by Rev. William E. Currie
March 2000
A
new challenge has arisen that could seriously hurt the Messianic Jewish movement
and democracy itself in Israel. Unlike previous challenges based on legislation
to outlaw evangelism, this new tactic centers on the attempt by Israel’s
Interior Ministry to revoke the citizenship of three Israeli-Ethiopian women and
to deport them. The three young women, who have lived in Israel for nine years
since immigrating from Ethiopia, are all members of a Messianic Jewish group.
“Dream
of Zion turns to Nightmare,” in the February 4, 2000 issue of the Israeli
newspaper, Ha Aretz, tells the young women’s story:
“The
three came to Israel in 1991, arriving in the wave known as “Operation
Solomon.” They were accompanied by a man they called “father” . . . an
Ethiopian Jew who years before had adopted the three girls. He presented them to
Israeli authorities as his own daughters. . . they were given identity
documentation listing them under one name, that of their adopted father.
“.
. . The man died two years later. The three young women, who were 15,16 and 18
when they arrived, had never tried to conceal their non-Jewish identities from
Israeli officials. Upon arrival, they disclosed that their mother was Christian.
“.
. .Their biological father was also Christian. The women did not tell Israeli
officials that the man with whom they came to Israel, whose surname was Vandprow,
was their mother’s spouse, but not their real father. This nondisclosure was a
fateful step. Had the teenage newcomers told Israeli absorption authorities the
truth, and been listed as the man’s adopted children, they would have avoided
their future woes.
“Today,
they say that they didn’t disclose this key fact, because it didn’t seem
pertinent. ‘For as long as I can recall,’ one said this week, ‘I remember
my mother being with Vandprow.’ She added, ‘Throughout my entire life, I
related to him as my father, in every sense of the word.’
“.
. . Their lives as Israeli women might have continued unimpeded, were it not for
a video tape of a Messianic Jewish event which reached the Interior Ministry
about a year ago, from unknown sources. A choir comprised of young Ethiopians
performed at this event, and Interior Ministry officials saw fit to investigate
the identities and status of each of these performers.
“The
three women received the results of this inquiry in a terse letter signed by. .
. an Interior Ministry official. . . ‘I’ve decided to revoke your immigrant
permits, and the citizenship which you received on the basis of forged
documents, or fallacious disclosures. . . . You must leave Israel no later than
May 30, 1999; if you fail to do so, we will be compelled to take legal steps for
your deportation . . .’
“The
last recourse for these three women is to beg for mercy at the doorstep of the
Interior Minister. ‘We came to Israel when we were teenagers,’ they wrote to
[Interior Minister] Sharansky. ‘We honestly believed that we were coming with
our father to live in Israel. We studied at boarding schools and became
integrated in the society. We were never converted, but we view ourselves as
Jews. We love Jewish tradition, and the commandments of the Jewish religion, but
we view ourselves as Messianic Jews. . . . We want to remain in the society, and
believe that our citizenship has been revoked unjustly.’”
The
Ha Aretz article adds that a High Court decision in late January that
confirmed the Interior Ministry’s removal of the women’s citizenship
“sealed their fate.” According to a Messianic leader in Israel, the
women’s appeal to Sharansky will probably not change the government’s heart.
The leader explains that on February 20 Sharansky officially requested his
government’s top legal counsel to rule as to whether “missionary activity”
can be considered “activity against the Jewish people.” “According to the
Law of Return,” says the leader, “the Minister of the Interior has the right
to expel a non-Jew who has immigrated to Israel under the Law of Return and who
is involved in ‘activity against the Jewish people.’” The leader, who has
met with the women, expects them to request a rehearing before the Israeli
Supreme Court.
This
incident sets a precedent for continued investigations and attempted
deportations of Messianic believers by the Interior Ministry (formerly run by
the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, but still heavily populated by Shas bureaucrats
appointed by the former Shas Minister). In addition, Ethiopian immigrants who
work in the Interior Ministry are said to be hostile to believers and reported
to be setting up local councils to investigate Ethiopians who are in Messianic
groups.
There
is already a civil war raging in Israel between the secular majority and the
religious minority. The root of the war is between becoming a religious state
under the control of the orthodox or a secular state envisioned by the founders
of modern Israel in their Declaration of Independence. That Declaration
guarantees to “uphold the full social and political equality of all its
citizens without distinction of race, creed or sex, will guarantee full freedom
of conscience, worship, education and culture . . .”
Should
the Orthodox succeed in their drive for control, the Declaration would become
null and void. One cannot lightly set aside a document of such importance
without realizing it will later lead to the destruction of all that document
represents. Without its Declaration of Independence, Israel would no longer be a
democratic state, but is open to being transformed into a state like the radical
Islamic movement has brought to Iran.
The
Messianic Action Committee, composed of Messianic leaders across Israel,
comments on the Ethiopian women’s dilemma:
“The
Interior Ministry certainly has the dry legal facts on their side, as the High
Court affirmed in their decision. Nevertheless, for obvious humanitarian
reasons, it would seem to be a cruel application of justice to force the
consequences on three young women, two of whom were still minors at the time of
their aliyah. . . . There is no indication from the court’s decision of any
intentional deception on their part. . . . It would be more reasonable to
believe that they followed the instructions of their father and even that he or
someone else filled out the applications for the minors at the time, if not for
all of the women.”
The
MAC then emphasizes the crux of their concern: “All three of these women have
fully integrated into Israeli society over the past nine years, and there is no
reason to consider these women persona non grata, except for their association
with a Messianic community. This technically correct legal decision may well
provide the break in the dike necessary to begin wholesale revocations of
citizenship and expulsions of other ‘undesirables’ who have all the proper
Jewish lineage but who have also aligned themselves with . . . Messianic
[believers]. The religious activists both inside and outside the Interior
Ministry appear to intend to take the maximum advantage of this legal precedent
to press their attacks against the Messianic Jewish community.”
Written
letters to Israeli leaders helped block passage of an anti-missionary law in the
last Knesset. MAC suggests believers from other countries write to protest this
infringement on Israel’s Declaration of Independence. Should you want to stand
with the Messianic Jewish community in Israel, they suggest writing letters
(e-mails are often ignored by governmental agencies) to:
