NAPANOCH – "Israeli government — shame on you!" roared the voice from the speakers on top of the mini-van, "Israeli government — shame on you!" echoed back from about a thousand Orthodox Jewish boys, taking part in a protest of Israeli government actions concerning ancient Jewish graves in the modern state of Israel.
The march, from a summer camp at 38 Sportsman Road, in Napanoch, passed down Sportsman Road for about two hundred yards, shepherded by a pair of state police patrol cars, and then entered a large car park, where the children massed, waving signs, some homemade others professionally printed.
"Stop Brutalizing Orthodox Jews — Israel!" read one.
"Netanyahu — you're personally responsible for grave destruction!" read another.
The protest was part of a nationwide action by the Central Rabbinical Congress of the U.S.A. and Canada. Other protests have taken place in Washington D.C. and New York City, during Prime Minister Netanyahu's recent visit to the U.S.
When the young marchers had filled the car park they were lead through passionate chants of anti-Israeli slogans by their leaders, and then they filed back into the camp and into a large building, marked by decades of use, past the women and girls who played no part in the demonstration. Once the synagogue was full, the doors were shut and Rabbi Davis, leader of the camp, spoke to the assembly about the issue.
"We, the people, who have, for two thousand years followed Torah teachings, who wait for the messiah, we protest against this unholy desecration of the graves of ancient sages. We protest against the brutal actions of the Zionists and their police."
Prominently displayed on various posters and signs were pictures of orthodox men, bloodied in recent protests in Israel against the "clearance" of five ancient cemeteries in Jaffa, which paves the way for the construction of a new hotel.
Rabbi Davis said that his group was part of the Central Rabbinical Congress of the U.S.A. and Canada. This is an alliance of a number of Orthodox Jewish groups, including the Satmar Hasidic group. They are strongly anti-Zionist.
"God has brought the Torah to Jewish people, thousands of years ago," said Rabbi Davis. "Here, we listen to every word of the law of the Jewish people."
The Central Rabbinical Congress released a statement in 1986 regarding the State of Israel.
"It is our duty to denounce those who invoke the name of the Almighty in vain. It is our holy obligation and our moral responsibility to call on them: Stop using these falsehoods and heresies to justify yourselves and your misdeeds. The Jewish faith, as transmitted by the Almighty to our forefathers has not and will never countenance the Zionist and nationalistic doctrines of the state of Israel. These false doctrines are compounded of atheism and anti-religious Zionism, ideologies alien to Judaism. Let them not be misrepresented to the world as Jewish."
Rabbi Davis told the crowd packed into the synagogue, "In Israel, there is no freedom of religion. The police there do whatever they want. They are hitting the religious Jews with clubs; they are beating them when they protest against the desecration of the ancient graves of Jews."
The Central Rabbinical Congress is allied with the Edah HaChareidis (ultra orthodox, anti-zionist) group in Jerusalem. In North America, the Central Rabbinical Congress serves as a religious court for the member communities.
"God has a holy plan for the Jewish people" said Rabbi Davis after the protest, as the hall emptied. "We follow the teachings of the Torah, and we know that you cannot change God's plan."
