Ultra-Orthodox Jews demonstrate outside event
"Derogatory conduct towards worshippers is sacrilege and is simply unacceptable. Any form of hostility towards individuals engaged in worship will not be tolerated."
(TIMES OF ISRAEL) – Several dozen protesters demonstrated on Tuesday outside the Pais Arena stadium in Jerusalem, where the International Christian Embassy of Jerusalem (ICEJ) was holding its Israeli Night as part of its annual Feast of the Tabernacles.
The protest came amid a rise in incidents targeting Christian priests and pilgrims in the capital – and a day after a widely condemned incident of ultra-Orthodox Jews spitting on Christians.
Demonstrators, mostly religious teens, called out to those walking into the stadium, alleging that the ICEJ is a missionary organisation, and held up a banner reading, “We should stand strong as proud Jews. Faithfully for Generations!”
Inside, hundreds of Christian Zionists from around the world danced, sang and professed their love of God and support for Israel.
No protesters managed to infiltrate the event, where President Isaac Herzog sent a video greeting, pledging to protect freedom of worship for all faiths.
“We will insist on protecting all of the religious communities that make up the beautiful human mosaic of our country,” Herzog said, “and safeguard every site, religious leader, and human being from any vile expressions of hatred or intolerance. This commitment goes to the very heart of who we are as a Jewish and democratic state,” he continued.
The first-ever direct flight to Israel from Fiji Airways brought hundreds of Christian Zionists from Pacific Island nations to Ben Gurion Airport ahead of the week-long feast, which coincides with the Succot holiday every year.
In a video posted online by a reporter for the Haaretz daily, a group of Christians exiting a church carrying a wooden cross are seen walking by a group of religious Jews heading the other direction. Several of the Jews then spit on the ground in the direction of the Christians as they pass.
Some of the people in the clip appear to be ultra-Orthodox minors who spit at the Christians after seeing an adult man do so.
The attack was met with wide condemnation by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials, including politicians from the Charedi community, who rejected the idea that spitting was a Jewish tradition or religious imperative.
Netanyahu tweeted, “Israel is totally committed to safeguard the sacred right of worship and pilgrimage to the holy sites of all faiths. I strongly condemn any attempt to intimidate worshippers, and I am committed to taking immediate and decisive action against it.
“Derogatory conduct towards worshippers is sacrilege and is simply unacceptable. Any form of hostility towards individuals engaged in worship will not be tolerated.”
Meanwhile, United Torah Judaism MK Moshe Gafni said on Saturday that anti-government protesters are waging a “religious war”, days after scuffles between religious and secular Israelis in Tel Aviv on Yom Kippur. “You are not referring to judicial reform or anything of the sort. You are waging a religious war against us … What we saw on Yom Kippur in Tel Aviv is proof,” Gafni said, addressing a UTJ event in Kibbutz Hafetz Haim in central Israel.
Last Sunday, a religious organisation attempted to hold a public Yom Kippur prayer service in the heart of Tel Aviv with an improvised gender divider – after the High Court had backed up a municipal order forbidding the separation of the sexes in a public location – sparking bitter confrontations between attendees and protesters, and unprecedented scenes of recrimination on the Jewish Day of Atonement.
Gafni claimed opponents of the segregated service sought to pull off the prayer shawls of the Orthodox worshippers. It was not clear what incident he was referring to, as there have been no public reports of such conduct.
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