May 2002 • Vol 2, No. 5 •

Over one hundred years ago a tiny cult of assimilated Jews launched a movement. Their goal was for the Jewish people to conquer the Holy Land and evict its indigenous population, the Palestinian people.

They claimed to be seeking a “safe haven for the Jewish people” and a solution to “the problem of exile.”

In 1948 their hopes were realized.

Those hopes have proven illusory and disastrous.

Illusory, because instead of leading the Jewish people to peace, they have led them incessantly to a series of bloodshed, beginning in Jerusalem in the 1920s and continuing unabated up to the present day.

Disastrous, because the toll in human life, has risen steadily, among both Palestinians and Jews.

This is all aside from the fact that the creation of a so called “Jewish State” (even if it would be seemingly religious), is clearly forbidden by the Torah. And aside from the fact that the Zionist State has flagrantly transgressed and trampled on all that is holy to Judaism: The public desecration of the Sabbath, the defiling of grave sites (for archeological studies), forced autopsies (for scientific studies, and for large profits acquired through international sales of bones and body parts), non-kosher stores and porn shops strategically placed in Chareidi Orthodox residential areas (with the express aim of the secularization of the majority of the Sephardic communities), etc. etc.

But worse than the toll of suffering, exploitation, death and desecration of the Torah, has been the inner rot that Zionism has injected into the Jewish soul. It has dug deep into the essence of a Jew.

It has offered a secular formulation of Jewish identity, as a replacement for the unanimous belief of our people in Torah from Heaven.

It has caused Jews to view golus (exile) as a result of military weakness. Thus, it has destroyed the Torah view of exile as a punishment for sin.

It has wreaked havoc among Jews both in Israel and America by casting us in the role of Goliath-like oppressors. It has made cruelty and corruption the norm for its followers.

Thus, this, the fifth day of the Jewish month of Iyar, is a day of extraordinary sadness for the Jewish people and for all men.

It will be marked in many Orthodox circles, with fasting and mourning and the donning of sackcloth, as a sign of mourning.

May we all merit to see, the peaceful dismantling of the state and the ushering in of peace, between Muslims and Jews around the world.

And may we further merit the final redemption: The revelation of the One God, when all mankind will serve Him together peacefully in joy and harmony, speedily in our day.

Demonstrations will be held to mourn the 54th anniversary of this tragic event and in opposition to the “Israel Celebration” rallies, which are to take place in near vicinities.

---

Founded in Jerusalem, Palestine in 1938, Neturei-Karta is the name of a group of Orthodox Jews who refuse to recognize the existence or authority of the state of Israel and demonstrates their opposition to Zionism publically. Neturei-Karta establishments, including synagogues, educational institutions, publishing houses, and organizations exist internationally, including in New York state.