BIBLE BURNING HIGHLIGHTS GROWING ANTI-MISSIONARY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 TEL AVIV 001147

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/27/2013
TAGS: KIRF PGOV IS
SUBJECT: BIBLE BURNING HIGHLIGHTS GROWING ANTI-MISSIONARY
SENTIMENT IN ISRAEL

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Classified By: DCM Luis G. Moreno for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: The May 15 mass public burning of New
Testaments in the Tel Aviv suburb of Or Yehuda highlights a
growing trend toward anti-missionary incitement in Jewish
neighborhoods throughout Israel. Other notable incidents
include the October firebombing of a Jerusalem church shared
by Baptists and Messianic Jews (i.e. Jews who believe Jesus
was the Messiah) and the March 20 bombing of a Messianic
Jewish home in the West Bank settlement of Ariel, in which a
15 year-old boy was gravely wounded. Contacts in Messianic
Jewish and Evangelical Christian congregations throughout
Israel describe a worsening situation and allege complicity
or complacency on the part of police, local governments and
the Interior Ministry. For their part, anti-missionary
groups such as the ultra-Orthodox Yad l'Achim appear more
determined than ever to escalate their campaign against
Christian and Messianic congregations that they see as
"cults" determined to "steal Jewish souls." END SUMMARY.

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Background
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2. (SBU) While anti-missionary groups such as the
ultra-Orthodox Yad l'Achim ("Hand to the Brothers") have long
sought to uproot Messianic Jewish and Evangelical Christian
congregations in Israel, their activities have gone largely
unnoticed by mainstream Israeli society. Targeted
congregations have suffered harassment and occasionally even
vandalism or violence at the hands of Yad l'Achim activists,
but such incidents rarely made the national press. Despite
the harassment, the number of Messianic Jews and Evangelical
Christians has grown in recent years through both immigration
and conversion. In recent months, however, increased press
reporting and complaints from religious freedom activists
have indicated an increase in Yad l'Achim activism and a
growing, wider backlash against the presence of Evangelical
or Messianic congregations and missionaries living in Jewish
communities. Contacts describe a mounting sense of fear
among Messianic and Evangelical communities, and allege a
situation of near impunity where police fail to adequately
investigate hate crimes against them. They also claim that
the Interior Ministry arbitrarily denies benefits to people
it identifies as Messianic Jews or Evangelical Christians.
For their part, Yad l'Achim and allied activists appear
increasingly determined to head off what they see as the
"stealing of Jewish souls" by proselytizing "cults" that use
deception and manipulation to prey on the weaker sectors of
Israeli Jewish society. (Note: Proselytizing is legal in
Israel, as long as it is not directed toward minors and as
long as people are not materially induced into conversion.
Proselytizing of less-Orthodox Jews by ultra-Orthodox Jewish
sects, such as Chabad, is done openly and without the
constraints imposed on non-Jewish groups. End Note.)

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Recent Incidents Underscore Rising Tensions
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3. (SBU) While an undercurrent of anti-missionary sentiment
has long existed in Israel, several recent incidents
underscore what Messianic Jewish and Christian groups
describe as a dramatic worsening of the situation. As
reported in the press, residents of the Tel Aviv suburb of Or
Yehuda publicly burned hundreds of Christian Bibles
distributed in the community by missionaries in recent
months. The May 15 incident was reportedly organized by the
Deputy Mayor of Or Yehuda, Attorney Uzi Aharon of Shas, after
he received complaints about the Messianic Jewish presence
from area residents. After the incident, Aharon told the
Israeli daily Ma'ariv that he sent a group of students from a
local ultra-Orthodox school throughout the town to collect
the New Testaments, which were subsequently burned in front
of a synagogue, while "hundreds" of students danced around
the burning books. Aharon told Ma'ariv that the municipality
operated a team of activists, available 24-hours a day,
devoted entirely to uprooting missionary activity, and that
the burning was a fulfillment of the commandment to "burn the
evil from your midst." While Aharon subsequently sought to
downplay his comments by expressing regret for any damage
done to Jewish-Christian relations, he continued to defend
the burning, telling Israel Army Radio that it was necessary
in order to "purge the evil among us." (Note: Israel's Chief
Rabbinate, joined by Christian and Muslim leaders from Israel
and the West Bank in the Council of Religious Institutions of
the Holy Land, issued a statement May 27 condemning the Or
Yehuda New Testament burning, while also condemning all
attempts to convert a person from one faith to another.)

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4. (SBU) PolOff obtained a flyer distributed by Aharon's
anti-missionary team in the months before the burning,
exhorting residents to "Save your families!... Say no to
missionaries who look for your soul... Be careful! Reject
them! Chase them away from the place you live!" The flyer
listed the cell phone numbers of Aharon and other members of
the team, and was accompanied by leaflets with the names,
photos and addresses of local residents accused of harboring
Messianic beliefs. (Note: "Outing" Messianic Jews and
Evangelical Christians through the publication of names,
photos and addresses alongside flyers with hysterical
allegations about "soul stealing" and "brainwashing" is a
favorite tactic of Yad l'Achim branches throughout the
country.)


5. (SBU) Other recent incidents also highlight the growing
threat to Messianic and evangelical congregations. On March
20, 15 year-old Ami Ortiz -- a dual American-Israeli citizen
and the son of a Messianic Jewish pastor -- was seriously
wounded when a bomb disguised in a gift basket exploded in
his home in the West Bank settlement of Ariel. Earlier this
month controversy erupted over the disclosure that an Israeli
finalist in the International Jewish Bible Quiz was a
Messianic Jew, prompting Israel's two Chief Rabbis to call
for the cancellation of the quiz on the grounds that
selecting the 15 year-old "cult member" represented a
"transgression of Jewish law." In October, arsonists
fire-bombed a church in Jewish West Jerusalem shared by
Baptists and Messianic Jews, while more recently, residents
of the secular, upscale Jerusalem neighborhood of Rehavia
threatened violence -- an "all-out-war," in the words of one
resident -- over plans by a Messianic Jewish organization to
open an information center there.

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Bureaucratic Complicity and Police Complacency
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6. (C) Yad l'Achim and other anti-missionary activists may
also have allies, tacit or active, in the Interior Ministry
and police departments, where clerks and police officers have
wide discretion in deciding which national benefits a person
is entitled to and which crimes are worth investigating,
given limited resources. Contacts in Messianic and Christian
congregations in Arad and Be'er Sheva have long complained
that police in those cities fail to take seriously hate
crimes against their members. Following the Ortiz incident,
several members of other congregations throughout the country
complained to the press of similar problems in their
communities. In a recent meeting with PolOff, Jehovah's
Witnesses Associate General Counsel James Andrick and
Regional Representative Mauro Trapanese noted a dramatic
increase in violent assaults and other crimes against their
members in the past year (up from 1-2 a month in early 2007
to 8-10 now),and complained of an almost complete refusal by
police to investigate or apprehend the perpetrators.


7. (C) Messianic Jews and evangelical Christians also
regularly complain of discrimination in the workplace and by
officials in the Interior Ministry and local governments.
Attorney and Director of the Jerusalem Institute of Justice
Calev Myers told PolOff that there appeared to be a
semi-coordinated effort among bureaucrats in the Interior
Ministry's Population Registry to deny routine national
services to citizens identified to them, usually by Yad
l'Achim or other activists, as Messianic Jews or Evangelical
Christians. Myers provided PolOff with dozens of affidavits
and complaints from Israelis who were refused identification
cards, passports, or birth certificates on the basis of their
beliefs. In several cases, the Interior Ministry has even
sought to revoke the citizenship of people alleged to be
Messianic Jews or Evangelical Christians. Myers showed
PolOff a letter to a Jewish man otherwise eligible to
immigrate under the Law of Return, in which the Interior
Ministry wrote that it was rejecting his application for
status and ordering him to leave the country in 14 days
because he "was involved in Messianic faith... (and) a person
who is eligible for the Right of Return who advances the
Messianic faith acts illegally."


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