Sunday, October 25th, 2009

Unbelievable

Ha’aretz Newspaper, 3 October 2009
“Unbelievable”

How does the Yad L’achim organization fight Messianic Jews? Hint: all means are justified
Written by Yuval Azoulay

The orthodox organization Yad L’achim locates “Messianic Jews” (who have accepted Jesus as messiah), gathers information on them and transfers it to the Ministry of Interior. The Ministry staff summons them for an inquiry and turns their lives into a bureaucratic hell. In addition to this there are incidents of harassment, rumor spreading and damage to businesses, like in the case of Pnina Comforti, who woke up one morning to find this poster hanging outside her bakery. “God doesn’t allow? Oh, yes he does”

In Zimbabwe, T, an Israeli citizen from the Jerusalem area, noticed that his passport had expired. He reported to the Ministry of Interior, requested that his passport be renewed and paid the 250 NIS fee. He assumed that his new passport will be valid for the next five
years. However, the clerk in the ministry limited the validity of the new passport for one year only. “When I asked her why, she asked me if I’ve received a summons for questioning in the main headquarters”, says T. “I answered that I haven’t and she said I would be receiving it by mail”.

Upon returning from his trip to Africa he found a summons for questioning in his mailbox, to be held in one of the following days. “I can guess what they want to ask me and what they wish to know”, he says. “I know this procedure from other cases in which activists in the Messianic Jewish community are required to tell the Ministry of Interior about their religious faith”.

Y, a Kfar Saba citizen, went through this questioning two years ago, and following the advice of his attorney, even recorded the conversation. An embarrassed clerk asked him what he did in the HaMaayan Congregation and required explanations for the information gathered on him in the Jerusalem headquarters. “I was surprised”, says Y, “on the clerk’s desk I saw a thick file, entirely composed of my private life and religious beliefs. I wondered why it was the Ministry of Interior’s business, why it was anyone’s business at all”.

“So this is what’s written here”, the clerk told him, “this is the part I need to focus on, that you’ve become a community ‘elder’, like a very important person in the community or something”. After that she confronted him with details of information and he was asked
to comment on them: “you participate in committees and teachings of Holy Scripture”, “you teach and work in an organization helping people who are in need of food and clothing” (“I volunteer. I don’t work there”, he commented), “besides, you support animal rights” (“that’s new”, he commented), “you and your wife manage family life groups, helping people and couples preserve their relationships”. Y confirmed the last detail, adding “but I don’t want to give any information on people”. The clerk quickly clarified: “no, no, no. I need to ask you only about yourself. Based on the things I just told you, I need to form an inquiry”.

“Although I was upset, I preferred to bottle my anger and rage inside”, says Y, “Because at the time I really needed the Ministry of Interior and was dependent upon it. Deep inside I felt like a suspect held by the KGB or the Thought Police”. Y and his wife, the parents of three sons born in Israel, were hoping at the time for the Ministry of Interior to decide to grant his wife citizenship after living here for a decade. “I couldn’t do much”, he explains why he didn’t place a complaint on the invasion of his privacy during the questioning. “The clerks in the Ministry of Interior in Kfar Saba know me well due to my many visits there in the past, and they always treated me nicely. The clerk who questioned me also felt bad about that situation and I could see it on her face. I preferred to answer the questions because I really had no choice”.

But the answers he provided did not improve his wife’s chances. She received her Israeli citizenship only several months ago, and only after the Ministry of Interior was ordered to grant it by the High Court of Justice. This wasn’t the couple’s only encounter with the Ministry. When they moved, says Y, he was refused when asking to update his new address in the civil registry. “Only after turning to a lawyer, who sent them a letter threatening to take to legal proceedings, did the clerks agree to update my address”, he says.

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