Statement of the mass anti-Zionist rally in front of 10 Downing St. In London during the visit of Israeli Prime Minister, to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Balfour Declaration.
November 2, 2017
The Israeli Prime Minister is in London to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, the cornerstone of the State of Israel.
The declaration signed by Lord Arthur James Balfour in November 2nd, 1917 Favored the establishment of “a national home for the Jewish people”
Surely Lord Balfour and his fellow cabinet members who issued the declaration meant well. They acted with concern and in good faith for the suffering Jews of Eastern Europe, and for the aspirations of the Zionist politicians of the time.
But these non-religious Jewish politicians and their national movement were not and are not the true representatives of the majority of the Jewish people or the Jewish religion, not then and not their representatives today – headed by Bibi Netanyahu.
The Balfour Declaration was not the first time in Jewish history that Jews were offered an opportunity to form a state. Just one relatively recent example was in 1826, the American journalist Mordecai Noah purchased land and proposed to found a Jewish state on an island near Buffalo, New York. He sent letters to the chief rabbis of England and France asking them to be leaders of the new state. The rabbis responded very clearly that Jews in exile are Divinely forbidden to have their own sovereignty, and this was the way we have lived in exile for the past 2000 years.
And that is precisely why all the greatest rabbis opposed Zionism from the movement’s inception. Jews are in exile by Heavenly decree, and are forbidden to have their own state, as is clearly written in the Talmud. Jews are forbidden to fight wars against other nations. And furthermore, the rabbis with their foresight feared the dangers of bloodshed and war that could result from a movement to create a Jewish state.
The Balfour Declaration states:
“It being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”
This means Britain held there was a possibility that Zionism would bring danger not just to the non-Jewish citizens of the land but also to Jews around the world, and they made their commitment contingent on the Zionists not doing anything to endanger the Jews.
Now, after so many years, it is, unfortunately, blatantly obvious that the British fears were all-too-well founded. Not only are the Zionist actions against the non-Jewish occupants expressly forbidden by the Torah – but the Jews, both in the Holy Land and throughout the world, suffer from them as well.
Zionism is an anti-religious movement. And the original Zionists were not just anti-religious in their personal lives – they planned to use their state and their power to eradicate religious observance and recast the Jewish nation in a new, nationalistic mould. Our rabbis already realized this more than 100 years ago.
Over the decades, the Israeli government put millions of Jews through their absorption camps, separated children from parents and forced them to abandon Judaism.
But we don’t need to look at history to see this. It’s going on right now, as we speak. Orthodox Jews have always refused to serve in the Israeli army, because they are opposed to the state and its wars. In 2014, the Israeli government passed a law to gradually increase Orthodox recruitment in the army, imposing collective penalties if annual quotas for Orthodox draftees were not met. Not only that, but they violently and brutally put down even peaceful demonstrations against them, trampling unashamedly the basic rights of freedom of religious expression.The Zionist goal is clearly to trample on the Torah and all its values, because they know that Torah Judaism poses the greatest threat to their existence.
The Zionists throughout their history have angered the Arab countries, as a result to which hundreds of thousands of Sephardic Jews were uprooted from their homes. To this day, the Zionists capitalize on anti-Semitics acts in other countries to convince Jews to come to their state. Furthermore, they claim to be the “Jewish state”, speaking for all Jews everywhere, thereby turning Jews into foreigners in their own countries.
The Balfour Declaration only promised Jews a safe place where they could go and settle, not a Jewish sovereign state. It was the Zionists who took it as their license to do what they wished. That is exactly what both the leading rabbis of the time, as well as Lord Balfour himself, were afraid of.
And with hindsight, we see that they were not mistaken. Zionism has brought neither liberty nor safety to the Jewish nation. In fact, all the trouble that has come upon the residents of the Holy Land since the time of the Balfour Declaration, has been a direct consequence of Zionist actions.
The British government has a long history of helping downtrodden and oppressed people in all parts of the world. They have always been sympathetic and willing to help the Jewish people in Britain, in the whole empire, and worldwide.The Balfour Declaration is but one example of their efforts to help us, and for this we are eternally grateful. But these deceiving and dishonest Zionists knew how to make the most of and betray the British kindness, by fighting the very British officers who risked their lives to run Mandate Palestine, and pretending to be the saviours of the Jewish people! It was they who misused the Declaration to the thwart the intent of its authors and create a Jewish state, instead of merely a home for Jewish people that would not compromise the rights of any existing communities.
If the Zionists had accepted Britain’s gift graciously, and come peacefully to the Holy Land without any plans for sovereignty, perhaps millions of Jewish lives could have been saved during the Second World War. But instead, they stirred up the fires of conflict until, in 1939, the British government was forced to limit Jewish immigration in order to maintain peace. It was then that the Zionists invented terrorism as a political tool to achieve their goals.They stopped at nothing! They shed the blood of Jews and non-Jews alike when they felt it would help them achieve statehood. Who can tell how much suffering has come upon the Jewish people because of the Zionist movement!
Therefore, Balfour Declaration Day is a perfect time to declare that the Zionists and their State of Israel do not represent worldwide Jewry.
We stand here today and declare: Bibi Netanyahu! You don’t speak for us. Your state is not a Jewish state!
We conclude with a prayer that G-d bring about the time of which our prophets spoke when “nation shall not lift up sword against nation, nor shall they study war anymore.”