NEW YORK: Two members of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish group Neturei Karta called on Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
Raisi entered a corridor at the UN headquarters amid security and was greeted by the ultra-orthodox anti-Zionist Jewish leaders.
“We found that throughout the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran, they respected and protected the Jewish community till today and you’re only distinguishing that Zionism has nothing to do with the religion and the occupation is unacceptable,” said the Neturei Karta members who met with Raisi.
The Neturei Karta oppose the modern state of Israel on religious grounds and regularly protest against the Jewish state. They have regularly met with Holocaust deniers as well as leaders of the Iranian regime and the Hamas group in the Gaza Strip.
“I have heard that there are anti-Zionist Jews here and this is a great thing,” said Raisi. “We always reiterate the fact that we have no issue whatsoever with the Jewish faith, with the Torah, and in Iran, the Jews have freedom of religion. Our only issue is with the Zionists.”
Raisi stressed that he is against “oppression,” regardless of whether it comes from Jews, Christians, or Muslims. “That’s why we never recognized the members of ISIS as Muslims.”
“Today, the Zionists wish to discredit the Jewish faith, but we draw a clear distinction between Zionism and the Jewish faith and your work in which you announce that ‘we are Jewish, yet we are against Zionists,’ that is something to be commended,” added the Iranian president.
Neturei Karta means guardian of the city and group descended from Hungarian Jews that settled in Jerusalem’s Old City.
????????The President of Iran met with Jewish anti-Zionist rabbis.
“We don’t have any problem with Judaism, our problem is Zionism,” Raisi said at the meeting.
“In the Islamic Republic of Iran, Jews have always been free, Iran has always supported them. There has always been a… pic.twitter.com/83wMuQAcAE
— Sprinter (@Sprinter99800) September 20, 2023
