The Absolute Necessity of Excommunicating Neturei Karta

Screenshot of Palestinian protest yesterday in DC - CBS

Last night on the nationally broadcast CBS news, I recoiled once again at the sight of Shtreimel wearing Jews joining Palestinians and their sympathizers in Washington DC. The angle of the camera made it look like they were leading protesters! The Shtreimel is the furry hat that most Chasidim  wear on Shabbos and Yom Tov. They were wearing those hats yesterday because that protest took place on Shabbos. 

I don’t think the harm these reprobates are doing to the Jewish people can be understated. It’s difficult enough for Israel to withstand the criticism it faces by the images coming out of Gaza. Or to counter the accusations of genocide by virtue of the 23,000 ‘civilian’ casualties in Gaza that have been killed by Israel in pursuit of Hamas. Nor does it help Israel defend against those accusations brought to the ICJ by South Africa.  

These Shtreimel wearing pieces of human of garbage must be stopped from spreading their false narrative that their views are the Torah True views. The only way to do that effectively is with a harsh response from the Torah world that will be publicized far and wide.

I’ve already called for a complete across the board condemnation via an actual Cherem of Neturei Karta. By across the board I mean a unified response spanning Charedi to Modern Orthodox leadership. 

Bringing this up might be redundant. Perhaps it is. But as of yet this call has been ignored.

I understand that - while mainstream religious leaders may agree with my views about these people, they may feel that ignoring them is the best policy. The idea being not to give them any more publicity than they are already getting. 

Normally I might agree with that kind of thinking. The problem is that because of the way they look and the claims they make about the authenticity of their views - they are getting attention from the mainstream media anyway. And their views remain publicly unchallenged. 

This is extremely harmful to the safety of Israel’s 7 million Jews and to Judaism itself. 

If there was ever a Hora’as Shah  - a time to act for existential reasons, this is it. The Agudah, RCA, OU, Chabad, BMG (Lakewood) and Yeshiva University need to convene a Beis Din composed of their top Dayanim (judges) and jointly issue a Cherem - an actual excommunication. And then publicizing that ruling to the entire world via all the major media outlets - both electronic and print.

That may not stop Neturei Karta from continuing to join those protests. But hopefully it will get the mainstream media to stop giving them the attention and implied legitimacy by virtue of the way they look.  At least not without including the fact that they have been excommunicated.

If anyone has a better idea of how to deal with Neturei Karta, I'd sure like to hear it.