Protest against Jehovah’s Witnesses seminar in central Israel turns violent

[1gemstone]

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.654581

 

 

Hundreds show up to protest event, which is being held after a district court overturned the municipality's decision to block it.

 

A demonstration against a Jehovah’s Witnesses seminar being held in a municipal building turned violent in Ra’anana on Saturday. 

Hundreds of protesters showed up to protest the event after a prolonged court struggle in which the municipality unsuccessfully attempted to cancel the event.

Two days earlier, a district court ruled that the objection to the event infringed on the right to freedom of religion and ritual and overturned the municipality’s decision to cancel the event so as not to “hurt the feelings of the public.”

Police kept the demonstrators away from the building with barriers. As the seminar participants entered, they both prayed and sang loudly in groups, with some of the crowd imploring them not to go in or jeering at them as they did. Others were more restrained, praying quietly at the fringes of the crowd.

“Any Jew who leaves Judaism becomes a Jew-killer!” one man shouted.

The crowds who came to protest were responding to posters that had been put up across town on Thursday and Friday by the city’s chief rabbi Yitzhak Peretz, calling for an “outcry and protest” against the event, saying it was “incumbent on all residents” to show up for morning prayers outside the sports hall where the seminar was taking place.

After the prayer session, a crowd began to attempt to approach the building through a side entrance. They were warned away by police, but a small group persisted, and two men who refused to move and attacked the security detail trying to stop them were pushed to the ground, punched in the face and sprayed with pepper spray until they were handcuffed and led away.

The crowd grew larger and angrier, demanding that the two men be released, and a police vehicle was brought in to block the entrance to the building.

The situation was defused when Rabbi Peretz entered the building and secured the release of the two men, who raised their hands triumphantly as they exited.

Overturned

After the Ra'anana municipality cited “real fear” that the Jehovah’s Witnesses sought to convince children and teenagers to convert from Judaism, the Lod District Court ruled Wednesday that the objection to the event infringed on the right to freedom of religion and ritual.

“A read between the lines shows that the change in the municipality’s position stems from a protest by biased groups,” Judge Varda Meroz wrote. “The municipality lets these groups sway its judgment while infringing on rights and exceeding the boundaries of reason.”

Meroz ruled that the municipality had “violated the petitioner’s constitutional right to freedom of religion and assembly, as well as the right to dignity, liberty and equality. These rights supersede the alleged offense to certain Ra’anana residents.”

The municipality, she said, “hadn’t proved the existence of extreme and unusual circumstances that could justify the infringement on the petitioner’s constitutional rights.”

 

 

 

 

[dilip kumar]

Best thing I could think of was to pray for gods kingdom to come and inner strength and peace for all.

[Dustparticle]

 I was told that the Jews hate the Christians in the 1st Century and goes on to this date in the 21st Century.

[Friends just call me Ross]

 

 

These violent, vicious, hate-filled, rabbi-aroused opposers are still rejecting Jehovah's 'Chief Cornerstone'. 

 

Jesus' prophetic warning, at Matthew 24:9, immediately came to mind: "...you will be hated by all the nations on account of my name."

 

 I pray for Jehovah to look out for our dear brothers and sisters who have to live and witness in this area.   

 

The police won't always be around to protect them from this rabble-rousing rabbi .

 

Ross

[GStorrs46]

It sounds like reading something out of the book of Acts of the Apostles. Surely nothing has changed in 1900

years. Like the brothers prayed in Acts, it would do us well to remember these brothers and pray they likewise

can continue to speak with all boldness.

 

GStorrs46

[Jackson]

Nothing new with Satan and his gang. The Devil's tactics are the same....You can liken these enemies of Jehovah as "modern day Pharisees"...Jehovah has armed us with accurate knowledge from His Word to be able to face challenges like this with courage and total reliance upon Him.

[Roberto Flores]

This new is a notice on the worldwide

[Dustparticle]

These people doesn't realise that Messiah came 2,000 years ago and died for their sins. I hope some these will come into the truth.

[Friends just call me Ross]

I got called on to answer the question for paragraphs 13 and 14 in today's Watchtower Study and I included this experience in my answer.  Seemed like a perfect fit, as the law was most helpful in this situation.

 

 Ross...hoping, but doubtful, that we've heard the last of this trouble-making rabbi

[shali]

The majority of Jews were hungry for righteous blood in Jesus's day and in the first century with his disciples - Satan has made sure that their bloodlust is kept alive till this day through groups such as these - there would be no need to get so worked up unless they had something to fear - the truth being made known.

Edited May 3, 2015 by shali