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Saturday, June 4, 2011

Christians in Jerusalem want Jews to stop spitting on them

  • Published 00:00 12.10.04
  • Latest update 00:00 12.10.04

A few weeks ago, a senior Greek Orthodox clergyman in Israel attended a meeting at a government office in Jerusalem's Givat Shaul quarter. When he returned to his car, an elderly man wearing a skullcap came and knocked on the window.

By Amiram Barkat
 
A few weeks ago, a senior Greek Orthodox clergyman in Israel attended a meeting at a government office in Jerusalem's Givat Shaul quarter. When he returned to his car, an elderly man wearing a skullcap came and knocked on the window. When the clergyman let the window down, the passerby spat in his face.

The clergyman prefered not to lodge a complaint with the police and told an acquaintance that he was used to being spat at by Jews. Many Jerusalem clergy have been subjected to abuse of this kind. For the most part, they ignore it but sometimes they cannot.
On Sunday, a fracas developed when a yeshiva student spat at the cross being carried by the Armenian Archbishop during a procession near the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City. The archbishop's 17th-century cross was broken during the brawl and he slapped the yeshiva student.

Both were questioned by police and the yeshiva student will be brought to trial. The Jerusalem District Court has meanwhile banned the student from approaching the Old City for 75 days.


But the Armenians are far from satisfied by the police action and say this sort of thing has been going on for years. Archbishop Nourhan Manougian says he expects the education minister to say something.

"When there is an attack against Jews anywhere in the world, the Israeli government is incensed, so why when our religion and pride are hurt, don't they take harsher measures?" he asks.

According to Daniel Rossing, former adviser to the Religious Affairs Ministry on Christian affairs and director of a Jerusalem center for Christian-Jewish dialogue, there has been an increase in the number of such incidents recently, "as part of a general atmosphere of lack of tolerance in the country."

Rossing says there are certain common characeristics from the point of view of time and location to the incidents. He points to the fact that there are more incidents in areas where Jews and Christians mingle, such as the Jewish and Armenian quarters of the Old City and the Jaffa Gate.

There are an increased number at certain times of year, such as during the Purim holiday."I know Christians who lock themselves indoors during the entire Purim holiday," he says.

Former adviser to the mayor on Christian affairs, Shmuel Evyatar, describes the situation as "a huge disgrace." He says most of the instigators are yeshiva students studying in the Old City who view the Christian religion with disdain.
"I'm sure the phenomenon would end as soon as rabbis and well-known educators denounce it. In practice, rabbis of yeshivas ignore or even encourage it," he says.

Evyatar says he himself was spat at while walking with a Serbian bishop in the Jewish quarter, near his home. "A group of yeshiva students spat at us and their teacher just stood by and watched."

Jerusalem municipal officials said they are aware of the problem but it has to be dealt with by the police. Shmuel Ben-Ruby, the police spokesman, said they had only two complaints from Christians in the past two years. He said that, in both cases, the culprits were caught and punished.

He said the police deploy an inordinately high number of patrols and special technology in the Old City and its surroundings in an attempt to keep order.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/christians-in-jerusalem-want-jews-to-stop-spitting-on-them-1.137099

More Jewish anti-Christian graffiti at the Cenacle

» 12/16/2009 08:44
ISRAEL - VATICAN

by Joshua Lapide

“We killed Jesus” and “Christians out”, extremists write. Urinating on the door has become an almost daily event. Graffiti are linked to a statement made by an Israeli deputy ministry claiming that the Vatican wants to claim sovereignty on Mount Zion.

Jerusalem (AsiaNews) – A further outrage was committed last night against the Franciscan church adjoining the Cenacle on Mount Zion, next to the Room of the Last Supper (pictured, Benedict XVI’s visit in May 2009).
 
Obscene graffiti on the doors leading to the church read “We killed Jesus", "Christians out" (in English and Hebrew) and "F... off", which were adorned with a "Star of David", apparently so as to leave no one in doubt about the religious affiliation of the perpetrators.

To make the point further, the assailants had urinated on the door and left a long trail of urine leading to it. 

According to churchmen at the site, the urination on the door of the shrine has become an almost daily event. Christian sources blame recent false statements attributed by the press to an Israeli deputy minister, suggesting the Vatican wants to claim sovereignty over Mount Zion, for inciting extremist Jewish elements to increase these, by now habitual, attacks.

A few days ago, more graffiti on the wall of the Basilica of the Dormition, near the Cenacle, also read “Death to Christians” (see “"Death to Christians": Hebrew graffiti next to Upper Room in Jerusalem,” in AsiaNews, 12 December 2009)

http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=17130&geo=1&size=A

Hundreds of New Testaments torched in Israel

May 28, 2008 -- Updated 1202 GMT (2002 HKT)
 
By Mark Bixler
CNN
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(CNN) -- Police in Israel are investigating the burning of hundreds of New Testaments in a city near Tel Aviv, an incident that has alarmed advocates of religious freedom.

Investigators plan to review photographs and footage showing "a fairly large" number of New Testaments being torched this month in the city of Or-Yehuda, a police spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld, said Wednesday.

News accounts in Israel have quoted Uzi Aharon, the deputy mayor of Or-Yehuda, as saying he organized students who burned several hundred copies of the New Testament. The deputy mayor gave interviews to Israeli radio and television stations after word of the incident surfaced about two weeks ago.

Soon he was talking with Russian, Italian and French television stations, "explaining to their highly offended audiences back home how he had not meant for the Bibles to be burned, and trying to undo the damage caused by the news (and photographs) of Jews burning New Testaments," The Jerusalem Post reported.

Aharon told CNN on Wednesday that he collected New Testaments and other "Messianic propaganda" that had been handed out in the city but that he did not plan or organize a burning. Instead, he said, three teenagers set fire to a pile of New Testaments while he was not present. Once he learned what was going on, he said, he stopped the burning.

The episode has worried defenders of Israel's minority population of Messianic Jews, who consider themselves Jewish but believe in the divinity of Jesus, as do Christians. It also has concerned evangelical Christians in North America, Europe and Asia, who visit Israel by the hundreds of thousands.

Calev Myers, an attorney for Messianic Jews in Israel, told CNN he plans to file a formal complaint Thursday with the national police at the request of the United Christian Council in Israel, an umbrella organization for a few dozen Christian organizations outside Israel.

"I hope the people who are responsible for breaking the law will be indicted and prosecuted," he said.
About 200 New Testaments were burned, Aharon said, but he saved another 200.

His goal was to stop attempts to distribute Christian literature in the city, he said.

Myers, however, said he doubts that Messianic Jewish missionaries distributed the New Testaments. He said it's not clear how the volumes found their way into homes in Or-Yehuda.

The deputy mayor told CNN he respects the New Testament and would not do what has been done to the Jews in the past -- a reference to Nazi burning of Jewish and other books in the 1930s, and other occasions when Jewish texts, including sacred ones, were burned.

Myers said his complaint will ask the authorities to investigate possible violations of two Israeli laws. One forbids the destruction or desecration of any religious icon or item that a group holds sacred. Another bans people from speaking publicly in a way that offends or humiliates a certain religion.
Both laws are meant to prevent people from inciting religious violence, he said.

The burning controversy has unfolded against the backdrop of other instances that Myers cited as examples of discrimination against Messianic Jews in Israel.

About two months ago, the teenage son of a Messianic pastor was severely injured when a package delivered to his home exploded, Myers said. In addition, several rabbis urged students to boycott further participation in a Bible competition after they learned that one winner -- a high-school student in Israel -- was a Messianic Jew, he said.

Groups such as the Anti-Defamation League have sharply criticized the burning of New Testaments.
"We condemn this heinous act as a violation of the basic Jewish principles and values," said Rabbi Eric J. Greenburg, director of interfaith policy for the Anti-Defamation League. "It is essential that we respect the sacred texts of other faiths. The Jewish people can never forget the tragic burning of sacred Jewish volumes at many points in history."

"While there may be legitimate concerns of proselytizing, these matters must be addressed through the proper legal channels," Greenburg said in a statement. "It is unacceptable and not legitimate to burn someone else's sacred texts."
 
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/05/28/bible.burning/index.html

Russian cathedral in Jerusalem vandalized

14 December 2009, 16:32

Jerusalem, December 14, Interfax - The Holy Trinity Cathedral of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem was vandalized early on December 11.

'Death' and 'Death to Christians' were written in Hebrew in large red letters near the cathedral altar and ante-church, the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission said.

A statement was made to the Jerusalem police.

There have been threats to clerics of the Russian Orthodox Church and other Christian confessions before, the mission said. The hooligans said that Christians must leave Jerusalem before they are massacred.

http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=6737

Church Showered with Stones in Northern Israel


Posted by EU Times on Dec 17th, 2009


When the congregation at St. Nicolay church in this northern Israeli town gathered on that quiet Friday morning of May 29, they never expected to be showered with stones.

The Russian Orthodox worshipers, including many women, children and the elderly, had filled the small building to overflow with several outside when they were stunned by the rain of stones. Some were injured and received medical care.

“The church was crawling with people – the worshipers stood not only inside the church, but also outside, as the building is very small, when suddenly a few young men started throwing stones at the direction of our courtyard,” Oleg Usenkov, press secretary of the church told Compass. “Young children were crying, everyone was very frightened.”

The church had also been attacked earlier that week, during a wedding ceremony. Stones and rotten eggs were thrown from the street, hitting guests as they arrived.

The same night, the Rev. Roman Radwan, priest of St. Nicolay church, filed a complaint at the police station. An officer issued a document to confirm that he had filed an official complaint and sent him home, promising that measures would be taken. But within 24 hours, the attackers again appeared at the church’s doorway and no police were present to deter them – although the police station is located a few dozen meters from the church.

The identity of the assailants is unknown – a police officer said the complaint “lacked the exact description of the attackers” – but eye-witnesses claimed they were ultra-orthodox yeshiva students who frequently cursed the church on their way to the school or synagogue.

“They often assault us verbally, curse and yell at us, although we tried to explain that this is a place of worship, a holy place,” said a frustrated Usenkov, adding that the police inaction amounts to nonfeasance.

Another member of the congregation identified only as Nina, born in Moscow and now living in Nazeret Ilit, said that she didn’t understand where all the hatred is coming from.

“They are heading to the yeshiva or going back home after praying at the synagogue – are they inspired to attack us during their prayers?” she said. “I hope not. We are all Israeli citizens, we pay taxes, serve in the army and are entitled to freedom of choice when it comes to religion.”

She and other members of the congregation fear hostilities could escalate quickly if measures are not taken soon. Already the small building, which barely accommodates the worshipers, is surrounded by a stone fence by order of Migdal ha-Emeq officials following a series of arson attempts and other attacks.

Members of the congregation, a few hundred Christians from Migdal ha-Emeq, Afula, Haifa, Nazareth and other Israeli cities still remember how their building was vandalized in June 2006. Under cover of darkness, unidentified men broke in and broke icons and modest decorations, smashed windows and stole crosses.

The identity of those responsible remains unknown.

Established in 2005, the church building was constructed to meet the needs of Christians who do not belong to the Arab Christian minority, mostly Russians who came to Israel from the former Soviet Union in the 1990s. Besides the Christians, these immigrants included other non-Jews, as well as atheistic Jews and Jewish converts to Christianity.

No official data on religious make-up of the immigrants are available, especially since many fear deportation or persecution for talking openly about their faith, but Usenkov – a Russian Jew who converted to Christianity after immigrating to Israel in the 1990s – said he believes there are at least 300,000 Christians of Russian or Russian-Jewish origin who live in Israel today.

According to Israeli law, non-Jewish relatives of a Jew are also entitled to citizenship, but Jews who have converted to other faiths are denied it.

Most of the Russian and Russian-Jewish Christians in Israel belong to the Russian Orthodox Church and find it difficult to adjust to Greek or Arabic services common in the Greek Orthodox churches of Israel. Since St. Nicolay’s church opened its doors, hundreds of worshipers from across Israel have visited it.

“Many people fear they might pass away without seeing a priest, or they dream of a Christian wedding service,” said Radwan, an Israeli-Arab whose family once owned the land on which the St. Nicolay church is located. “Here we can answer their needs. We do not want to harm anyone and wish that no one would harm us.”

http://www.eutimes.net/2009/12/church-showered-with-stones-in-northern-israel/

Haredim protest 'missionary activity' in Holon

Some 100 ultra-Orthodox men hurl stones at sports hall in central city during Jehovah's Witnesses conference, call police officers 'Nazis' 
 
Yoav Zitun
Published: 05.01.10, 15:20 / Israel News


Some 900 people on Saturday participated in a conference of the Jehovah's Witnesses denomination in the central city of Holon. The event was held under tight security at a municipal basketball hall in the Kiryat Sharet neighborhood.

Watch the video filmed by one of the participants.

At around 11 am, about 100 ultra-Orthodox men arrived in the area and began hurling stones and potatoes at the building, smashed its windows and tried to break in. They were stopped by a police force and security guards.
The haredim continued to stand outside the building, chanting "Nazis" at the police officers and "Russians, go back to Russia" at the participants.
One of the security guards told Ynet, "One of the haredim kicked me in the back, while the others chanted, 'Death to the Zionists.' We were lucky that the police were here from the very beginning.

Smashed windows (Photo: Yoav Zitun)

Another guard, who stopped the protestors from entering the hall, added that "at first there were only a few of them, and then masses suddenly arrived. They wouldn't stop cursing, and only stopped when their rabbi told them to."
The police said no arrests had been made.
The organizers of the event, which takes place once every few months, had prepared for the haredi protest in advance after spotting signs hung in the neighborhood on Friday, calling on the public to demonstrate against the conference.

'Jewish souls hunted for money'

Under the banner, "Beware – missionaries in Holon!!!", the ads distributed around the neighborhood warned that "damned evil people are here to murder people and souls in Israel, like in the days of the inquisition, when Jews were slaughtered cold bloodedly.

"These are the corrupt missionaries who are hunting Jewish souls for money. Different elements calling themselves 'Jews' are helping these criminals carry out their scheme in public, for a bribe, and have allowed them to come to our city Holon and preach their impure and poisonous beliefs."
Genadi Korobov, one of the organizers, was addressing the audience as the building was pelted with stones. "This is the third time in the past year that we visit Holon. We are already used to the haredi objection, but the amount and size of the stones we were hit with today was unusual," he said.
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"In the middle of my address, we suddenly heard the windows being smashed, and very large stones landed on the hall's parquet, right next to disabled people in wheelchairs, who were sitting in special places. Luckily, no one was hurt, but we were forced to move the disabled audience to the center of the hall.
Korobov noted that despite the violent protest, the conference – which included lectures, lessons and prayers – continued as planned under the banner, "Time is running out." 


http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3883204,00.html

Orthodox Jewish youths burn New Testaments in Or Yehuda

  • Published 00:00 20.05.08
  • Latest update 00:00 20.05.08

City's deputy mayor initiated bonfire of missionary-distributed material, held next to a synagogue in town.

By The Associated Press
 
Orthodox Jews set fire to hundreds of copies of the New Testament in the latest act of violence against Christian missionaries in the Holy Land.

Or Yehuda Deputy Mayor Uzi Aharon said missionaries recently entered a neighborhood in the predominantly religious town of 34,000 in central Israel, distributing hundreds of New Testaments and missionary material.
After receiving complaints, Aharon said, he got into a loudspeaker car last Thursday and drove through the neighborhood, urging people to turn over the material to Jewish religious students who went door to door to collect it.

"The books were dumped into a pile and set afire in a lot near a synagogue," he said.

The newspaper Maariv reported Tuesday that hundreds of yeshiva students took part in the book-burning. But Aharon told The Associated Press that only a few students were present, and that he was not there when the books were torched.

"Not all of the New Testaments that were collected were burned, but hundreds were," he said.

He said he regretted the burning of the books, but called it a commandment to burn materials that urge Jews to convert.
"I certainly don't denounce the burning of the booklets, he said. I denounce those who distributed the booklets."

Jews worship from the Old Testament, including the Five Books of Moses and the writings of the ancient prophets. Christians revere the Old Testament as well as the New Testament, which contains the ministry of Jesus.

Calev Myers, an attorney who represents Messianic Jews, or Jews who accept Jesus as their savior, demanded in an interview with Army Radio that all those involved be put on trial. He estimated there were 10,000 Messianic Jews, who are also known as Jews for Jesus, in Israel.

Police had no immediate comment.

Israeli authorities and Orthodox Jews frown on missionary activity aimed at Jews, though in most cases it is not illegal. Still, the concept of a Jew burning books is abhorrent to many in Israel because of the association with Nazis torching piles of Jewish books during the Holocaust of World War II.

Earlier this year, the teenage son of a prominent Christian missionary was seriously wounded when a package bomb delivered to the family's West Bank home went off in his hands.

Last year, arsonists burst into a Jerusalem church used by Messianic Jews and set the building on fire, raising suspicions that Jewish extremists were behind the attack. No one claimed responsibility, but the same church was burned down 25 years ago by ultra-Orthodox Jewish extremists.


http://www.haaretz.com/news/orthodox-jewish-youths-burn-new-testaments-in-or-yehuda-1.246153

Missionary Activity in Sderot

Published: 11/14/07, 1:31 PM

Missionary Activity in Sderot


by Hillel Fendel


Increased pro-Jesus missionary activity has been initiated in Kassam-besieged Sderot over the past two weeks, local residents say. 

On the backdrop of Kassams exploding into the small city of Sderot, the mostly working-class population is now facing yet another danger: missionary activity. Local residents say, "They are taking advantage of the difficulties here and trying to convert us to their beliefs."

Herzl Shayubi, who served until recently as Deputy Mayor of Sderot, told Arutz-7, "You can see that they have become very active here of late, with large signs about repentance and door-to-door activity with their Bibles and materials... In one case, I physically stopped one of them when I saw what he was giving out."


Around the country they give out cheap editions of the New Testament, but here in Sderot they have been giving out a very fancy edition, with a very beautiful gold and black binding and gold-edged pages.

Moshe Malka, an activist of the Yad L'Achim anti-missionary organization who has family living in Sderot, said, "The missionaries - most of them 'Messianic Jews' - often show up to the weekly market day, marketing their destructive wares...  Many of the residents say that the missionaries are taking advantage of their difficult situation to try to entice them to join their services - and it really appears that they have targeted Sderot.  For instance, around the country they give out cheap editions of the New Testament, but here in Sderot they have been giving out a very fancy edition, with a very beautiful gold and black binding and gold-edged pages.  I went into some houses to show them the book and ask if they've ever seen one like it - and they say, 'Sure, someone once gave us this' and they pull it out of their libraries.  The missionaries simply prey on the ignorant and the weak."

"They have two houses here in Sderot, one on Natan Elbaz Street and one on Shivat Tzion [Return to Zion] Street  In one of them, they have a weekly class in Russian on Friday evenings, and in the other they have Sabbath prayer services - featuring Jesus, of course... We have found that a 60-year-old man named Peter from nearby Bror Hayil comes and gives out literature."

Malka says the plight of the residents is very much in evidence: "For instance, on the weekly market day, there used to be four or five rows of people selling their stuff, and now there's only one row. On every street you see many houses for rent or for sale.  It looks like a ghost town."

Yad L'Achim has stepped up its anti-missionary activity in Sderot, Malka says: "We have been going door-to-door ourselves, and we're in contact with the yeshivat hesder there, and with the local Beit Chabad, and we stand at intersections, etc.  We would like to hold a public session in some protected building in order to explain the dangers..."

Avi Ben-Abu, a local grocery store owner, told Yad L'Achim, "It is unacceptable for missionaries to take advantage of our difficult plight and put salt on our wounds by leading innocent Jews astray."
(IsraelNationalNews.com)

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/124254

Missionaries draw fire in Israel

Austin American-Statesman, USA
June 15, 2008
Robert W. Gee

OR YEHUDA, Israel — Charred pages of the New Testament are mixed among trash and weeds at the edge of a vacant lot next to the Matslawi Synagogue in this religious, working-class suburb of Tel Aviv.

As many as 200 Hebrew versions of the New Testament were burned in a bonfire here last month, according to police, allegedly by a group of ultra-Orthodox Jewish students.

It was the latest in a string of incidents targeting Messianic Jews in Israel, a trend that has alarmed Christian Zionist organizations.

The incident in Or Yehuda was denounced by Jewish organizations and in Israeli newspaper editorials. But it underscores rising tensions between Israeli Jews and a growing Messianic Jewish minority — Jews who believe in Jesus Christ.

“We’re here to support Israel. And we’re standing with Israel, but this complicates our job to build support for Israel among Christians when these Messianic Jews are getting harassed, intimidated and even beat up and people are not being held accountable for it,” said David Parsons, a North Carolina native who serves as media director for the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, a flagship Christian Zionist organization.

Messianic Jews
 
‘Messianic Jews’ are Jewish people who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Messiah, Savior and Lord. They are sometimes referred to as “Fulfilled Jews” – a reference to the idea that they consider the Jewish prophecies regarding a promised Messiah to have been fulfilled in Jesus.
Christian Zionism is a Protestant movement that supports the right of the Jewish people to settle in the biblical land of Israel on scriptural grounds and lends political and financial support to the Jewish state. The movement has millions of adherents in the United States and holds an annual convention in Jerusalem, usually attended by Israel’s top political leaders.

Some Israelis, however, consider Christian Zionism and Messianic Judaism to be undermining the Jewish faith.

“In a Jewish state where we came to remain Jewish, we’re losing Jews,” said Rabbi Shalom Dov Lipshitz, chairman of Yad L’Achim — A Hand to Brethren.

His group is a nonprofit organization that monitors Christian and Messianic missionary activity and lobbies the government to strengthen anti-missionary legislation. According to Israeli law, proselytizing is illegal only if minors are targeted, or if money or other gifts are offered.

The group has compiled a list of 124 people and groups that it says are trying to coax Jews away from their religion. One is an evangelical Christian soup kitchen in Tel Aviv.

“We’ve already lost 6 million Jews,” Lipshitz said, referring to the Holocaust. “So each one is valuable and we don’t want to lose them.”

Yad L’Achim calls Messianic groups cults and Lipshitz says once a Jew accepts Jesus, he or she is no longer Jewish. Messianic Jews call their belief a strain of Judaism.

Whatever the definition, the practice has roiled emotions in this nation where religious identity is paramount.

“There’s a growing intolerance,” said Calev Myers, a lawyer who represents Messianic Jews.

In March, the 15-year-old son of the leader of a Messianic congregation in the West Bank settlement of Ariel was injured when a package left at the front door of the family home exploded as he opened it.

The boy, Ami Ortiz, is still in a hospital, awaiting multiple surgeries, according to his father, David Ortiz, who holds American and Israeli citizenship.

Over the past two years, a chess club owned by Messianic Jews in the southern city of Arad was burned, and a Messianic baptism in Beersheva was interrupted by a group of Orthodox Jews who carried the pastor into the baptismal pool. In Jerusalem, the Baptist House, home to Messianic and evangelical congregations, was firebombed. It was empty at the time.

No one has been arrested in any of the cases.

Messianic Jews give widely varying estimates of their numbers in Israel — somewhere between 3,000 and 15,000 — but they say their community is growing and they are becoming bolder in sharing their beliefs.

Jews for Jesus, an international Messianic group with headquarters in San Francisco, launched a campaign in the Tel Aviv area last month called Behold Your God Israel in which 24 members — half foreign- and half Israeli-born Jews — fanned out on street corners to hand out promotional brochures.

Over four weeks, they distributed nearly 132,000 brochures and took names and contact information from 2,200 Israelis. Roughly 1,000 of those asked for New Testament bibles.

However, the members were not universally well received.

Brochures were stolen and members were threatened, kicked, shoved and spit on, said Dan Sered, director of Jews for Jesus Israel.

“Jesus told us to pray for our enemies,” Sered said.

The campaign is the most far-reaching Messianic missionary effort in Israel, he said, and will continue later in the year. It includes newspaper and billboard advertising; it also included bus advertising until the Israeli national bus cooperative, Egged, responding to complaints, removed the ads.

“It’s the right time for us. We’ve seen our Israel branch grow,” Sered said. “What we have to say is obviously controversial … (but) we have found there are many interested in reading the New Testament.”

He characterized antagonism toward Messianic Jews as a “family feud.”

“The issue: Is Jesus the Messiah — yes or no — has been going on for almost 2,000 years,” he said.
In Or Yehuda, residents described missionaries wearing T-shirts that read “Yeshua” — Jesus in Hebrew — walking door-to-door with New Testaments last month. (It’s unclear whether Christian evangelicals or Messianic Jews distributed the bibles; Jews for Jesus says it wasn’t involved.)

Soon after, several hundred students from an ultra-Orthodox Jewish school gathered to burn the New Testaments, dancing around the burning books, according to Israeli press reports.

It is unlawful in Israel to desecrate a religious icon or holy book. It is also illegal to publicly denigrate a religion.

David Asher, 44, who lives across the street from the synagogue where the burning took place, said 100 to 200 boys took part. “My son burned many books, as well,” he said. “The Jews don’t go into Christian houses and give them literature … It’s offensive.”

The Anti-Defamation League condemned the burning. “It is essential that we respect the sacred texts of other faiths,” Rabbi Eric Greenburg, director of interfaith policy, said in a statement. “The Jewish people can never forget the tragic burning of sacred Jewish volumes at many points in history.”

Asher said for the people of Or Yehuda, who are mostly Mizrahim, or Jews from Middle Eastern countries, concerns over parallels with the 1933 Nazi book-burning campaign did not resonate.

“In Or Yehuda, there are hardly any Ashkenazim who went through the Holocaust,” he said, referring to European Jews. “So, it didn’t remind us of that.”

http://www.religionnewsblog.com/21641/missionaries-draw-fire-in-israel

Christian Zionist Group Criticized for Unconditional Support of Israel

The Christian Post > World|Tue, Jul. 17 2007 08:57 AM EDT
 
By Ethan Cole | Christian Post Reporter

WASHINGTON – A well-known, outspoken group of Christian Zionists is being criticized by an ecumenical organization of churches for its “uncritical” support of Israel, as it kicked-off the first day of its annual gathering in the nation’s capital on Monday.

 

The National Council of Churches USA (NCC), a coalition of 35 denominations representing 45 million members, says many Christians have a different opinion of Israel than Pastor John Hagee’s Christians United for Israel (CUFI).

Among the points of contention is CUFI’s “uncritical” support for the State of Israel based on a literal reading of biblical apocalyptic texts, argues NCC.

“John Hagee’s message differs greatly with what theologians have taught for centuries,” said Dr. Antonios Kireopoulos, NCC’s associated general secretary for International Affairs and Peace, in a statement.

And “CUFI stands apart from the historic Churches still present in the Holy Land,” he added. “All of these Churches serve Palestinian Christians, who are adversely affected by the policies supported by Hagee and CUFI. As a result of these policies, Christian communities in the Holy Land are diminishing and are threatened with extinction."

Pastor John C. Hagee is the founder and senior pastor of the Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas – a non-denominational evangelical church with over 18,000 members. He has received numerous recognitions for his vocal support of Israel, believing that Jews continue to be favored by God by grace despite their unbelief in Jesus.

Hagee rejects the replacement theory which says that the new covenant presented in the New Testament given to the Church replaces the old covenant given only to Israel.

While the NCC noted that its members also support Israel, it is critical of the Israel-occupied Palestinian territories. NCC advocates for a two-state solution of a secure Israel alongside a Palestinian state.

“Only a just solution will bring peace to the Middle East,” said Kireopoulos.

A fairly new critic of Israel, who previously had a history of strong support, has also been expressing her opposition to Christians giving “blind support” to the country when it is wrong.

Award-winning talk show host Janet Parshall has criticized Israel’s parliament for condemning groups that share the Gospel. The Knesset Christian Allies Caucus – a group in the Israeli parliament that seeks to build cooperation between the parliament and Christian leader – does not associate with groups that share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

In addition, an Israeli political party had introduced a legislation in the Knesset which would punish someone for sharing the Gospel in Israel for up to a one-year prison sentence.

“I thought, wait a minute, we can’t just blindly support Israel,” she said, according to OneNewsNow.com.

Parshall subsequently withdrew from speaking at a Jerusalem conference sponsored by the Knesset Christian Allies Caucus.

Christian Zionists are often characterized by “a kind of blind support that says no matter what Israel does, Israel can do no wrong,” noted Parshall.

“I don’t believe that of our government and I certainly don’t believe that of the Israeli government. And friends tell friends, in love, when they see things that they think are wrong,” she added.
Christians are arguably Israel’s strongest and most vocal supporters in the world with American evangelicals making up 1/3 of American tourists that visit Israel, second only to American Jews.
CUFI is hosting its 2nd annual Israel/Washington DC Summit July 16-19. Pro-Israel churches, ministries, and individuals will hear from speakers such as Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, former speaker of the house Newt Gingrich, and former Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. The gathering will also include a lobby day on Capitol Hill for participants to meet their representatives to press for support of Israel.

http://www.christianpost.com/news/christian-zionist-group-criticized-for-unconditional-support-of-israel-28481/

Shas seeks harsher punishment for missionaries

Led by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, party proposes bill to completely forbid proselytism in Israel, sentence violators to one year in prison
Neta Sela
Published: 03.14.07, 00:21 / Israel News


A war on missionaries was declared Tuesday when Shas faction head MK Yakov Margi proposed a bill stating that Israel's laws against proselytism should be aggravated.
Conversion

2006: More Jews converting to Islam / Nurit Palter

New record: 70 Israeli citizens expected to convert to Islam this year – more than twice the number in previous years. Most are cases of Jewish, Christian women marrying Muslim men
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Backed by six other faction members and in concordance with Shas' spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's instructions, Margi proposed the sentence for preaching conversion should be one year imprisonment.
"Every time he (Rabbi Ovadia Yosef) hears of a case where someone falls into missionary hands, he feels great sadness and asks us to try and save at least one soul in Israel," said Margi.
"Whether it's Christians coming from abroad or Jewish converts working in Israel, they all have the same agenda – to destroy every trace and memory of the people of Israel, and they plan to do this by converting Jews. These bodies are operating mainly among the Jewish population which is under physical, social and spiritual distress," said the proposal.

Currently, Israeli law deals with conversion on two levels. Firstly, anyone offering money or material products in exchange for conversion faces five years in prison or a monetary fine. The person on the accepting end of the offer also faces a certain punishment.

On the second level, regarding minors, anyone acting in favor of or conducting a conversion ceremony on a minor, faces six month in jail.

'Every man may live in his religion'
The law does not address attempts to convert adults over the age of 18, making it completely legitimate.
Shas members claim that the current law does not deter proselytizers and even though many complaints are filed in the matter, very few of them actually turn into indictments.
The proposal claimed that the weaker populations, such as Ethiopians and new immigrants, were more susceptible to missionary persuasion.
"There is no choice but to adopt the rules applying to forbidding proselytism among minors, for all matter relating to adults as well. In other words, completely forbidding preaching and proselytism," said the proposal.

Shas was also sure to defend the bill from accusations of violating Israel's freedom of religion principal, saying that "we do not mean to violate freedom of religion or freedom from religion. We mean to allow everyone to believe in their own religion, and prevent harassment by any source trying to harm the basic democratic right according to which 'every man may live in his religion.'"
The proposal pointed out that the law does not specify which religion it applies to and therefore also forbids the proselytism of non-Jews to Judaism.

"The law also applies to Jewish sects bringing Muslims from the Old City to convert to Judaism," it said. 


http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3376215,00.html

Evangelical Pastor Ordered to Leave Israel Over Missionary Suspicions

By Ethan Cole | Christian Post Reporter

An American evangelical pastor and his wife who have lived in Israel for nearly two decades were told to leave the country over suspicion of mission activities, officials said Thursday.

 

The couple – Ron Cantrell, 59, and Carol Cantrell, 54 – was told that they have two weeks to leave after their application for permanent residency was rejected, according to The Jerusalem Post.
Interior Ministry officials say the decision resulted from suspicion that Cantrell was participating in missionary work – which Israel bans. However, the pastor has denied the accusation.

Cantrell’s case is being viewed by some observers as another example in a growing debate on whether Christians, especially evangelicals, should “blindly support” Israel despite the fact that it forbids Christians from evangelizing in the country.

Israel has often called evangelicals its best friend seeing that the born-again Christian group has arguably been the world’s most vocal supporter of the state. Moreover, evangelicals compose one-third of American tourists to Israel – second only to American Jews.

“There is a part of the evangelical family, which is what I call Christian Zionists, who are just so staunchly pro-Israel that Israel and their side can do no wrong, and it’s almost anti-biblical to criticize Israel for anything,” said megachurch pastor Joel Hunter recently to the New York Times.

"But there are many more evangelicals who are really open and seek justice for both parties,” he said referring his support of a new Palestinian state.

Award-winning talk show host Janet Parshall, a long-time supporter of Israel, said she realized that Christians “can’t just blindly support Israel” after she heard that the Knesset Christian Allies Caucus does not associate with groups that share the Gospel.

“We have to able to tell them, as a friend, [that] you can’t do that. You can’t silence us,” said Parshall, who still believes in the biblical mandate to protect and care for Israel.

In the case of the Cantrells, the couple has overseen a small Jerusalem-based ministry called Shalom Shalom Jerusalem for the past four years. Prior to Ron Cantrell’s current ministry, he worked for the evangelical organization Bridges for Peace for 14 years.

Ron had a special clergy visa when he worked for Bridges for Peace but returned to a regular tourist visa after he stopped working for the ministry. The tourist visa requires that he renews it every three or six months.

The evangelical pastor said he could continue to live in Israel under the tourist visa because of his extensive traveling from speaking engagements, which would require him to leave the country at lease once every three months. But since the tourist visa would not be feasible for his wife, the Cantrells decided to apply for permanent residency.

Israeli officials, however, rejected the couple’s application last month.

Two of the Cantrell’s children, meanwhile, are married to Israelis and have Israeli ID cards, according to The Jerusalem Post.

http://www.christianpost.com/news/evangelical-pastor-ordered-to-leave-israel-over-missionary-suspicions-28936/

Missionaries under threat in Israel

Posted 6/22/2008 2:00 AM |
Ami Ortiz, injured when a booby-trapped gift for his family exploded in his home last March, is wheeled in a wheelchair by his brother in Tel Hashomer Hospital in Tel Aviv.
By Ed Ou, AP
Ami Ortiz, injured when a booby-trapped gift for his family exploded in his home last March, is wheeled in a wheelchair by his brother in Tel Hashomer Hospital in Tel Aviv. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Safety pins and screws are still lodged in 15-year-old Ami Ortiz's body three months after he opened a booby-trapped gift basket sent to his family. The explosion severed two toes, damaged his hearing and harmed a promising basketball career.
 
Police say they are still searching for the assailants. But to the Ortiz family the motive of the attackers is clear: The Ortizes are Jews who believe that Jesus was the Messiah.

Israel's tiny community of Messianic Jews, a mixed group of 10,000 people who include the California-based Jews for Jesus, complains of threats, harassment and police indifference.
The March 20 bombing was the worst incident so far. In October, a mysterious fire damaged a Jerusalem church used by Messianic Jews, and last month ultra-Orthodox Jews torched a stack of Christian holy books distributed by missionaries.

Israel's Foreign Ministry and two chief rabbis were quick to condemn the burning, but the Ortiz family says vigorous police action is needed.

"I believe that it will happen again, if not to us, then to other Messianic believers," said Ami's mother, Leah Ortiz, 54-year-old native of South Orange, N.J.

Proselytizing is strongly discouraged in Israel, a state that was established for a people that suffered centuries of persecution for not accepting Jesus and has little tolerance for missionary work.
At the same time, Israel has warm relations with U.S. evangelical groups, which strongly support its cause, but these generally refrain from proselytizing inside Israel. Even the Mormon church, which has mission work at its core worldwide, agreed when it opened a campus in Jerusalem to refrain from missionary activity.

"Historically the core of Christianity ... was 'convert or die,' so it was seen and is still seen as an assault on Jewish existence itself," said Rabbi David Rosen, who oversees interfaith affairs for the American Jewish Committee. "When you are called to join another religion, you are being called on to betray your people."

Messianic Jews consider themselves Jewish, observing the holy days and reciting many of the same prayers. The Ortiz family lights candles on the Jewish Sabbath, shuns pork and eats matzoth on Passover.

Ami Ortiz, interviewed at the Tel Aviv hospital where he is being treated, comes across as no different from any Jewish Israeli his age. He's a sabra, or native-born Israeli, who speaks English with a Hebrew accent, has an older brother in an elite Israeli army unit and was hoping to join the youth squad of Maccabi Tel Aviv, a league-topping basketball team.

But his religion also holds that one can embrace Jesus — Ami calls him by his Hebrew name, Yeshua — as the Messiah and remain Jewish. Orthodox Jews, on the other hand, believe that the Messiah has yet to come, that he will do so only when he chooses, and that any attempt to pre-empt his coming is a grievous sin.

Rabbi Sholom Dov Lifschitz, head of the ultra-Orthodox Yad Leahim organization that campaigns against missionary activity in Israel, says Messianic Jews give him "great pain."
"They are provoking ... it's a miracle that worse things don't happen," he said.

Messianic activists appear to have had some success among couples with one non-Jewish spouse, as well as immigrants from Ethiopia and the former Soviet Union who have loose ties to Judaism.
Or Yehuda, a town in central Israel with many immigrants as well as ultra-Orthodox Jews including a deputy mayor, Uri Aharon, was the scene of the May 15 book-burning.

Ami Dahan, a local police official, says hundreds of Christian religious books were burned on May 15 in an empty lot in town. He said Deputy Mayor Uzi Aharon, has been questioned on suspicion that he instructed youths to collect the books from homes where they had been distributed and told them to burn them.
Aharon denies ordering the burning. He says the books were collected from a neighborhood of mostly Ethiopian immigrants who are easily persuaded by missionaries.

"There are three missionaries who live and work in the town, and every Saturday they take people to worship and try to brainwash them," Aharon said.

Many Messianic Jews say they recognize the sensitivities involved and do not distribute religious material or conduct high-profile campaigns. But Aharon noted a recent "Jews for Jesus" campaign with signs on buses that equated two similar Hebrew words — "Jesus" and "salvation." Public outrage quickly forced the bus company to remove the signs.

Lawyer Dan Yakir of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel says the law allows missionaries to preach provided they don't offer gifts or money or go after minors.

"It is their right according to freedom of religion to maintain their religious lifestyle and disseminate their beliefs, including through literature," he said.

But the obstacles are evident, raised not just from religious activists but by the state.
Calev Myers, a lawyer who represents Messianic Jews, said he has fought 200 legal cases in the past two years. Most involve authorities' attempts to close down houses of worship, revoke the citizenship of believers or refuse to register their children as Israelis. In one case, Israel has accused a German religion student of missionary activity and has tried — so far unsuccessfully — to deport her.
In incidents of violence, police are reluctant to press charges, Myers said.

The book-burning caused shock among U.S. evangelicals.

Dave Parsons, spokesman of the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem, which represents evangelical Christian communities, said the test would be how vigorously authorities pursued the case.
"We believe there is a link to a series of incidents here in the land that involve harassment, intimidation and physical violence," he said.

The Ortiz family moved from the United States to Israel in 1985, qualifying as immigrants under Israel's Law of Return because Leah, the mother, is Jewish. In 1989 they moved into Ariel, a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, and established a small Messianic group which now numbers 60, most of them immigrants from the former Soviet Union, according to David Ortiz, the pastor and Ami's father.
He said that he built the community through conversations with friends and neighbors, but did not actually go door-to-door distributing religious material to strangers in the traditional sense of missionary work. David Ortiz says he has also proselytized in the Palestinian areas — prompting Islamic leaders there to warn against contact with him. Ortiz said he had "no problem" if Messianic Jews discuss their religious views with others and persuade them to believe in Jesus.

When the family began holding study sessions, a rabbi warned Ortiz not to speak about Jesus outside the home.

In 2005, fliers were distributed in Ariel warning that there were believers of Jesus in the community. One day, two men wearing the black skullcaps of Orthodox Jews knocked on the door and photographed Ortiz when he answered. Recently the photo turned up on a flier with the family's address.

When the basket was left at the door Ami wasn't surprised, since it was Purim, a holiday when Jews exchange gifts.

"I opened it up and I heard it and then I was on the floor and I didn't hear anything, I didn't see anything," the lanky boy recalls.

Ami was in critical condition, with severe gashes in his legs and feet and one that just missed his jugular vein. His tryout for the Maccabi team was canceled.

His family initially suspected Palestinians; Ariel is in the heart of the West Bank and surrounded by Palestinian towns and villages and, like most Jewish settlements, has been the target of Palestinian attacks. But police immediately told him the bomb was more sophisticated than those made by Palestinians since it contained plastic explosives.

"Nobody ever suspected that a Jewish group would do such a thing, that they would put a bomb in somebody else's house," David Ortiz said.

Police have since told the family that Palestinians were not behind the bombing. The family has footage from a security camera of a man delivering the package, according to a person close to the family who spoke on condition of anonymity because police say disclosing details could harm the investigation.

Police spokesman Danny Poleg would not discuss the case, saying only that no arrests have been made.

Meanwhile, the Messianic Jewish believers are taking no chances. These days they worship under the protection of an armed guard.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-06-22-israel-missionaries_N.htm

S.Karam – What The Media Forgets About Israel In biased, Christians, Israel, media on March 11, 2011 at 5:49 am

In biased, Christians, Israel, media on March 11, 2011 at 5:49 am
 
I am a Lebanese Christian. I am a Lebanese Maronite Catholic to be exact.  I usually see in the media what Israel does to the Muslims in the country, and often times [although I think it is done intentionally] the Christian community and what it faces from Israel is not mentioned. Many people actually may be thinking “This girl is Lebanese, what does she know?” – well I know.

My older sister, Jezelle, is married to a Christian man in Palestine. She actually lives there too, in a beautiful town called Aylaboun. So we talk quite a bit about Palestine, its Christians, and how they live. You see, the West has often ignored them, so they can benefit from their brainwashing tactics. If the Christians of the USA believe that Palestinian Christians are in trouble, then the USA can stand up and “defend them”. Thats a bunch of bologna. My sister said one thing to me, and I will never forget this – “us Christians in Palestine are Palestinian Nationalists, we believe in Palestine, not in Israel. But that doesn’t get in the way of being a good Christian. The two are synonymous”. And really they are. I mean if you don’t believe in Palestine as a Christian, your supporting murder, rape, ethnic/religious cleansing, and violence – Christ doesn’t believe in that – in fact, he preached against it, that was his message.

But then again, we have the “Christian’s are attacked by Muslims daily” rubbish. I call it rubbish because it IS rubbish. My sister tells my dad all the time – she wishes Lebanon’s Christians and Muslims were just as united as the Palestinians are. Priests hide the Muslim freedom fighters, and that is well known, they support the cause around the world, and are literally the first to tell you that Palestine IS NOT Israel.

So what does the media forget about Israel, in it’s attempts to brainwash the entire western world? It forgets to mention the thousands of Palestinian Christians who were murdered when Israel was created.  It forgets to mention the thousands of displaced Palestinian Christians who faced a mass exodus. They forget to mention the Christian town of Aylaboun, who’s story has gone forgotten.
For those who are interested, when Israel was created, Israeli forces entered the town of Aylaboun. The Christians there were determined to not leave their land and decided to enter the town’s church to take refuge. Among them were 25 Muslims from a neighboring village. They hid in the church while they put a large white flag on its entrance… they surrendered but refused to leave. The Israeli forces entered and the church and shot randomly – they killed 45 men and those who survived were taken to Lebanon’s border and dropped off.

Daily, the Zionist Settlers attack Christians, attack churches, harass the priests, verbally slander the nuns and whats worse, take pride in doing so. My sister tells me the brutality against Christians is sometimes, yes believe it, worse than the attacks on Muslims. But the media ignores this. Schools ignore this. And instead of making this known, they talk about rockets flying in from “Muslim Gaza”. Did you know that a study from 1993 stated that Palestinian Christians are more prone than the rest of the population, to take the difficult decision of leaving Palestine? No – I am sure you didn’t. And it is NOT because of Muslim attacks. I wish the world would wake up and realize that your media is biased, your media is fake, and your media is filled with lies!

Don’t believe me? Watch these :)


Go back to Jesus? Gladly. Wake up media! Wake up! Islam is not the enemy, Israel does not treat us Christians well, and they never will. We face the same fate as Muslims in Palestine – your media doesnt want you to know. Ask yourself why.

http://ourfreeminds.wordpress.com/2011/03/11/s-karam-what-the-media-forgets-about-israel/

Freedom for Palestine - OneWorld

http://www.waronwant.org/freedomoneworld/