The Neturei Karta are around 5,000-strong, at most 0.03% of the world’s Jewish population, although only a fraction of the group attend such rallies. They are not the only anti-Zionist Jews to join these protests, but it is their presence which seems to attract the most support in anti-Israel circles. The reason is obvious. People who are not part of a specific minority often seek to paint an easy picture of what that minority “looks like” — and, to the non-Jewish eye, the Neturei Karta look like stereotypical Jews. Male members will wear a shtreimel, the round fur hat worn on the Sabbath and Festival days, and a bekishe, the black frock coat. They will grow beards and peyos — long sidelocks. The message they propagate also chimes closely with what many extreme anti-Israel ideologues believe: that they are against Zionism, not Judaism, and that the two things are not simply unconnected, but antithetical.

For these reasons, pictures of the Neturei Karta are widely shared, with the suggestion — openly encouraged by the signs they carry — that they are “real” Jews, and the majority of the world’s Jews who support Zionism are in fact fake. When, for instance, someone shared a picture on X of the Neturei Karta at a London protest, William Dalrymple, historian, podcaster and co-founder of the Jaipur Festival, responded saying “They are heroes” (a statement he later deleted). Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu, the lawyer and academic, shared a video of a Muslim man thanking this group at a New York protest “for condemning Israel [sic] genocide of the Palestinians”.

It seems highly likely that many of those who believe this group deserves praise do not understand the underpinning of their beliefs or are aware of the full range of their actions. It seems a worthwhile task, then, to clarify who the Neturei Karta are and what they believe.

Perhaps we should begin with a news report from last month, citing the anti-fascist magazine Searchlight. It detailed how one “Aharon Cohen”, a Neturei Karta member, addressed the extreme Nationalist “New Right” group in London, led by former National Front member Troy Southgate. Lady Michelle Renouf, best known for strident support for some of the world’s most infamous Holocaust deniers, including David Irving, was reportedly also present.

One member of the New Right group subsequently described the meeting, saying: “While the Zionists use antisemitism as a big club to batter the goyim over their heads, for the devout Torah-true Jews it is a sign that they are doing something wrong. The Rabbi [sic] differentiated what he said was the ancient bigotry of antisemitism with the response particularly in the Muslim world to Zionist atrocities, and said the actions of the Zionists endanger Jews everywhere.”

If that sort of language sounds familiar, that is because — apart from the word “Goyim”, a Hebrew term describing non-Jews which the far-Right sometimes refer to themselves as — you could hear it word-for-word from “anti-imperialist” fans of the Neturei Karta as well.

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At its heart, the group’s worldview is that if someone expresses strong opposition to Israel — no matter what else they may believe — they are natural allies. In 2006, for example, members of the Neturei Karta flew to Tehran as guests of the regime to participate in what was euphemistically termed a “Holocaust Review” conference, attended by an international array of Holocaust deniers. The Anti-Defamation League, America’s foremost organisation confronting antisemitism, noted that representatives of the group attended a similar 2017 conference in which Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei called the Jewish state a “fake country”, “a dirty chapter in history”, and a “cancerous tumour” that should be confronted “step by step” in order to achieve “the full liberation of Palestine”. In the past, Neturei Karta representatives have also met with senior Hezbollah and Hamas leaders. US-based representatives of the group have regularly appeared on Al Jazeera and Iran’s Press TV, where they have been presented as authentic Jewish voices opposing Israel and Zionism.

This is, however, not quite the reality. Today, while an overwhelming majority of the world’s Jewish population can be said to be Zionist, approximately 15% of the global Jewish community falls into the grouping often described as “strictly orthodox” — and support for Modern Political Zionism among strictly orthodox Jews has never been strong. The Neturei Karta was established in 1938 as an offshoot of the strictly orthodox Agudas Israel movement, which was seen as warming to the idea of

Zionism. Perhaps the best-known opponent of Zionism from within the strictly Orthodox sub-section of the Jewish community was Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum, the Grand Rabbi of the Satmar Hassidic sect, which was based in Eastern Europe prior to the Second World War. While Rabbi Teitelbaum managed to escape the Nazis, his followers were decimated by the Holocaust. Emigrating to New York in 1946, he rebuilt Satmar to such an extent that, today, it is the largest of all Hassidic sects. It is still hostile towards Zionism, which is why people often incorrectly associate Neturei Karta with Satmar.

Yet last November, one of Satmar’s religious leaders, Rabbi Zalman Teitelbaum (the great-nephew of Rabbi Joel) made it clear how wrong such an association is. He described the Neturei Karta as “those who do not have any ancestral tradition… we see how far they have strayed from the path. They are walking around the world together… in broad daylight with the Shtreimel and the Hasidic clothes and shout together with the haters of Israel and murderers of souls. This is a terrible desecration of the name of heaven, to strengthen murderers in the name of the Holy Torah and in the name of heaven.”

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The grim irony is that the Neturei Karta are very much in favour of a Jewish state in the Holy Land. They believe, however, that such a state can only be established once the Messiah comes. Their bitter opposition to Israel (most of its members actually live in Israel, although there are also communities in the US and UK) is rooted both in its premature nature and because it falls far short of the theocratic paradise they wish to see instituted.

In this, in their extreme religious views, in their willingness to associate with some of the world’s worst antisemites and in their happiness to wave signs around, they are sometimes referred to as “the Westboro Baptist Church of the Jewish community”. It may seem a crude comparison, but it captures a truth: the Neturei Karta do not stand for everyday Jews. They are an assortment of unsavoury characters — and those who wish to tokenise them could soon come to regret it.

“Kahanism Won” was the shocking headline of yesterday’s editorial in the liberal Haaretz newspaper. If that is the case, Israel is in more trouble than I ever thought possible. Born in the US, Meir Kahane was a radical orthodox rabbi and founder of the Israeli Kach party. He was convicted in America for manufacturing explosives. In Israel, he was convicted for the attempt to blow up the Libyan Embassy in Brussels, and arrested dozens of times for inciting violence against Palestinians. He saw himself as a modern-day Maccabee, railing against the assimilation of Israeli Jews into Western secular culture. His followers re-formed the first-century assassin group, the Sicarii, and targeted Left-wing Israeli politicians.

Kahane was elected to the Knesset in 1984. When he would get up to speak, other Jewish members would walk out en masse. In the 1988 elections, Kahane was barred from standing on the grounds of his “incitement to racism”. Two years later, Kahane was himself assassinated in New York, but his poisonous legacy lived on. Yigal Amir, the man who assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin 27 years ago, as he was making peace with Palestinians, is considered one of Kahane’s disciples.

So for Haaretz to claim “Kahanism won” is a warning from history: something far more dangerous than Bibi has emerged from these elections. Kahane’s party is no longer. But its grandchild, Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Strength) has clearly done well, as have Right-wing religious parties such as Shas — both of which Bibi will have to rely on if he is to become Prime Minister. All this at a time when Israeli society is more divided than ever before. And not just between Jews and Arabs, but between Israeli Jews themselves. Tel Aviv is a modern European city, with a strong Barcelona vibe. This is the land of the Toyota Prius. Most of the restaurants are not Kosher. You can buy bacon in the market. The nightlife and fashion are sexy and relaxed.

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But in most places outside Tel Aviv, the feel is very different. In the religious areas, in the poor parts of the country (especially in the South), in the settlements — this is where the Right and the far-Right have their base. From the perspective of Tel Aviv, the ultra-orthodox feel like an 18th-century throwback. “Penguinim” is the commonly-whispered secular pejorative for their black clothing. The ultra-orthodox do not fight in the army and often have no regular paid employment. They are exempted in order to study Torah. And they have many children, which, of course, is shifting the electoral demographic. So there is resentment from those whose children are sent to Gaza to fight (and die) and who pay taxes to support a religious lifestyle they do not understand.

I spoke to friends and family in Tel Aviv yesterday morning. They are in despair: the place they once knew and loved — the place their grandparents built — is disappearing before their eyes. “What sort of a country are we leaving to our children?” one said to me, holding back the tears. Many want to leave, as my wife indeed has left, but don’t know where to go.

Yet from the perspective of the ultra-orthodox, the Jews of Tel Aviv are not really Jews. Or rather, they are Jews officially (because they have Jewish mothers), but they do not behave as Jews should. Mostly, the ultra-orthodox do not have much of a view about the secular parts of Tel Aviv because they have not been there, despite the fact that a Heredi community like Bnei Brak (the fifth-most densely populated city in the world) is just a couple of kilometres away.

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One Israeli friend recently told me that he met a young boy in a park in Bnei Brak who had never heard of the Holocaust. I found this almost impossible to believe. But what is absolutely true is how little different parts of Israeli society talk to, still less understand, each other. They don’t even speak the same language — both literally and figuratively. When my wife and I watched Shtisel together on the telly, I was astonished to find that I, having a smattering of German, understood more of the Yiddish than she did.

But it’s not just the secular and the religious that don’t mix. This is a country that has also been butchered by Bibi’s extreme version of free-market capitalism. Caesarea, on the coast, where Bibi has a house, has the only golf club in Israel and extraordinary gated mansions set in large, well-policed and leafy streets. The vineyards of the Galilee find many takers — myself included, I confess — for wines the price of which would make the farmers of Burgundy blush with embarrassment.

Elsewhere, the poverty is crippling. In the South, where the rich won’t live because it is too close to the rockets from Gaza, there is little work and conditions are often crowded and unsanitary. Around the old bus station in Tel Aviv, immigrants from Africa live in dirt and squalor, with elderly ladies selling their bodies out of street-side booths for a few shekels. They don’t pass by these places when they take Christians on a tour of the Holy Land.

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You don’t need to mention the occupation to describe Israel as a divided society. The Shas party has a point when they defend the Sephardic (Arabic Jewish) community against the inherent sense of cultural superiority of the Ashkenazi former Europeans. Religious and secular, rich and poor, with Jews from all over the world: this is one of the most diverse, if not to say divided, societies on Earth. That is what makes it such an exciting place to be, but also one of the most fragile.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, the Kahanist leader of Jewish Strength, openly advocates violence against Palestinians. And he is only 46, with growing popularity and potentially a long future in politics. I am not a citizen of Israel, though my wife and children are. I look at the country with the gaze of an outsider, albeit an adopted one. But I love the place. And yet today, I fear for its future more than ever.