Rebel Rabbis: Anti-Zionist Jews Against Israel

[Music] a fight is not with guns our fight is to wake up people and to make them think you believe strongly as the state of israel will come to an end we have got on our side we're in stamford hill a jewish neighborhood in north london we're here to meet the uk branch of the controversial ultra-orthodox jews of the nature character these guys campaign against zionism and for the immediate dismantling of the state of israel many find their stance mind-boggling and they're pretty unpopular especially among other jewish people [Music] they're often labeled as extremists for hanging out with iran's former president ahmadinejad and far-right nationalists from hungary's jobric party i want to find out why the network carter are so driven by their convictions that they're ready to be alienated by their own people so when one of their leaders in london invited me into the secretive community i jumped at the chance [Music] i think that's him hi hello hello hello i'm milan yes my name is rabbi beck how big is the nature carter here in uh stamford hill the fighters against zionism here as temperatures are several hundred but people were the ant designers there are thousands here in stamford zionism is the belief that jewish people should have their own nation the movement gathered support through the early 20th century and the state of israel was established in 1948 in palestine right from the start here's jews known as ultraorthodox voiced their opposition not only did they fear the rise of secularism they also believed jewish people shouldn't have their own state before the coming of the messiah over time some ultra-orthodox groups softened their attitudes and they began to enjoy the benefits of israel others have maintained their opposition and on the most radical end of the anti-zionist spectrum is the network carter [Music] i will put in paper in the machine i don't have to print out rabbi beck is keen to get his message out so he's invited me to tag along on a flyering mission around stamford hill so is this your friend who's arriving his protege rabbi blair was coming along too you have a very nice motorbike oh thank you this is one flower this is mostly explained why we are against the state of israel do you find it important to go around and distribute this it's really propaganda it's so strong so obviously we have a we feel um obliged to do the opposite sorry if you can see it inside he will see it here so i go at the very back yes i'm very sorry okay that's fine so how do you two know each other he was a teacher in school i was a child in the same school so i know that as a kid very famous as a child do you deliver flyers like this to make more and more people aware of your existence not of my existence of the existence of the torah we are the mature carter guardians of the city we try to guide people what what is the right way in judaism like if the woman going dressed not so modest are there some shops where they sell things not in the jewish style we call them look please stop it you're not allowed here in our neighborhood of course sometimes they get angry but they understand that in the end of the day we are right if you don't like it okay it goes to other places nobody forced him to live here i feel it for my duty my life to teach people in the right way and what is the right way you want me to teach you judaism in one minute can you thank you have a good day have a good day thank you okay going to park here heart packing rabbi back i think you might have driven into the car behind us 12 inches away okay a jew is not a zionist that must be your synagogue yes sometimes here people coming in the try to take it down really yes but when i bought one sign i bought in the same time five because i know sometimes people get angry on us they rip it off and we have to put it again you can see also they put here on the door the stack of david we painted already down but what we can do just one minute the i never in my life thought i would see the inside of an ultra-orthodox synagogue in stamford hill you can come in thank you you have a sign that site that says a jew is not a zionist and you're in a very jewish area here is that seen as controversial what it means conservation uh something that makes people angry i can't say that this synagogue came under attack a few times sometimes thrown stones on the window and have to replace the window they don't like what we say so the only thing what they can say oh these are fanatic people these extremists how come so few people know about you guys how often did you see people like me people like me you can see in the cartoons but in the media you don't see people like me so how you expect people to know what is the views of these jews is it possible to see a bit of the synagogue um okay it's a small synagogue you're heavy at least 40 50 types of books against zionism in the state of israel here's the holy scriptures yeah what does it say he is just a crown that means the count of the torah and here is just the beginning of each the ten commandments does the state of israel break any of the ten commandments the sixth don't kill the eight don't steal the basic of the jewish religion is to trust god if the gods send us in exile stay in exile we have to wait for the coming of messiah so is that why the natural cardiac believe that israel is against god a hundred percent yes of course the neterykarta considered themselves defenders of the faith so i'm curious to hear what another jewish movement that is also critical of israel make up them i've arranged to meet liberal judaism's rabbi charlie baginski the network carter called themselves the true genes what does that mean that other jewish people are in their eyes terra cutter would define that they interpret scripture in the right way and the rest of us have it wrong it's very much their way or or no way and so we wouldn't be considered jewish my children wouldn't be considered jewish our rabbis are not recognised would you say that they're like they have a fundamentalist view of the torah sure once any interpretation becomes unquestioning it's problematic so your movement is as you call it a critical friend of israel's the metric carte is taking that a lot further what do you think about that there's been a very large conversation within the jewish community about when it's legitimate and when it's not legitimate to criticize israel it's notorious for you that the state of israel shouldn't exist until the messiah comes and they will do anything to ensure that that religious ideal is fulfilled they wait for the messiah the neterykartas seem determined to get their voices heard i'm trying to find where rabbi back lives he's invited us over because some of the guys from the netre carta are coming over to make banners for protests happenings nakba day nakhba means the disaster in arabic nakba day is the day palestinians mourn their displacement when the state of israel was created but this is also israeli independence day when israelis have a party to celebrate the creation of their country [Music] hello hello how are you tomorrow we're going to be a demonstration against the state of israel we participate these demonstrations to bring out our message to show for the world the jews and zionists are not the same thing judaism rejects the state of israel and condemns its atrocities the protest falls on a saturday the sabbath so there's a bunch of restrictions they must stick to one being not to use public transport it's a height back where the israeli embassy located just here okay our synagogue is located here this is going to be such a long walk of three and a half hours three and a half hours yes so we need to be prepared shambles we are not allowed to touch an electric device we can't speak into the mic and also when we walking we need a non-jewish man going between us okay so everything will be okay as long as there's a man standing between you and me and you cannot talk straight into the microphone and also saturday we are not carrying nothing nothing nothing we're not killing nothing this is one of the laws so you're going to walk across the entirety of london for three hours carrying signs no no no no no you forgot we are not allowed to carry saturday anything we will wait on okay okay it's not easy to be jewish don't become jewish they're going to be a lot of palestinians at present at the protest how will you be received oh very very welcomed very welcome are we coming many times do pro-israeli people come down yes yes they feel very angry in the crying of us but what can we say we bring out the right message of judaism and this is the right message i mean when you look who is the real jew look of me you look on him he don't look as a jew at all he don't keep the shabbos he have no problem with troubles like i have he don't walk to the protest three hours he's just coming by the car and packaging the side and say oh i'm a religion jew so are there like clashes when the pro-israelis come down and they see you like wearing free palestine yes because of that we have the police so does it get violent usually not the police watch if not the police then get violent of course [Music] we hope to bring out our message for them all to know you know designers have the power and the media and the power and we haven't got nothing we have only one thing we have got on our side getting quite warm here is a lot of exercise these guys walked really fast i thought i was a good walker but i've met my match they're creating quite a lot of attention when they walk on the street constantly trying not to get run over [Music] because they're wearing the protest banners under their coats they keep having to stop to like sort of tuck them back up when you walk around central london how do you feel when people start pointing fingers or saying things you're not kidding me we accept that we are different and people snot on us they sneer on us and it's part of our religion to ignore it we have a goal in this world so this gives us very much sensitivity satisfaction satisfaction so we're almost by the israeli embassy [Music] [Applause] yes [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Applause] you know what do you make of the orthodox jews i feel that every person has a right to express themselves seeing the orthodox community coming here to explain their destruction of the state of israel at the end of the day they are churches and i don't see truth as he lies israel you have no right to palestine so there are ultra-orthodox jews standing holding palestinian flags what do you make of that they're natural carter which means they're an extreme ultra orthodox jewish group they're the same as isis really in religion they're not considered a monster juice to be jews because they take it to such an extent and they have a very very very bad reputation they go beyond normality i mean if they could they will strap bombs around themselves and blow each other up palestine is an israel freezer when i spoke to people on the other side of the street they were calling you guys extremists you can't he's an extremist everybody can say that they compared you to people who would happily strap bombs on themselves which i thought was quite interesting nobody here nobody but his protests are coming out with support or violence okay we do what we need to do we know god runs the world and god has advised us what what's our duty to do [Music] no we are not we're not willing to die for a country which is forbidden according to the jewish people you're unbelievable i'm not going to come to you guys for you yeah yeah you can't be true the illegal [Music] tensions are high and the police move us on but i want to quiz rabbi back about why did natalie character often meet up with holocaust and i ahmed yet they even attended his notorious 2006 tehran conference questioning the holocaust i read on the metric carter website that you believe that the holocaust happened because it was god's punishment for jewish people not being religious enough is that correct yes yes it's not about this is what we say it may be the holocaust was a punishment for for this to go away from god to rebellion against god what we have more to say on the holocaust that the zionists the holocaust votes for their favorite from the beginning to the end they justify what they're doing for the palestinians with the holocaust what's happened to the jewish people these are views that have also been stated by far-right parties and also by holocaust deniers like ahmadinejad as far as we know if we speak to him many times about the holocaust and we didn't see that he denied the holocaust it could be this information what i didn't know but as far as i know as far as we study it we didn't find it you stand for a peaceful dismantlement of the state of israel balak madinajad has been quoted in the press saying that israel should be wiped off the map aren't you worried that you're legitimizing violence by consorting with these people the iranian president clarified many times when he say that that israel should be wiped up off the map he didn't mean the people of israel should be wiped up he means that the regime should be wiped up no matter where your sympathies lie in the israel-palestine conflict the nature carter's ideas about the holocaust are problematic and so is the fact that they associate themselves with violent political agendas there is a serious risk there that the network carter's cause could be used as a propaganda tool [Music] two weeks later it's the jewish festival of la boima commemorating the death of a famous rabbi jewish people typically celebrate this festival by lighting bonfires but the nete karta had chosen to add fuel to the flame the abandoning the israeli flag today we're going to make a celebration against israel would it be possible to join this celebration only a man can come in only a man can come in okay so do you think it's not possible for me no no really if you want just to see it i have a storage room where you can stay there if you want really okay i'm gonna make a bit more room here okay i'm sorry it's good [Applause] it turned out there were lots of women in the storage cupboard i managed to get a decent view and got chatting to one of the wives we are all wish to be a man because we want to take care of this if we'll usually making a fire remaining the israeli flag and banning the israeli movement to show the state of israel can't speak in the name of jewish people you can now now i'm uh [Music] there are people who do feel that you are legitimizing violence by burning flags and who will also really take offense it is violent only if this brings violent it's only a symbol to show total opposition especially for a yolt to show them this goes in deep deep into the hat if you are not enjoying fighting and of course you are not enjoying banning a flag but this is we do what we have to do we do what's our duty the netrekarta talk about standing up against violence and ending israeli occupation but what really motivates them is their uncompromising sense of religious duty sometimes the blind faith goes too far [Music] do [Applause] you

Channel: VICE

Views: 7,964,814

Keywords: documentary, documentaries, interview, interviews, culture, wild, lifestyle, world, exclusive, independent, underground, videos, funny, funny videos, journalism, vice guide, vice presents, vice news, vbs.tv, vice.com, vice, vice magazine, vice mag, vice videos, reports, VICE REPORTS, rebel rabbis, neturei karta, ultra orthodox jews, zionism, jobbik party, ahmadinejad, milene larsson, jewish, judaism, orthodox, kosher, israel, rabbi, london, uk, anti-zionism

Id: FKplabTRuak

Length: 21min 10sec (1270 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 07 2016