Israel – Some 900 people on Saturday participated in a conference of the Jehovah’s Witnesses denomination in the central city of Holon. The event was held under tight security at a municipal basketball hall in the Kiryat Sharet neighborhood.
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At around 11 am, about 100 ultra-Orthodox men arrived in the area and began hurling stones and potatoes at the building, smashed its windows and tried to break in. They were stopped by a police force and security guards.
The haredim continued to stand outside the building, chanting “Nazis” at the police officers and “Russians, go back to Russia” at the participants.
One of the security guards told Ynet, “One of the haredim kicked me in the back, while the others chanted, ‘Death to the Zionists.’ We were lucky that the police were here from the very beginning.
Another guard, who stopped the protestors from entering the hall, added that “at first there were only a few of them, and then masses suddenly arrived. They wouldn’t stop cursing, and only stopped when their rabbi told them to.”
The police said no arrests had been made.
The organizers of the event, which takes place once every few months, had prepared for the haredi protest in advance after spotting signs hung in the neighborhood on Friday, calling on the public to demonstrate against the conference.
Under the banner, “Beware – missionaries in Holon!!!”, the ads distributed around the neighborhood warned that “damned evil people are here to murder people and souls in Israel, like in the days of the inquisition, when Jews were slaughtered cold bloodedly.
“These are the corrupt missionaries who are hunting Jewish souls for money. Different elements calling themselves ‘Jews’ are helping these criminals carry out their scheme in public, for a bribe, and have allowed them to come to our city Holon and preach their impure and poisonous beliefs.”
Genadi Korobov, one of the organizers, was addressing the audience as the building was pelted with stones. “This is the third time in the past year that we visit Holon. We are already used to the haredi objection, but the amount and size of the stones we were hit with today was unusual,” he said.
“In the middle of my address, we suddenly heard the windows being smashed, and very large stones landed on the hall’s parquet, right next to disabled people in wheelchairs, who were sitting in special places. Luckily, no one was hurt, but we were forced to move the disabled audience to the center of the hall.
We must do something but there’s got to be a better way
We need more people like Tovia Singer to help reduce the missionary threat. Organizations like Jews for Judaism and Outreach Judaism help a lot in achieving this.
If we could get people from the Hiloni community to protest these guys like they protest the Church of Scientology it would be very helpful.
Breaking windows is not a chillul Shabbos these days?
Whoever supports and votes for a government who prtects and gives security to missionaries (as written in their constitution) has a part in the governments support of the missionaries and is just as responsible if a jew converts to xtrianity as a result
I’m proud of my fellow Jews who have the guts to fight
against our enemies.Kol ha’kavod to them. Better than sitting around and wondering if there could be better ways or if breaking glass is ossur on shabbos.
All zionist governments have done this, they accept millions of dollars from Christian missionary organizations in the USA and protect their missionaries in Eretz Yisroel.
These protesters’ hearts are in the right place but their tactics might be counter productive. With missionaries how you prevent them is a media smear campaign. Like how the show South Park combined with other media campaigns helped to significantly reduce the influence of missionaries from the Church of Scientology.
Attempted murder – stoning is attempted murder no matter how you try to spin it – is not a decent person’s way of expressing distaste for what someone says.
Why do Haredim call everyone they disagree with “nazis”?
I applaude the guts of these guys, and thank tho police for not arresting anybody. j4j etc need to be scared away, and I hope next time more dati leumi people join in too
I have a really good idea.
Use the funds donated to Israeli by the American christian organisations to finance for the missionaries a high profile trip to Iran or Saudia where they can continue their “wonderful” work and just see what happens.
Just out of curiosity does anyone know how many synagogues (or come to that, lehavdil, churches) there are in those 2 countries.
to #19 there is a recent immigrant from Iran in my community in Europe. He told me Don’t believe all this rubbish about the Jews being treated well – it is Iranian Govt propagaqnda. Those still living there dare not say different and those who left worry about their family back home. The reality is they are badly treated and discriminated against.