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Ultra-Orthodox Neturei Karta Maintains its Anti-Zionist Stance
2002-06-15 00:40:48
By Sharon Sadeh (Ha'aretz)
June 14, 2002
LONDON - The extreme pro-Palestinian groups in Britain have recently found a new propaganda weapon in the form of an ultra-Orthodox sect whose activities have turned the rest of the British Jewish community against it.
In the past few years, members of the extreme Neturei Karta movement have increased their involvement in anti-Israeli activities, participating in demonstrations calling for Israel's annihilation. The Jewish community in Britain has responded by excommunicating the group, banning its members from the country's synagogues.
Neturei Karta's most remarkable display was at the pro-Palestinian rally held on May 18 in London's Trafalgar Square, two weeks after a mass Israel solidarity in the same place.
"It was shocking to see these people wrapped in teffilin and tallits [prayer shawls], waving signs against Israel and Zionism, at an event deliberately held on a Saturday, during Shavuot, a feast which commemorates the receiving of the Torah," said a spokesman for the Board of Deputies, an umbrella group for the British Jewish community.
"Someone asked them how they got to the demonstration, as they are not supposed to travel on Shabbat, and they said they had come on foot from Stamford Hill, 14 kilometers away."
"Don't worry, we didn't violate the Shabbat," says Avraham Grohman, considered to be the leader of Neturei Karta in Britain. He has become a popular lecturer in the past year among extreme pro-Palestinian groups in Britain, including organizations affiliated to Hamas.
Grohman told Ha'aretz that Neturei Karta supports the Palestinians so that they "know that Jews are not fighting and are not creating the problems for the Palestinians; it's the Zionists fault.
"We believe in the Torah, according to the Torah we have no claim for that part of the world. We, the Jews, were thrown out for our sins and for the worst deeds, and the exile is our remedy. Jews have no right to take that land away from the Palestinians. If somebody came to your house, and wanted to take it away from you by force, what would you do? Would you let him go into your house and take it away? No, you wouldn't."
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