The virulently anti-Israel Neturei Karta faction has condemned the common Purim practice among ultra-Orthodox Jewish boys of dressing up as Israel Defense Forces soldiers. Says the excommunicated Jewish group: the soldier costumes are comparable to those of pagan priests.
Neturei Karta, a radical sect disowned by virtually the entire Jewish world for their alliances with enemies of the Jews such as Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and deceased former PLO head Yasser Arafat, claims a membership of only a few thousand people around the world. They "oppose the so-called "State of Israel" not because it operates secularly, but because the entire concept of a sovereign Jewish state is contrary to Jewish Law," according to their website.
Pamphlets distributed by the organization demanded Jews refrain from wearing costumes resembling anyone who provides national service to the State of Israel, including policemen, ZAKA emergency medical care crew, rescue workers, and soldiers.
Such clothes, according to the pamphlet, belong to "the Zionist Amalek", insinuating that the State of Israel is related to the primary enemy of the Jewish people in the Torah, the nation of Amalek.
The Fourth International Quds [Jerusalem] Conference - Palestine, the Model of Resistance, and Gaza, the Victim of War Crime – was held in Tehran on March 4-5. Included in the list of attendees – including representatives from Italy, Turkey, Indonesia, Gambia, Hungary, Tunisia, Kuwait, Sudan, Qatar and Bahrain – was Ahron Cohen of Neturei Karta, who told participants, "we absolutely support the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Supreme Leader’s views on bringing to trial the political and military heads of the usurper regime,” according to the Tehran Times.