Leaders of the anti-Zionist Satmar Chassidic sect were enraged after an Israeli Satmar girls summer camp were spotted visiting an IDF museum, Behadrei Haredim reports.
Early this week, photos surfaced of hundreds of Chassidic girls enjoying a field trip at the site, which caused widespread condemnation throughout the anti-Israel community.
Satmar, known as one of the most dogmatically anti-Zionist Chassidic sects, refuses to recognize the State of Israel and calls on members living in Israel not to vote in national elections, even for Charedi parties and not to accept any funding from the state, including National Insurance payments (Even though each of their children get monthly stipends from the "accursed" Zionists that deposit monthly NIS into each child's personal bank account, and they themselves enjoy benefits that amount to thousands of NIS per year.)
Following an outcry from followers in both Israel and the United States, the Satmar leadership in Israel released a statement apologizing for the visit and came up with some lame explanation that the girls had entered the tank museum because it was the only way to get to the nearby Latrun Park.
"When the students with the buses arrived there, they were not allowed to enter through there, but were brought down through the entrance of the impure army museum near the park," read the response.
"As soon as the teachers noticed that the place was not suitable for the students of our institutions, the teachers tried to take the students out of the park's entrance through the entrance of the park, which would not pass through the museum of the impure army."
The letter stressed that "the next day, camp administrators published a special announcement to all the students who were at the army museum telling them it was a mistake and done unknowingly"