RELIGIOUS OPPRESSION AROUND THE WORLD

Israel Crants Permanent Resident Status to Ministers

Wednesday, November 8, 2000

    Christian ministers working in Israel can attain permanent resident status. The Israeli government strictly regulates Christian workers, but a new policy allows clergy who have been in Israel for 15 years and who hold a special class of visa to apply for permanent residence, according to The Jerusalem Post. Currently they are forced to re-register every year, the paper reported.
  Christians welcomed the law but said it must be more comprehensive. "We are happy and grateful that the clergy don't have to go to the ministry every year, however what we are waiting for is a procedure that will deal with the staff of Christian institutions," Petra Heldt of the Ecumenical Theological Research Fraternity said.
  Staff workers do not receive the special visas that clergy do and are subject to expulsion, she said, noting that hundreds have been forced to leave the country in the past several years.

--Used by permission of Religion Today

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Holy Site Trashed by Muslims

Wednesday, October 11, 2000

    A holy site has become a casualty of war. Joseph's Tomb, revered by some as the burial place of the biblical patriarch, was destroyed by a mob in a week of bitter West Bank clashes. The mob vandalized the tomb, set fires, and hammered at the stone buildings, breaking off chunks of rocks, but left the stone sarcophagus untouched, according to The Associated Press.
    The compound was home to a Jewish seminary for 30 students. The Israeli army used it as an outpost, but evacuated it late last week, the AP reported. After the Israelis pulled out, Palestinian gunmen arrived and the celebration degenerated into a trashing of the compound by hundreds of people. "We did it so the Jews never come back,'' said Haitham Najid Kabee, 14, who vandalized the tomb with his friends, according to the AP.
    Demonstrators threw Jewish prayer books from the tomb, burning and tearing them, the AP reported. Some teens wore Israeli helmets and vests found inside the tomb and topped the small enclave with a large flag of the radical Islamic group Hamas, and a smaller Palestinian flag.
    The tomb's authenticity is disputed, since the Book of Genesis says that Joseph was buried in Egypt. The connection of the site to Joseph is a relatively recent local Arab tradition also observed by some Jews.

--Used by permission of Religion Today