AMI
UPDATE
JUNE 13, 2009
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Dear
lura_eddie@hotmail.com,
The
articles which I sent yesterday and today are important for us as
believers in Yeshua in Israel to
bring to the attention of as many people as possible. The bombing
that took place in our house was preceded and proceeded
by these incidents. In both of these instances, city
and religious officials were involved, and no charges were ever pressed
against them by the Israeli security services. The bomb that was
brought to our house on Purim eve, March 20, 2008,
was the worst case of violence so far, but as these incidents go
unpunished by the authorities in Israel, the security of
Messianic believers is more and more compromised. Especially
for those who support and pray for Israel, it is important to
pray for the local Body here, for our protection and for the freedom
to worship and speak openly about our faith. Would you also
prayerfully consider doing something to help us - which is to write regularly to the Israeli Embassy
in your area, and to request justice in these cases. When you
do, could you also request that the government
put appropriate pressure on the security services to arrest
and bring to justice the perpetrators who were responsible
for plotting and attempting the murder of our family 15 months ago.
The below was sent out by the Jerusalem Institute for
Justice, which is one of the most important institutions we have in Israel as
believers. They are a group of believing lawyers and others who
legally deal with many cases of persecution and hate crimes. Their work
in the Ministry of Interior is priceless to the Body, as that ministry is
trying to keep Jews who believe that Yeshua is
the Messiah from making aliyah and getting
citizenship in Israel.
Their website is: JIJ.org.il
Thanks - more Ami news next week..........
Leah
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No Prosecution for Burning Bibles?
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Nazi
Germany,
1933. Thousands of books are publically burned
by fanatic Nazis in an attempt to wipe out threatening ideas. We all know
what happened next. Perhaps, though, the world should not have been as
stunned as it was when the gates of Auschwitz
were finally opened in 1945 and the horrifying truth of the Holocaust was
revealed. Eerily, German author Heinrich Heine
had predicted more than 100 years before the Third Reich took over Germany
that "where they have burned books, they will end in burning human
beings."
For many of us, it is difficult to forget the images of May, 2008, when
fundamentalist yeshiva students publically
burned hundreds of New Testaments in Or Yehuda,
a small town near Tel Aviv. The town's Deputy Mayor, Uzi Aharon, went on record at the time of the burning and
called the yeshiva students' actions "a commandment." Other
inflammatory comments made by Aharon included
"purge the evil from among us" and "burn the evil from
your midst." After the incident, Aharon
swayed between publically defending his
actions, and apologizing for them in a live interview broadcast on a Reshet Gimel with Yaron Dekel. Click
here to read CNN's coverage of the Bible-burning incident.
Ellen Horowitz, an avid blogger and
spokesperson for the radical Orthodox agenda in Israel,
actually applauded the burning of the New Testaments and said that
"a Bible which is written on a heretical basis is not considered
sacred." According to Horowitz, "if the stuff was given to you,
then it's your trash. So, sure it's permissible to burn missionary
materials." Radical activists like Horowitz, who sometimes refer to
themselves as "anti-missionaries," insinuate that the Bibles
were handed out in Or Yehuda by Christian
missionaries. This presumption, however, is very unlikely and is not
supported by a shred of evidence. It is just as likely, indeed, that the
books were purchased by "anti-missionaries" with the intent of
creating an obscene public provocation.
Although a complaint was lodged against Aharon
based on a number of criminal offenses such as incitement to commit a hate
crime, we suspect that the police have purposefully procrastinated in the
investigation due to pressure from high-ranking governmental authorities.
Over a year after the New Testament burning episode, and regardless of
clear evidence including photographs and Aharon's
public confession on live radio, the State Attorney's office has notified
us that it has decided to close the case due to "lack of sufficient
evidence."
The Attorney-General has the authority to re-open the investigation. The
Jerusalem Institute of Justice plans to appeal the police's decision, and
we encourage you to write to Attorney-General Menachem
Mazuz and encourage him to consider this
incident as an affront to Christians worldwide. His address is: 29 Salach-a-Din
Street, Israel,
91010.
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Unruly Appetite for Power
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Leviticus
19:34 teaches us that "the stranger who resides with you shall be to
you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you
were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the LORD your God." Some of
us sometimes forget that we were aliens once in the land of Egypt.
Others forget that we were aliens more recently in other lands - Morocco,
for instance.
Our current Minister of Interior, an Orthodox Jew from an immigrant
Moroccan family, is lobbying for a legislative amendment which would give
him carte blanche authority to revoke the citizenship of any person
deemed to have submitted false information in the immigration process or
suspected of committing a "breach of trust" against the state.
A revocation of citizenship would completely strip the person in question
(and his or her children) of all civil rights.
While these may appear to be fair grounds for penalizing a citizen, we
have seen firsthand how such laws are frequently used against innocent
citizens from Messianic Jewish backgrounds who are sometimes accused of
being "traitors" or "dangerous missionaries." Such
accusations are part of a larger attempt by Interior Ministry clerks to
revoke the basic rights of Messianics Jews.
Much public criticism has been voiced recently against this initiative,
which would allow the Minister of Interior to revoke any citizen's most
basic rights with no due process or judicial censure. Most of the debate
in the Israeli media has centered on the implications of this legislation
to Arab citizens; however, we are concerned that this may merely be a
smokescreen to cover an underlying ultra-Orthodox agenda.
In fact, we have solid proof that the Ministry of Interior, habitually
cooperates "behind the scenes" with radical Orthodox activist
groups in order to prevent religious minorities from exercising their
legally guaranteed rights. Under the premise of "protecting
Judaism," "fighting missionary work," and "rescuing
Jews entrapped into cults," these organizations have infiltrated key
civil positions with the objective of doing harm to those who do not
conform to their fundamentalist standards. Besides being grossly
unethical, official cooperation with such groups damages the character of
a State which officially guarantees freedom of religion to all. This
situation has resulted in numerous instances of illegal discrimination,
profiling, and harassment; and has brought about an ironic situation
whereby Israel
is one of the few nations in the free world in which a Jew does not enjoy
freedom of religious choice.
We intend to keep an eye on this initiative. Let us hope and pray that it
will be stifled by the majority of our legislators who desire to uphold
justice and civil liberties here.
We at the Jerusalem Institute of Justice invite you to partner with us in
our effort to strengthen our nation's democratic values and institutions.
We are your hands and feet on the ground in Israel working tirelessly to
forge a new reality of inter-faith respect, freedom of conscience, and
equality for all streams of faith within our society.
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