New Testaments and Christian literature destroyed by Akko council – Israeli Messianic Jewish pastor Tony Simon reports on a local council official who misused his authority to harass and illegally arrest evangelists.
Cross posted from the Rosh Pina Project
Israeli Messianic Jewish pastor Tony Simon reports on a local council official who misused his authority to harass and illegally arrest evangelists. According to Simon:
“We had come to a Festival in Akko, a mixed Jewish and Arab Israeli northern coastal town, and were singing and handing out literature. All was going well when suddenly an inspector from the local authority came to us demanding that we stop handing out literature, calling it “missionary material”. He shouted that it was “forbidden”. I told him we were not breaking the law and if he had a problem to call the police. A police car pulled up but there was no policeman in the car. The inspector said “get in the car” and I said no, get the police (I asked one person to film the incident and the inspector threatened that he would break the camera) He used force to try and get my books off me and tried to force me into the car by pushing me. He did not succeed, inspectors can detain but they cannot arrest and this man was abusing his authority. He was an angry man and it was obvious that he had a vendetta against believers in Jesus, he called us “Crusaders” Eventually a policeman did come and I went with him to the police station, but this was a formality as I was not doing anything illegal and the police did not charge me with anything. The man from the municipal authority was just using this to intimidate us. They were mentioning the word “missionary” constantly, when this word is used in Israel it is always in the negative with evil connotations – and this was at a Festival where others – not just believers, could freely give out literature as they pleased, I saw Chabad ( an ultra orthodox Jewish organization) there doing just that.
In the end they took our literature and said it has been destroyed (including New Testaments) and gave me a large fine for distributing what they called “advertisements”, which was untrue, it was just gospel material. We have a lawyer and will fight this in court because what they did was illegal, we also found out that a day earlier they did the same thing to another believer, they also hit him. As I left I told the inspector that I forgive him and pray that he will be blessed.”
Tags: Christian Persecution, Israel