Dear Reader: I did a little google search on Neturei Karta and the fourth entry brought up contained the following:

Neturei Karta is an offshoot of ultra-Orthodox Judaism with about 5000 followers. Out of a worldwide population of 14 million Jews this represents 0.04% of worldwide Jewry. Oh, and they are in favor of dismantling the Jewish State of Israel. PEACEFULLY!!! of course. I also found this interesting.


"...under the leadership of Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum, formerly of Hungary and later of New York City, as well as other hassidic groups, some in Israel and others in the Diaspora. With their help, Neturei Karta was able to withstand paying taxes to the state that they did not recognize and conversely, to avoid obtaining any benefits from that state by revitalizing the halukah distribution of funds that characterized earlier generations. As such they became a self-contained community within Israel with few formal ties to the surrounding political infrastructure.

While many in Neturei Karta chose to simply ignore the State of Israel, a fringe element took proactive steps to condemn it and bring about its eventual dismantling until the coming of the Messiah. Chief among these is Rabbi Moshe Hirsch, Neturei Karta's self-proclaimed "Foreign Minister," who serves in Yasser Arafat's cabinet as Minister for Jewish Affairs.

Hirsch and his followers oppose Israel on religious grounds. Devoutly committed to their faith, they reject Jews who do not share their level of observance as heretics. Nevertheless, they also maintain that an Orthodox community of Jews can and should be a viable minority in an Arab-dominated Palestinian state. According to their ideology, the Jews were first sent into exile for their sins, so that a secular Jewish presence in Israel could be grounds for further expulsions and exile. At their most extreme, they claim that the Holocaust was divine punishment for the sins of secular Jews, but at the same time they also believe that the time will come when all Jews will repent or be lost and the Messiah will come to redeem them."

Isn't the internet wonderful? I found this in about five minutes. -- Becky Johnson