Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss
Turkey is the only country standing up to Israel and President Erdoğan is protecting Palestinian territories despite Israeli threats, says U.S. rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss.
In an exclusive interview with Yeni Şafak daily in Istanbul, Neturei Karta spokesman Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss pointed out that the state of Israel goes against Jewish beliefs.
Neturei Karta was founded in the U.S. by orthodox Jews who oppose Zionism and refuse to recognize the state of Israel.
“The Torah teaches us not to kill, to be honest and work for God wherever we live. However, Israel does the exact opposite. We cannot accept such a state,” Rabbi Weiss said.
Zionism is an occupation project
The rabbi reaffirmed that his beliefs clearly oppose occupying any land or inflicting harm on people.
“Zionism, which is a concept derived from fascism, does not represent Judaism. It’s an ideological occupation project. Turkey is the only country standing up against this entity. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is protecting Palestinian territories without paying any mind to Israel’s threats.”
‘We shamed ourselves in front of Muslims’
Rabbi Weiss described Zionists’ occupation of Palestine as a religious war, stressing that it’s a persecution of Muslims.
“We coexisted with Muslims for centuries. There was no problem. It’s not a religious issue, it’s a political one. Real Jews feel the pain of the Palestinians. We shamed ourselves in front of Muslims.”
Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine
Rabbi Weiss, who does not recognize the state of Israel, concluded his interview by slamming the U.S.’s decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem.
“How can the U.S. open an embassy in Jerusalem? Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine! How can it be Israel’s? We said they should refrain from doing this. It is just rubbing salt in the wound. The Zionist state not only oppresses Arabs and Muslims, it tyrannizes the whole world.”
An American political scientist slammed President Donald Trump on Tuesday over his indifference to the issues the Palestinian people are exposed to.Speaking at a panel organized by the Arab Center, a Washington-based think tank, Georgetown University Professor Michael Hudson said Trump is "the most Zionist and least understanding" president when it comes to the Palestinian cause.Hudson also said Trump would get the worst grade out of any U.S. president for handling it. The U.S. intends to officially relocate its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on May 14 to coincide with the 70th anniversary of Israel’s establishment in 1948 -- an event Palestinians refer to as the “Nakba” or “Great Disaster”, when more than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from their homes.Trump sparked an international outcry last December when he unilaterally recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital and vowed to relocate Washington's embassy to the city.George Washington University Professor Ilana Feldman, the other speaker at the panel, said the Palestinians who had to flee their homes after the Nakba became refugees in the occupied territories and neighboring Arab countries and this has contributed to the fragmentation of the Palestinian community.Emphasizing that the UN supports the Palestinian people living in these refugee camps, Feldman noted that Palestinian human rights organizations are making efforts to help them.Zaha Hassan, a Middle East fellow at the Washington, DC based think tank New America, also highlighted that there were 80,000 Arabs in Gaza before the Nakba, but the number swelled to 200,000 overnight, which means the majority of the more than 2 million Palestinians in Gaza are refugees or their descendants.Israel strikes targets near Syrian capitalTrump withdraws US from Iran nuclear dealCriticizing the international community for not adequately addressing the refugee crisis in Gaza, Hassan added that this has greenlighted further displacement.Tensions have been high between Palestinians and Israelis across the Gaza border as Palestinians hold ongoing rallies demanding the right of return to their homes in historical Palestine from which they were driven out in 1948 to make way for the new state of Israel.Since the rallies began on March 30, at least 47 Palestinian demonstrators have been killed and hundreds injured, according to Palestinian Health Ministry figures.
Trump 'most Zionist, least understanding’ president
Israeli forces detained 22 Palestinians in overnight raids in the occupied West Bank.The Palestinians were arrested for “suspected involvement in terrorist activities and violent disorder directed at Israeli targets”, the army claimed in a Tuesday statement. “The suspects were turned over to security agencies for further investigation,” it added. The Palestinian Prisoners Society, for its part, said that Israeli forces had arrested nine Palestinians from the northern West Bank cities of Nablus, Jenin and Salfit. “Eleven others were arrested from the southern and central West Bank cities of Ramallah, Hebron and Bethlehem,” the NGO said in a statement. “Two others were arrested in occupied East Jerusalem,” it added. According to official Palestinian figures, some 6,500 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli prisons, including 62 women and about 350 minors. Some 500 of these are under what Israel calls "administrative detention" in which they face neither trial nor charge.Six members of the Palestinian Legislative Council also remain in Israeli custody. The Israeli army frequently carries out sweeping arrest campaigns across the occupied West Bank on the pretext of searching for “wanted” Palestinians.
Israel rounds up 22 Palestinians in West Bank raids
Israeli soldier Elor Azaria, who shot an already-incapacitated Palestinian man after an alleged attack in 2016, was released from prison on Tuesday.Last march, a military court accepted an early-release request lodged by the convicted soldier’s lawyers, leaving him with only one third of his 18-month jail term.Azaria was sentenced to 18 months in prison after being found guilty of killing Abdul Fattah al-Sharif.He shot Sharif in the head, even though he had been injured and disarmed after an alleged attack in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron in March 2017.Many on Israel's right wing, however, said Azaria should never have been convicted in the first place.The Palestinian government, for its part, condemned the release of Azaria, saying the move "encourages Israeli soldiers to kill Palestinians in cold blood"."This early release gives a green light to Israeli troops to commit more crimes against innocent people," read a statement issued by the Ramallah-based government on Tuesday.In September 2017, Israeli Army Chief-of-Staff Gadi Eizenkot reduced Azaria’s sentence to a mere 14 months behind bars.Azaria became the subject of an investigation after an activist with Israeli rights group B'Tselem captured him on film fatally shooting al-Sharif -- unarmed and injured -- in the head. The ensuing high-profile legal case led to a fissure in the Israeli government after the army took the rare step of investigating an Israeli soldier for killing a Palestinian.
Israeli soldier who killed Palestinian freed from prison