Why Orthodox Jews OPPOSE Zionism

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Why Orthodox Jews OPPOSE Zionism
bhaloo
10/21/00 at 09:46:40
Why Orthodox Jews OPPOSE Zionism and the Zionist state and our standpoint on
the Zionist oppression of the Palestinian people

   1.) The terms Jews and Judaism refer respectively to a religious not
racial entity, the ideology known as Zionism consists of - a) an attempt to
transform this religious entity known as the Jewish people into a racial
entity of people bound together only by shared national characteristics such
as language common history etc. irregardless of belief in the Creator and
observance of His commandments, b) Judaism, for all believing Jews denotes the
system of beliefs, laws and teachings, etc. which we believe were given to our
forefathers by the Creator (may His name be blessed) through Moses our teacher
and other Prophets, this meaning of the word is transformed by the Zionists
from a Divine revelation to a mere set of common traditions shared by a
specific racial group. The above however, according to the Torah* could not be
further from the truth, since according to the Torah the value of a person has
no relationship with race rather with actions, example any Jew who denounce!
s belief in the One Creator or in divine revelation through the Prophets or
any of the other fundamentals of Judaism is no longer considered part of the
Jewish people and loses his share in the afterlife, whereas on the contrary a
non-Jew who because of belief in the Creator and his Prophets accepts upon
himself to observe the basic laws which were commanded to all mankind such as
the prohibitions of idol worship, stealing, murder etc.is considered from the
righteous people of the world. In fact to be a faithful Jew and be faithful to
ones country be it the US, Iran or any other country is no contradiction
whatsoever.

   2.) Considering the above and the fact that the founders of Zionism were
self proclaimed atheists the Zionist ideology considers the hope of the Jewish
people in racial terms i.e, to have a state, army etc. Orthodox Jews, however,
do not believe that we were exiled from our land app 2000 years ago because of
military weakness rather as a result of sins which we committed while dwelling
in the land, in fact we are instructed by the Creator through his Prophets not
to try to remedy this exile ourselves through human means (see Talmud tractate
Kesubos 111a), rather we must remain loyal citizens to the governments of the
nations wherever in which we dwell. The hope of Orthodox Jews therefore is not
for any such man-made redemption such as a state or army, rather our hope is
for the spiritual redemption promised to us by the Creator through our
Prophets and Sages which will on the contrary be a time of peace when all
mankind wth one heart, will come together to serve the One Cr!
eator, and in that time we will be able to serve the Creator his Holy Land.
(Although throughout history, even after our exile, there have always been
Jews living in the Holy Land this is no contradiction to the above since they
have always lived peacefully subordinate to the ruling nation without making
any attempt to create a state or army as the Zionists have done, in fact even
now there are many thousands of Jews living in the Holy Land who oppose the
Zionist state and even refuse to accept monetary aid from the government or
participate in their elections, Rabbi Moshe Hirsch of Jerusalem regularly
meets with PLO leaders to publicize that it is the will of Orthodox Jews in
the Holy Land to live under Palestinian not Zionist rule).

   3.) Unfortunately however, through money, propaganda and therefore media
control the Zionists continue to portray themselves to the world as
representatives of the Jewish people. In their propaganda they also continue
to use the various groups of so-called 'religious' Zionists to fool the world
into believing that their occupation of the Holy Land  and their injustices
against the Palestinian people have a foundation in Judaism. The murders and
injustices which they commit and have committed against the Palestinians
therefore hurt us doubly since by carrying such things out in the name of the
Jewish people through misuse of Judaism they are profaning the name of the
Creator and dirtying our faith.

   It is for these reasons that we see it as our duty to proclaim to the
world that the true Jewish people, i.e., those true to the Creator and his
Torah, the world over, oppose the Zionists and the injustices they commit
falsely in the name of our people. On the contrary we oppose the Zionists and
their 'state' vigorously and we are deeply disturbed by these injustices and
share in the grief of those stricken, and we continue our prayers for the
dismantlement of the Zionist 'state' and peace to the world.

N.B It should also be noted that the above points have been expressed by us on
many occasions in the past through protests (many times together with
Palestinians) and advertisments in major newspapers etc. We also ask anyone
who can to please pass on the above message so that the mistaken notion that
Judaism and Zionism are related will not spread.

Rabbi E Weissfish
NETUREI KARTA,
Representatives of Orthodox Jewry,
US, London, Palestine and worldwide.

* The word Torah in hebrew refers to the laws and teachings given to the
Jewish people by the Creator through Moses our teacher at Mount Sinai.
NS


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