Torah Jewry of Great Britain Welcomes the Honourable Syrian President

Statement

Torah Jewry of Great Britain

Welcomes the Honourable Syrian President

London December 15 2002 – The Rabbinical leaders of Neturei Karta have announced that they will be among those welcoming the Syrian President to London on Monday.

Neturei Karta, representing Orthodox Jews worldwide opposed to Zionism, completely reject the notion of conflict between Jewry and the Muslim world.

Neturei Karta wish to declare as follows:

In the name of Torah Jewry we salute President Asad as the leader of a large Arab nation. He has done nothing to deserve the angry reception that he is being given in some quarters. We wish to use this opportunity to demonstrate the good will of Torah Jewry with the Islamic world. This is especially essential today given the animosity that Zionism and the Zionist State have generated.

Others have described the Syrian President as “defending suicide bombers.”

Neturei Karta disagrees with this analysis. President Assad has expressed his understanding of the pain and suffering and the sense of utter hopelessness which leads Palestinian youth to give up their lives with regularity. This is the crucial and most important point. No one welcomes the deaths of innocents of whatever faith. The root question is, why is this happening? In point of fact, it is a reaction to a century old policy of illegitimate colonisation and indifference to Palestinian national rights by the Zionist movement.

Our Torah commands us and demands of us that we behave with justice and kindness towards all men. Zionism is unconcerned with these demands.

Furthermore, we wish to impress upon President Assad and the Islamic population of the United Kingdom that there are a large number of Jews who totally disagree with the policies and, indeed, with the very existence of the Zionist State.

Our religion teaches us that the Jewish People were sent into exile from the Holy Land by virtue of a divine Decree because we did not maintain the standards expected of us, and we are totally forbidden to use any force of arms against any people in order to obtain political power. Thus, the Zionist movement and the Zionist State are in total disobedience of the fundamentals of our religious faith.

Our religion instructs us to live in peace and harmony with every people in every nation, and this is the complete opposite of the shameless provocations of the Zionist heretics.

Every Jew who is faithful to authentic Judaism knows that Zionism is a heathenish abomination that has caused untold suffering to both Jews and Arabs for decades.

We wish the honourable President of Syria and his entire country to know the truth, that Zionism and Judaism are complete opposites.

Those who protest against the President and slander him with libellous accusations have no mandate to speak in the name of world Jewry and are committing a grave act of misrepresentation.

We know that peace can only be restored in historic Palestine when the Palestinian People obtain their full rights in their native land of Palestine, and this includes the repatriation of the Palestinian refugees, and of course the return of the Golan Heights to the Syrians.

So many people ignore the root cause of the hate that has engulfed the globe today. Let us not forget the peaceful coexistence between Jews and Arabs that existed throughout the centuries. Let us not forget the Jewish communities in Syria. All those memories vanished after the Zionist occupation of Arab soil.

Let us not forget the solution, and the only solution, which is a total de-Zionization of the Holy Land.

Again we greet the honourable President of Syria, his Excellency Bashar Assad, and hope that all Muslim and Arab peoples realize that there are many Jews who are utterly opposed to Zionism in any form, and who only seek justice and peace in the Holy Land through the peaceful dismantling of the Zionist State.