at that hour they gave all that was dear to them for the People of Israel – their lives. And in such an hour, you judge them for nothing, certainly for things lives don’t hang on. All that will be dealt with later, proportionally.

Please remember!!

Even those who, by the Grace of God, came back home alive and well – they, too, sacrificed their lives for the public, and this sacrifice is not lesser than that of those who were killed for the sanctification of God’s Name. Those who returned home, well or wounded – sacrificed their lives!!

Aside from that, see how the Torah kept the honor of the Comely Woman, as well as that of the woman left at home.

The Torah said: you were attracted to beauty – to the Comely Woman? We’ll put you through boot camp!!

Do not marry just the surface beauty, because if you do you would harm yourself, harm this woman, and harm your wife who patiently awaited you at home.

Hence “she shall shave her head, and pare her nails”.

(Don’t pity the Comely Woman – hair and nails grow back quickly, and this is less painful than captivity or death at war.)

If our warrior finds out he became a captive of the Comely Woman (who may have prettified herself specifically to entrap him and incriminate him, and may have not).

If he finds out that he became a captive of surface beauty. If, after her shaving, he calms down and returns to mental health, overcome his urges – then “then thou shalt let her go whither she will; but thou shalt not sell her at all for money, thou shalt not make merchandise of her, because thou hast humbled her.”

Pay attention – her life was spared in war!!

She’s not even a war captive!!

He cannot live with her as with a wife, and then sell her as a slave!!

He lets her go!!

Scot free!!

Have you ever heard of such laws, in any country in the world?

After all, in the famed United States it was common, up until some 100 years ago (or so) that a master can have intercourse with his black [also possibly: “nigger”] slaves as often as he wanted. Willingly or forcibly – everything was legal!!

Then they would continue to be his humiliated slaves. Then he could show them cruelty and sell them like beasts in the slave market, with their children or without them. He [could also] sell just the children, ignoring the women’s cries.

And they weren’t [even] war captives!!

So it was in the democratic United States a hundred years ago, and so it was in the Torah three thousand years ago.

This is what the Torah teaches: either a wife or a slave!

If a slave – not a sex slave.

If a slave – let her work with dignity.

If you beat her, and break one of her teeth (for instance), she is immediately released to freedom. Did you hear me?!?

My dear boy!

In the US, it was permitted to cut off the limbs of an escaped slave with a knife, and also to… castrate him. That was the law. Unpleasant yet very terrible!!

Therefore, take heed before you question the morality of the Torah.

Remember where you live!!

Also remember that all we said is not in advance, but only in retrospect and only in times of war and only when lives are on the line and only when the urges are burning.

When lives are on the line, you do not educate the soldiers to morality. It’s time to win!!

See also the report in the Times of Israel of 12 July 2016 about the appointment of the Chief Rabbi of the Israeli Defence Forces, Eyal Karim, who also advocated rape in war.  It would seem that raping non-Jews in wartime is seen as perfectly acceptable by large parts of the nationalist Orthodox rabbis.  Lovely people.

IDF taps chief rabbi who once seemed to permit wartime rape

Eyal Karim later retracted remarks; has also said women's enlistment is 'entirely forbidden,' opposes female singing at army events

Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot on Monday nominated a rabbi who once appeared to condone rape during wartime to take over as the IDF’s chief chaplain...  (cont)

Below is the story of a holocaust survivor who defied Rabbi Eliyahu and continued to rent rooms to Arabs in Safed

The Holocaust survivor whose life is in danger again

Eli Tzavieli has been harassed for renting part of his house in Safed to Arabs

Ellie  Tzavieli - the holocaust survivor threatened for renting rooms to Arab students

In the Israeli city of Safed, an 89-year-old man has been accused of treachery for welcoming Arab students. Catrina Stewart reports

Monday 15 November 2010

First they threatened to burn his house down. Then they pinned leaflets to his front door, denouncing him as a Jewish traitor. But Eli Tzavieli, an 89-year-old Holocaust survivor, is defiant. His only "crime" is to rent out his rooms to three Arab students attending the college in Safed, a religious city in northern Israel that was until recently more famous for Jewish mysticism and Madonna.

A campaign waged by Shmuel Eliyahu, the town's radical head rabbi, culminating in a ruling barring residents from renting rooms to Israeli Arabs, means that Safed is fast emerging as a byword for racism.

"I'm not looking for trouble, but if there is a problem, I'll confront it," says Mr. Tzavieli, a Jew who survived Nazi forced labour camps and whose parents perished in Auschwitz. 

"These [tenants] are great kids. And I'm doing my best to make them comfortable."

At an emergency meeting last month, Mr. Eliyahu, the son of a former chief rabbi of Israel, was joined by 17 other religious leaders in warning that the city's 40,000 Jewish residents were threatened with an "Arab takeover."

The declaration appeared to trigger a campaign of harassment against Mr. Tsavieli to pressure him into throwing the students out. When the pensioner paid little heed to his aggressors, he received an anonymous threat to set fire to his house and a vicious poster campaign accused him of "returning the Arabs to Safed."

Mr. Eliyahu, who once advocated the mass slaughter of Palestinians civilians in Gaza to stop the firing of Qassam rockets, declined to be interviewed for this story.

Sprawled over a hilltop in the Upper Galilee, Safed is one of Israel's most picturesque towns, enjoying commanding views over the north of the country. A leading centre for Kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism, it is one of Judaism's four holiest towns, and every year draws a diverse celebrity crowd.

In 1948, Safed was a mixed Jewish and Arab Palestinian community, with some 10,000 Palestinians living in the town. As Jewish forces battled for control, the Palestinians fled, including a 13-year-old Mahmoud Abbas, who would later become the Palestinian President.

After Israel's founding, some Palestinians accepted Israeli citizenship and remained in Israel, and now number 1.5 million, a fifth of the country's population.

These days, Safed is home to a large community of ultra-orthodox Jews, who are deeply conservative and observe a strict code of behaviour, including no driving or smoking in public on Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath.

As Mr Tsavieli poses for a photograph outside the entrance to his home in Safed's Old City, a Jewish labourer shouts at him: "I'm warning you, it won't do you any good to attract attention like this."

The pensioner continues to smile, but it's clear that he's a little rattled. Sitting in his leafy courtyard, he talks about his extensive voluntary and social work, including time as a probation officer ("The moment you have a problem, Eli, you just let us know," a former inmate told him after hearing of the threats), and says that he's only trying to do "a good thing."

As he talks, Nimran Grefat, one of his Arab tenants, dashes in to pick up some books for his next class, stopping briefly to chat. "He's a good man, he's like a father to us," Mr Grefat, 19, says later of his landlord. "He told us: 'If someone hurts you, he hurts me.'"

Tension in the city ratcheted up a notch last month after a violent clash between a Jewish mob and Arab students. Thirty or so Jewish youths converged on a building rented to Arab students, throwing bottles and chanting "stinky Muslims" and "death to Arabs." The students retaliated by throwing stones, prompting an Israeli policeman to loose off rounds from his rifle. He was later charged along with a friend for firing live rounds.

Mr Grefat says that he is afraid, and even considered dropping his studies or moving into dorms. Encouraged by Mr Tsavieli to stick it out, he takes basic safety precautions, such as not returning home alone late at night. "I didn't come here to live," he says. "I'm not going to build a family here. I just came for three years to study, after which I'll go back to my village."

The tensions that many hoped were confined to Safed are spreading to other towns, too. The deputy mayor of Carmiel, a mere 30 kilometres from Safed, was recently sacked for anti-Arab statements and for employing a militia to prevent Arabs from entering the city.

Many civil rights defenders have warned that the events in Israel's north are not an isolated phenomenon, but rather a symptom of the growing racism and anti-Arab sentiment sparked by a political shift to the right in recent years.

"The government should be mitigating these tensions, but instead it is escalating them with new laws and a vacuum of decisions," said Ali Haider, a director at Sikkuy, an Israeli organisation committed to civic equality.

Several bills currently making their way through the Knesset have been slammed by liberal commentators as racist or anti-Arab, including a loyalty bill requiring new citizens to swear allegiance to a "Jewish and democratic" Israel. Moreover, small Jewish communities are lobbying to determine just who can and cannot move into their communities, a demand widely interpreted as a move to keep Arabs out.

Israel's firebrand Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, has even proposed a population transfer in the event of a peace agreement that would see Israel's Arab citizens placed under Palestinian sovereignty.

These proposals have drawn a barrage of criticism from the left of the political spectrum, but observers say such ideas are moving into the mainstream, as evidenced by robust support for Mr Lieberman and his ultra-nationalist party, Yisrael Beitenu, Israel's third-largest party. Several Israeli commentators have sounded a note of alarm at exclusionary moves, warning that the prevailing trends in Israel are beginning to resemble Nazi-era policies.

"In other countries, in other eras, the selling and renting of homes to Jews was forbidden, and those who violated the ban were penalised harshly. We all remember where it ended up," wrote Ziv Lenchner in an op-ed on Israeli news site Ynet. "Well, do we really remember?"

But that argument cuts little ice in Safed, where many residents feel the 1,350 Arabs studying at the nearby college are an unsettling influence that threatens Safed's religious and Jewish character, not least because of fears of intermarriage.

"I see the Arabs here wearing gold chains, and it looks like Syria," says a young woman, who wears a modest headscarf to cover her hair. "This is an orthodox city, and [that] is impure."

A new medical school is to open in the area early next year, prompting concerns among Jews that it will bring even more Arabs to the town.

Moshe, 35, a music store manager, insists the issue is not one of racism, but that encouraging a large influx of Arabs into the city demonstrates a "blatant disregard" for the existing Jewish community.

"Our experience of Arabs over the last 10 years is terror," he said. "Now they're saying, 'Let us be neighbours.' You don't force peace on people."