December 27, 1999

MESSIANIC ACTION COMMITTEE UPDATE (excerpts from recent bulletins received from Israel)

FREEDOM REPORT NO. 70 ======================


MERETZ PARTY MEMBERS OFFER ASSISTANCE

On December 19, Charles Kopp and Paul Liberman of our committee visited with two officials from the Meretz Party (9 Knesset seats).  One of these individuals sits on the Jerusalem City Council and the other is a member of the Board of Directors for the Party's political structure of the
nation's capital.  Meretz is known for its liberal and forceful stand on civil rights and it was they who initiated the meeting.

Their interest concerned the draft proposal that MK Rabbi Meir Porush
has been circulating.  It is an anti-missionary draft bill carrying 5-10
year prison sentences for attempted conversions (see Report No. 67).   They were alarmed and suspected such a proposal would conflict with those elements of Basic Law already enacted (probably the section on Human Rights and Dignity).  They stated that they intended to request the Association for Civil Rights in Israel to write a letter of opinion to this effect.

If their assumption proves correct, they offered to give this opinion to
MK Amnon Rubenstein of their party, who chairs the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, in the current government.  A letter of opinion such as this, in the hands of this chairman, could effectively block passage of such a bill, even if successfully introduced by a majority vote at Preliminary Reading in the Knesset.

Apart from their political interest, they observed that the Messianic
Jews have legislative concerns which should be distinguished from issues of social acceptance.   They asserted that if more Messianic Jews were to let the public recognize them as being just like any other Israeli, this
could be an effective means of countering the false images projected by
Ultra-Orthodox groups.


ALLEGED ETHIOPIAN COMMUNITY MISSIONARY ACTIVITY REPORTED

Another television broadcast featured on December 10-11, 1999 on Israel TV Channel One's Mabat and Yoman Programs concerned the perceived danger of missionary activity within the Ethiopian community.  In general, this group is resistant to conversion to Rabbinical Judaism.

Portions of a videotape (produced and distributed by the featured
Ethiopian congregation itself) were broadcast to show a typical worship service of the Ethiopian believing community.  The footage displayed congregants donating money, falling to the floor, rolling and shaking-images far more like a 1950's rural "Holy Rollers" tent meeting than a typical Messianic Jewish service in Israel today.  These images, selected by the producers of the report, engendered shock and revulsion on the part of the average Israeli viewer and certainly served to galvanize public opinion against the "missionaries" who allegedly promote what would be seen as pagan/cultic activities among the ignorant and susceptible immigrant population. Various factual distortions also served to exaggerate the "missionary threat."  For example, the program claimed that there are several thousand Ethiopian Messianic Jews in Israel.  Reality is that there are only about 400 Ethiopian believers and their assemblies reflect an African Pentecostal tradition that is quite distinct from the mainstream Messianic Jewish community here.  The commentator also stated that meetings are held in hidden places that are changed every few weeks.  In fact, the meeting places are not changed, nor are they secretive.  The TV segment was only six minutes in length, with much emotional opinion, but lacking
documentation.


PRE-BILL ANTI-MISSIONARY PROPOSAL IS NOT ATTRACTING SUPPORT

The MAC regularly monitors new legislation introduced in the Knesset to
see if the meeting at the Internal Affairs and Environment Committee and
follow-up media exposure is resulting in the introduction of new
legislation.  That Committee consistently states that it and the
government have no intention of sponsoring the pre-bill proposal promoted by MK
Porush.

Moreover, the introduction of a private member's bill is less likely
under the present government than under the previous one.  The coalition
agreement of the Netanyahu government granted each member of a party joining the government an opportunity to receive government backing for one bill of private concern.  This often backfired, with legislation being proposed that was embarrassing to the Prime Minister.

Prime Minister Barak undoubtedly learned from this and attempted to
preclude such private member introductions when formulating his coalition agreements with political parties.  He was not successful in including such a provision in every coalition agreement with those parties joining his government, although there are sufficient agreements to make private member legislative initiatives less likely.

Our contacts with the Knesset reflect no forward movement at this time.
It is the opinion of some evangelicals in Israel that the regular featuring
of anti-missionary  reports on televised broadcast is an attempt to
condition the public that missionary activity will destroy the Jewish nature of the State.

Alternatively, the 5-6,000 Messianic Jews and Gentiles here are
attempting to show that belief in Yeshua (Jesus) is not contrary to Jewishness, but the Biblical fulfillment thereof.  Thus, part of the present struggle concerns the way in which Messianic Jews will be perceived in Israeli society.


SURVEY PERTAINING TO CHRISTIANS

A Gallup survey of December 12 was commissioned by the International
Fellowship of Christians and Jews, Rabbi Yachiel Eckstein, founder and
president.  Certain conclusions were somewhat surprising.  For example,
only 9.6% of the Israeli population viewed Christians as anti-Semitic.  Some 60% see Christians as friendly and supportive of the State.  Three out of 4 Israelis said they were enthusiastic about Christians visiting their
country (only 1 in 6 was negative on this subject).    The reasons behind these conclusions are too speculative, but we view them as favorable.

As regards missionary activity, only 2.6% of the total population
indicated there had been an overt attempt at conversion by missionaries during this last year.  This figure could reflect a greatly overstated danger by the spokespersons for the Ultra Orthodox communities.  It also could reflect a less effective effort at evangelism than what Messianic Jews and
Gentiles in Israel would care to admit.


MESSIANIC ACTION COMMITTEE
Paul Liberman, Chairman
Noam Hendren
Charles Kopp
Marvin Kramer, Esq.
Nizar Touma
Daniel Yahav


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See also:

AMFI's Religious Liberty in Israel Update Page

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