WHO, WHAT, WHY?

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Orthodox Jews at the controversial Tehran debate

Why are Jews attending a conference on the Holocaust in Tehran at which star guests include deniers of the genocide? Clue: they also want an end to the Israeli state.

A handful of Orthodox Jews have attended Iran's controversial conference questioning the Nazi genocide of the Jews - not because they deny the Holocaust but because they object to using it as justification for the existence of Israel.

With their distinctive hats, beards and side locks, these men may, to the untrained eye, look like any other Orthodox believers in Jerusalem or New York. But the Jews who went to Tehran are different.

Some of them belong to Neturei Karta (Guardians of the City), a Hasidic sect of a few thousand people which views Zionism - the movement to establish a Jewish national home or state in what was Palestine - as a "poison" threatening "true Jews".

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A representative, UK-based Rabbi Aharon Cohen, told the conference he prayed "that the underlying cause of strife and bloodshed in the Middle East, namely the state known as Israel, be totally and peacefully dissolved".

In its place, Rabbi Cohen said, should be "a regime fully in accordance with the aspirations of the Palestinians when Arab and Jew will be able to live peacefully together as they did for centuries".

Neturei Karta believes the very idea of an Israeli state goes against the Jewish religion.

The book of Jewish law or Talmud, they say, teaches that believers may not use human force to create a Jewish state before the coming of the Messiah.

An opportunity for thinkers who cannot express their views freely in Europe about the Holocaust

Manouchehr Mottaki

Iranian foreign minister, describing the conference

But how do Neturei Karta and other Orthodox Jews such as Austria-based Rabbi Moishe Ayre Friedman justify attending such a controversial conference?

Rabbi Friedman told BBC Radio 4's PM programme that he was not in Tehran to debate whether the Holocaust happened or not, but to look at its lessons.

He says the Holocaust was being used to legitimise the suffering of other peoples and he wanted to break what he called a taboo on discussing it.

The main thing, he argued, was not Jewish suffering in the past but the use of the Holocaust as a "tool of commercial, military and media power".

In what many other Jews would consider the height of naivety, he commended Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for wanting "a secured future for innocent Jewish people in Europe and elsewhere".

In his speech to the conference, Neturei Karta's Rabbi Cohen said there was no doubt about the Holocaust and it would be "a terrible affront to the memory of those who perished to belittle the guilt of the crime in any way".

However, he also argued that the genocide had been divine will. "The Zionists, with their secular pompous approach behave in complete opposition to this philosophy and dare to say 'Never Again'.

"They have the audacity to think that they can prevent the Almighty from repeating a Holocaust. This is heresy."

Neturei Karta's views are regarded with abhorrence by most other Orthodox Jews, according to Rabbi Jeremy Rosen of the Yakar centre in London.

"And I think, frankly, even among the Hasidic world, by and large Neturei Karta are regarded as freaks," the Orthodox rabbi told the BBC News website.

Your comments:

I don't understand. The western world accuses multiple countries in the Middle East of lacking democracy and free speech, which many of them do. Yet when Iran holds a conference, not to deny the holocaust ever happened, but to investigate whether all we know of the Holocaust was true, we are up in arms. What happened to the concept of free speech we were thinking is the best thing in the world? Does that only apply on all things except when it comes to criticizing Israel? Any criticism of the conference is sheer and utter hypocrisy.

Omar Yassin, St. Paul, MO, USA

Neturei Karta have been given tremendous undue publicity by this obscene conference in Tehran. The truth about Neturei Karta is that they have been virtually ex-communicated by world Jewry, and especially by the much larger ultra-orthodox non and anti-zionist hassidic groups such as the Satmar.

Rysk, Tel Aviv

These people do not represent anyone but themselves, and they certainly do not have the mandate to speak for religious Jews in particular. It is unfortunate that a handful of people give the world a distorted view of the jewish people, of Judaism and of religious Jews.

Michael Spielmann, Bnei Brak, Israel

To say the Holocaust didn't happen is like saying the earth is not round. I understand that these rabbis believe Israel shouldn't exist. Maybe it shouldn't - we all have the right to our opinions. HOWEVER, to attend a conference such as this is akin to treason. Hate is by far the stupidest thing we can do with our time, and these Iranians HATE those jews but they both hate Israel more so lets have a conference? Further proof that we as a species are doomed to self destruct.

D Watson, Rockland County, NY

there might be pros and cons to this. first off if there was an open dialog about the holocaust not many people would doubt it, silence the deniers i say!!! this thing of not discussing it totally is giving credibility to the deniers, who are primarily racist.

susan, vatican

This is the first great story on the topic of Israel that I have come across in my life. It is impossible for me to imagine that war will bring peace, especially when it forces so many to live impovished lives. The fact that Jewish religious leaders are recognizing that coexistence is possible in a peaceful way is the only first step towards peace in the region. Building a wall will never protect Israelis, it will only make them feel safe. But humans are creative, determined and

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