“Two ultra-Orthodox members of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s coalition have introduced a bill that would punish believers for sharing the Gospel of Jesus with prison time,” according to a Newsmax report.
The two coalition members are influential individuals of Israel’s Knesset (the country’s unicameral legislature).
“Conservative Christian leaders are calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop a bill proposed by members of his coalition to make it criminal to tell people about Jesus in Israel,” per the Newsmax report.
“Israeli Lawmakers introduced a new bill aimed at PERSECUTING Christians. The bill would PUNISH Believers with automatic JAIL TIME for sharing the GOSPEL OF JESUS,” Stew Peters said.
“We should IMMEDIATELY cut ALL foreign aid to Israel and remove all elected officials with dual U.S./Israeli citizenship,” he added.
WATCH:
Israeli Lawmakers introduced a new bill aimed at PERSECUTING Christians.
The bill would PUNISH Believers with automatic JAIL TIME for sharing the GOSPEL OF JESUS.
We should IMMEDIATELY cut ALL foreign aid to Israel and remove all elected officials with dual U.S./Israeli… pic.twitter.com/KjKdogEjZk
— Stew Peters (@realstewpeters) March 21, 2023
Watch the full Newsmax clip:
All Israel News reported:
Is it possible that the Israeli government this year could pass legislation making it illegal for people to share the Gospel message in the very land where Jesus was born, raised, preached, died, buried and rose from the dead?
Unfortunately, yes.
As Palm Sunday and Easter approach – the two most sacred days on the calendar for those who follow Jesus as both God and Messiah – two members of the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) introduced a bill last week that would ban any and all efforts to tell people about Jesus.
The bill would send violators to prison.
Should it begin to gain traction inside the Knesset and begin moving towards passage, the bill could create a major new headache for Netanyahu’s government by sparking a serious clash with Evangelical Christians in the United States and around the world who are among the biggest supporters of the State of Israel.
In the United States alone, there are some 60 million Evangelicals.
Globally, there are an estimated 600 million, according to the World Evangelical Alliance.
The bill could also draw sharp criticism from both Republicans and Democrats in Congress, in the executive branch, among U.S. governors and others who love Israel and have always stood with the Jewish state, but would fiercely oppose efforts to silence followers of Jesus in the Holy Land.
Former U.S. Ambassador of International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback – who served during the Trump-Pence administration – is the first American leader to publicly warn that this new bill poses a massive threat to free speech, human rights and religious freedom.
cont.
The proposed legislation would outlaw all efforts by people of one faith who, in any way, want to discuss or try to persuade people of other faiths to consider changing their current religious beliefs.
The punishment for doing so would be “one year imprisonment.”
If the conversation is with minor – someone under the age of 18 – the punishment would be “two years imprisonment.”
This bill would apply to people having spiritual conversations with Israelis of any religion.
However, in their official explanation of the bill, the two Israeli legislators specifically emphasized the warning to stop Christians, in particular.
The bill’s primary objective, therefore, appears to be making it illegal for followers of Jesus (“Yeshua” in Hebrew) to explain why they believe that Jesus is both Messiah and God with the hope that Israelis might consider following Him.
The bill does not only make a simple personal conversation about Jesus with another individual a crime.
It would also make it illegal for “someone who solicits a person – directly, digitally, by mail or online – in order to convert his religion.”
Thus, producing and publishing online videos explaining the Gospel to Jewish or Muslim people in Israel – and to those of any other religious faiths – would suddenly become illegal.
All Israel News also shared an English translation of the proposed bill:
Internal number: 2198904
The 25th Knesset
The Initiators: Members of the Knesset Moshe Gafni and Yaakov Asher
P/25/1526
Proposed Penal Law: Amendment – Prohibition of Solicitation for Religious Conversion – 2023
Amendment of clause 174A
1. In the Penal Law, 1977 (hereinafter: the Principle Law), in clause 174A-
(1) In the footnote, in the beginning will be added “solicitation or”
(2) What is written there will be marked “(B)” and before it will come:
“(a) someone who solicits a person, directly, digitally, by mail, or online in order to convert his religion, the punishment – one year imprisonment; and if the person was a minor, the punishment – two years imprisonment.”
Amendment of clause 368
2. In clause 368 of the Principle Law –
(1) in sub-clause (a), in place of “6 months imprisonment” will come “two years imprisonment”;
(2) sub-clause (b) – cancelled
Explanations
The Penal Law, 1977 (hereinafter – The Law) determines a number of offenses regarding solicitation to convert religion which are safeguarded in clauses 174A, 174B and 368.
Recently, the attempts of missionary groups, mainly Christians, to solicit conversion of religion have increased.
At times these attempts do not involve monetary promises or material gains and are therefore not illegal according to the current law, but the many negative repercussions, including psychological damages, warrant the intervention of the legislature.
This is particularly in light of the fact that most of the attempts to bring people to convert their religion target the weaker classes who, due to their social-economic standing, are more easily open to persuasion attempts such as these.
Therefore, it is proposed that alongside the prohibition of giving favors as an incentive to convert religion, also prohibited will be the act of solicitation to convert religion, when it is done directly to a person.
It is proposed to distinguish between a situation where the person being solicited is an adult – in which case the maximum penalty proposed is one year imprisonment – and a situation where the person being solicited is a minor in which case the maximum penalty proposed is two years imprisonment; and therefore it is also proposed to cancel clause 368B of the law which deals with solicitation of a minor to convert his religion.
Also proposed is to make stricter the punishment for someone who holds a ceremony of religious conversion of a minor, and make it two years imprisonment, instead of 6 months, as stated presently in clause 368A of the law.
A similar proposed amendment of the law was placed before the 24th Knesset by MK Moshe Gafni and a group of MK’s (P/24/1928).
The proposed law is identical to P/24/1928 and so was not re-checked by the legal department of the Knesset.
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