• Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss of Neturei Karta International warns Zionism 'endangers Jews worldwide' by conflating their faith with Israel’s actions in Palestine
• Zionism has become 'textbook translation of antisemitism,' making Jews worldwide targets of anger over Gaza, anti-Zionist activist tells Anadolu in Istanbul's international round table
• Zionist activist tells Anadolu in Istanbul's international round table- 'Judaism is not Zionism': Only interfaith solidarity can counter 'immorality and inhumanity' of Zionist occupation and war, says rabbi

ISTANBUL 

Anti-Zionist activist Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss of Neturei Karta International has warned that Zionism not only contradicts the principles of Judaism but also puts Jewish communities at risk globally by associating them with Israel’s actions in Gaza and Palestine.

Speaking to Anadolu on Thursday at the "International Round Table to Address Genocide in Gaza and Threats to Sacred Sites in the Holy Land," held at Istanbul's historic Ciragan Palace, Weiss said Zionism has become "the textbook translation of antisemitism."

The high-level gathering was organized by the European Muslim Forum with contributions from the International Union for Muslim Scholars (IUMS), Türkiye Research Foundation, and the al-Quds International Institution. Its slogan, “Stop genocide, stop occupation, start true Abrahamic cooperation,” reflected the call for unity among faiths in resisting violence and preserving sacred heritage.

Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss (L) and Rabbi Yosef Rosenberg (R) of Neturei Karta International from New York 

Weiss, a leading anti-Zionist Jewish cleric from New York, the US, said the State of Israel and its leaders had created a dangerous situation in which ordinary Jews face hostility for crimes committed in Gaza.

“They are antisemitic, but all the people who are dying for that cause of Zionism that the Zionists have made because people are witnessing this immorality, inhumanity, (and) what is happening to the people in Gaza, and they look at the Jew, and they think… Oh, you are Jewish; you support this. So they get angry at the Jew. They hate the Jew because of this,” he told Anadolu during the exclusive interview.

“What could be more antisemitic than that--that the Zionists are bringing about hate to the Jews for their private, selfish agenda that they want the State? Because they want their state, which is illegal; therefore, Jews around the world get unfortunately clumped into their ideology, which is false. We are not,” Weiss stressed.   

Judaism vs. Zionism

Weiss emphasized that Judaism as a faith and Zionism as a political ideology are fundamentally different. “It is really so simple. Judaism is a religion of over 3,000 years. Zionism was just started around 140 years ago,” he explained.

He described Judaism as a tradition of devotion to God and Torah law, which prohibits killing, stealing, and establishing sovereignty before divine redemption.

“Judaism states clearly that we, since the destruction of the Temple 2,000 years ago, are expressly forbidden to make our own sovereignty. And that is why for 2,000 years Jews never established their own sovereignty. They were capable in 2,000 years of creating the state. It is forbidden for us,” Weiss noted.

By contrast, he said, Zionism is a secular nationalist movement that misrepresents Jewish identity. “So in every concept Zionism is a total misconstruing of what Judaism is, a falsification of what Judaism is,” he said.   

Violence against Jews who oppose Israel

Weiss argued that Israel has persecuted Jews who remain faithful to Torah principles and refuse to serve in the military.

“We don’t carry guns. These are Jewish people observing the Torah. And then brutally beaten old rabbis, young children, they’re arrested because they refused to serve in their own country. And this is what you can witness and see constantly,” he said.

He recalled how the chief rabbi of Palestine in 1947 publicly opposed the creation of a Jewish state, citing UN records.

“Every rabbi, all the leaders, said this is contradictory to Judaism,” Weiss said, referring to the compilation The Rabbis Speak Out, a collection of rabbinic condemnations of Zionism.

According to him, Israel continues to desecrate Jewish heritage while silencing religious opposition.

“Just now, we’ve had in the last three weeks, there is a town called Yehud in occupied Palestine. It used to be hundreds of years ago a Jewish town. Now the Zionists are digging up cemeteries… And when they’re doing it ... you can see the skulls of people there.

“Thousands and thousands of Jews are on the streets demonstrating, and they’re brutally being beaten. Is there a word in the press around the world? If this would happen, God forbid, in the US, Canada, (or) anywhere else in the world, they would yell antisemitism. They’re doing this with impunity,” Weiss charged.  

Opposition to Netanyahu and Israel

When asked about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Weiss insisted Jewish opposition to Israel is long-standing.

“Tens of thousands of Jews… in front of the White House… stating Netanyahu and the state of Israel doesn’t represent world Jewry. Israel has no right to rule over any part of the Holy Land. The demonstrations were ongoing all the time for over 77 years,” he said.

He added that opposition is often suppressed through violence.

The intimidation and the attacks against Jews were always there. If it were not for that, there would be hundreds of thousands demonstrating, he said, adding: "But they’re being brutally beaten all the time. Rabbis arrested and assassinated.”

Still, Weiss noted that the carnage in Gaza has awakened broader dissent.

“Now there is an added voice of even the Zionists who are watching this carnage in Gaza, and it’s slowly awakening their soul… many others, in the hundreds of thousands around the world, certainly, who are standing up and saying we cannot witness this carnage,” he said.   

Interfaith cooperation against genocide

For Weiss, the path forward requires unity among Jews, Muslims, and Christians.

“It is critical that the Jewish voice, together with the world’s voice of the Arab Muslim world, they should all be together and standing up... Remember always, the difference of religion was never an impediment to coexistence. We were always living together in peace, and that will happen again,” he said.

He condemned the exploitation of the Holocaust by Israeli leaders such as Netanyahu.

“When Netanyahu gets up and he speaks about the Holocaust, they were the ones who were silent by the Holocaust. And they even colluded with the Nazis. My grandparents were killed in Auschwitz. My father-in-law was on the death watch from Auschwitz. They were opposed to Zionism. And the Zionists were silent when this was happening,” Weiss recalled.  

Zionism as 'the greatest antisemitic power'

Weiss concluded by reiterating that Israel is the main source of modern antisemitism.

“So they are the worst enemies of the Jews that can be, as is the Zionist State of Israel. They are the personification of anti-Semitism, the textbook translation of anti-Semitism,” he declared.

The international round table will continue on Friday in Türkiye's southeastern province of Sanliurfa, the birthplace of Prophet Abraham, where participants will further discuss religious cooperation against genocide and the protection of holy sites.