In a world where the Israel-Palestine conflict is too often reduced to a clash of religions, one voice cuts through that narrative with striking clarity — a Rabbi. In a candid conversation on The Deen Show, Rabbi Yisroel from Jews United Against Zionism makes the case that the State of Israel not only violates international norms, but directly contradicts the Torah itself. His position, once the mainstream view of religious Jewish authorities worldwide, challenges the foundational premise of Zionism and invites people of all faiths — including Muslims who hold justice and truth as sacred obligations — to understand that opposition to Israel’s political project is not anti-Jewish. It is, in fact, profoundly Jewish.
Zionism Versus Judaism: A Theological Fault Line
The Rabbi is unambiguous: Zionism represents a fundamental transformation of Judaism from a spiritual path into a nationalist political project. Where Judaism calls its adherents to serve God, live with compassion, and dwell peacefully among the nations, Zionism substitutes land, statehood, and military power. According to the Rabbi, the Torah explicitly forbids the Jewish people — who are in a divinely decreed exile — from establishing an independent state by force. For nearly 2,000 years before the Zionist movement emerged, Jews lived as loyal citizens among Muslim and Arab communities without conflict, without UN monitoring groups, and without the endless cycle of war and displacement that has defined the region since 1948. The chief Rabbi of Jerusalem himself pleaded with the United Nations at the time of Israel’s founding, declaring plainly: “We do not want a Jewish State.” His voice, along with those of Muslim and Christian inhabitants of Palestine, was ignored. Key theological and historical points raised in the interview include:
- All major rabbinical authorities at the time of Zionism’s founding declared it antithetical to Torah law and expressly forbidden
- The Torah warns that breaching the “Oaths of God” — attempting to leave exile by force — would bring catastrophic suffering
- Jews lived for centuries in harmony with Arab and Muslim communities before the creation of Israel
- The Zionist narrative that Arabs inherently hate Jews is a propaganda tool used to prevent Jewish communities from returning land and seeking peace
- A delegation of rabbis visited Iran and were received by government and religious leaders, who confirmed they have no conflict with Judaism as a religion — only with the Zionist political state
“The concept of Zionism is transforming Judaism from spirituality — a religion — into a materialism, a nationalistic goal to have a piece of land. All the rabbinical authorities said this is antithetical to what Judaism is all about, expressly forbidden in the Torah.”
Suffering, Responsibility, and the Path to Peace
The Rabbi draws a careful and important distinction between genuine anti-Semitism — the persecution of Jews simply for being Jewish — and the provoked hostility that arises from Zionist policies. As he puts it, you cannot knock out your neighbour’s windows and then cry anti-Semitism. This is not a fringe position dreamed up to delegitimise Jewish suffering; it is an honest reckoning with cause and effect. Since the inception of Zionism and the creation of the Israeli state, there has been, in the Rabbi’s words, “an endless river of suffering for Jews and non-Jews alike.” Palestinians, Lebanese, and Jewish people themselves have all paid the price. The Rabbi does not call for violence — quite the opposite. He prays for the speedy and peaceful dismantlement of the political State of Israel, believing it to be the only path to genuine safety and coexistence. From an Islamic perspective, this resonates deeply: Islam has always distinguished between the Jewish people — who are People of the Book, deserving of respect and protection — and a political project built on dispossession and oppression. The Qur’an calls believers to stand firmly for justice, even if it goes against their own interests, and to bear witness to the truth regardless of how unpopular it may be.
“As long as Israel exists, Jews are suffering, Palestinians are suffering, the Lebanese are suffering. We pray for the speedy and peaceful dismantlement of the state.”
The testimony of this Rabbi is a reminder that truth transcends tribe, and that genuine faith — whether Jewish, Muslim, or otherwise — always calls its adherents back to justice, humility, and God-consciousness. For Muslims, hearing a Torah scholar affirm what the Qur’an and Islamic scholarship have long maintained — that oppression is never sanctified by religion — is a profound moment of shared spiritual clarity. It also invites us to think more carefully about how we engage with these issues: not as a “us versus them” religious war, but as human beings accountable before God for how we treat the vulnerable. The path forward lies not in hatred of any people, but in the dismantling of systems of injustice — and in recovering the shared spiritual values that once allowed Muslims, Christians, and Jews to live side by side in peace, as they did for centuries in Palestine and across the Muslim world.
