{"id":2586,"date":"2015-04-19T19:58:42","date_gmt":"2015-04-19T19:58:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/news\/2015\/04\/19\/israeli-town-council-cancels-jehovahs-witnesses-event\/"},"modified":"2022-03-13T15:15:00","modified_gmt":"2022-03-13T12:15:00","slug":"israeli-town-council-cancels-jehovahs-witnesses-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/israeli-town-council-cancels-jehovahs-witnesses-event\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli town council cancels Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses event"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Ra\u2019anana municipality has canceled an event organized by the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses in Israel, concerned that the religious group\u2019s meeting would \u201churt the feelings of the public.\u201d<\/div>\n
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The event, which should have been held Saturday in the Ra\u2019anana municipal sports center, was canceled following pressure by the anti-missionary group Yad L\u2019Achim.<\/div>\n
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Although the event was set to include only a seminar, Yad L\u2019Achim had warned earlier in the week that it would be a \u201cmass baptism.\u201d The four Orthodox members on the municipality said they would resign if the event took place.<\/div>\n
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The Lod District Court rejected a petition by the association, Watchtower for Israel, for an emergency order to allow the event to be held.<\/div>\n
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On Thursday afternoon, the Ra\u2019anana municipality posted on its Facebook page that when it became known that Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses \u201cwas planning on holding a lecture in Ra\u2019anana, out of a desire to respect the feelings of the residents of the city \u2013 and out of serious and real concern that harsh actions could deteriorate into disturbance of the peace to the extent of fear for the safety of residents \u2013 the municipality held talks jointly with Israel Police and the group to dissuade them from holding the event in Ra\u2019anana by consensus. Unfortunately, these efforts were fruitless, so the municipality was forced to inform the group that the event was canceled.\u201d<\/div>\n
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The municipality denied that Yad L\u2019Achim or the resignation threat of the Orthodox city councillors had played a part in its decision.<\/div>\n
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Following the municipality\u2019s refusal on Thursday to allow the event, Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses went to court, claiming that the municipality\u2019s actions constituted a violation of religious freedom and that it had a right to hold the event on municipal premises. The city responded that it had the right to prevent the event from taking place.<\/div>\n
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The court rejected the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses petition and is expected to publish a ruling this week regarding such events in the future.<\/div>\n
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The Ra\u2019anana municipality said it \u201cwelcomes the court\u2019s verdict, which properly considered the circumstances and decided not to order that the event be held.\u201d The municipality also said it would \u201ccontinue to work for the good of the city\u2019s residents out of respect and recognition of the needs and desires of all the residents.\u201d<\/div>\n
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Yad L\u2019Achim claimed last Wednesday that \u201cbuses all over the country would bring innocent Jews to be baptized on the Sabbath at the Ra\u2019anana municipal sports center.\u201d It called on its supporters to pressure the city not to hold the event. It subsequently published a letter signed by Deputy Mayor Chaim Goldman and his fellow Orthodox faction members \u2013 city councillors Drora Cohen, Eli Cohen and Shlomo Friedman \u2013 that \u201cif the event takes place, the faction will not see itself as one of the partners in the coalition.\u201d<\/div>\n
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On Friday afternoon, Yad L\u2019Achim said it was \u201cpleased to announce that cooperation among many factions, including the chief rabbi of Ra\u2019anana, Rabbi Yitzhak Peretz, religious council members, residents of Ra\u2019anana and Jews who care from all over the country and who answered our call and expressed protest, the preaching and baptism event has been canceled.\u201d The statement added that Yad L\u2019Achim \u201cthanked those who took part and assisted in the cancelation, and thus contributed to the sanctification of God.\u201d<\/div>\n
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Last March, the Rishon Letzion Magistrate\u2019s Court rejected a demand by the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses in Israel to allow it to hold weekly activities in a classroom in the Raziel high school. The city argued that it canceled its contract with the group before the necessary authorization was issued because the school principal learned that the activity involved ostensibly a Christian missionary group whose faith went against the educational goals in Israel\u2019s public school system.<\/div>\n
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Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses argued unsuccessfully that the cancellation had stemmed from extraneous considerations and constituted wrongful religious discrimination.<\/div>\n
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Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses is a Christian-based religious movement that was founded in the United States in the late 19th century. It is known for its evangelical approach, going door-to-door to spread the word of Jehovah (God). There are an estimated 8 million \u201cWitnesses\u201d around the world, including more than a million in the United States.<\/div>\n
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http:\/\/www.haaretz.com\/<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Ra\u2019anana municipality has canceled an event organized by the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses in Israel, concerned that the religious group\u2019s meeting would \u201churt the feelings of the public.\u201d The event, which should have been held Saturday…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2586"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6154,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2586\/revisions\/6154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}