"The law must be changed, and it must say in a clear manner
that every attempt to proselytize and to persuade someone to
convert to a different faith is illegal," Deputy Minister of
Religious Affairs Rabbi Arye Gamliel told the Knesset, in
response to a proposal regarding recent missionary activity
in Beer Sheva.
He revealed that although the Religious Affairs Ministry
initiated the establishing of a Minister's Committee to deal
thoroughly with the problem of the missionaries, the Internal
Security Ministry refused to cooperate.
He stressed that the current law says that missionary
activity is illegal only if the missionaries have attempted
to persuade a person to convert in exchange for money or in
exchange for a particular material benefit. "In such cases,
one must catch the missionary red-handed, while he is
actually offering the benefit or the money. However this is
highly unfeasible and impractical, because even though it is
clear that this was his purpose and that he indeed acted
against the law, it is impossible to prove this in a clear
enough manner to make him culpable according to the law,"
Rabbi Gamliel said, as he explained the law's problems.
MK Rabbi Shmuel Halpert, who also spoke at the deliberation,
said, "In all generations and throughout all of our exiles,
Jews were moser nefesh for our faith, and did not fall
into the trap of avoda zorah. It is inconceivable that
in the independent State of Israel missionaries run wild and
do whatever they please, snatching pure souls, undisturbed."
He mentioned many cases in which misonaries in Israel had
proselytized to Jews, attempting to persuade them to betray
their faith. He stressed the recent incident in which
missionaries in Beer Sheva attempted to baptize 23
Jews.
"For every person who is baptized, the missionary receives
$5000, and when the converting person is a Jew, the fee is
even higher. From a budget of a billion and a half dollars
which the Vatican has earmarked for missionary activities
throughout the world, a billion was allocated to the 600
missionary sects functioning in Israel," Rabbi Halpert
said.
MK Rabbi Avrohom Laizerson said that the failure to enforce
the Mission Law has caused the missionaries to be more brazen
and disreputable, and now they publicly commit acts which
they had never before dared to perpetrate.
