Neturei Karta sect pays visit to Iran

Delegation head praises the "enlightening" statements about Shoah.

By MICHAEL FREUND
hirsch with PA police ap (photo credit: AP [file])
hirsch with PA police ap
(photo credit: AP [file])
A delegation from the anti-Zionist Neturei Karta sect is currently visiting Teheran to meet with senior officials and express their support for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his calls to eliminate Israel. In a statement to Iran's official IRIB radio, the group called for "the disintegration of the Zionist regime" and defended the Iranian president, saying that it "is a dangerous deviation to pretend that the Iranian president is an anti-Jewish or anti-Semitic personality." They added that they were "upset about the recent ploys, propaganda and tensions which have been created by the West regarding the statements of the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad about a world free of Zionism, since this is nothing more than wishing for a better world dominated by peace and calm." On Sunday, members of the delegation, headed by Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss, met with Iranian Vice-President Ahmad Moussavi, who also chairs the Iranian Committee in Support of the Palestinian Revolution. At the meeting, according to the Iranian news agency IRNA, Weiss "praised the 'enlightening' statements of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad about the Holocaust and said the establishment of a Zionist government and occupation of Palestine are contrary to the injunctions of Judaism." The doctrine of Neturei Karta says Jews cannot use human force to establish a Jewish state before the coming of the universally accepted messiah. The group supports close ties with Arabs, particularly Palestinians, and rejects Zionism. Ahmadinejad has been widely condemned in the West for asserting that the Holocaust is a myth. This is not the first time that Neturei Karta has come to the defense of the Iranian regime. On October 28 of last year, the group issued a statement denying that Ahmadinejad was anti-Semitic after he called for the State of Israel to be dismantled. Neturei Karta's leader, Rabbi Moshe Hirsh, considers himself a Palestinian Jew. The group has frequently participated in pro-Palestinian activities, including a visit to the grave of Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat in Ramallah in November.