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The post omits the context because it does not state that this draft law has not been adopted and does not constitute a legal act in the state of Israel. Failure to provide this information creates a completely different outlook that all who claim that Jesus Christ is God will go to prison for three years, writes Truthmeter.mk.
Under the content-sharing agreement between Truthmeter.mk and Meta.mk, we republish the text below:
We are fact-checking a post on the social network Facebook (screenshot here) that says the following:
Satanism is no longer in a concealed form… it is public, loud and clear.
A photograph is then shared with the caption:
Shocking proposal in Israel: All who claim that Jesus Christ is God, three years in prison.
However, the post omits the context, because it does not specify that this draft law has not been adopted and does not constitute a legal act in the state of Israel. Failure to provide information creates a completely different outlook that all who claim that Jesus Christ is God will go to prison for three years.
But what actually happened?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a statement to the Associated Press that he would prevent the passage of a proposal by a powerful ally in his governing coalition to punish Christians who proselytize with jail time.
The proposal had raised an uproar among evangelical Christians – one of Israel’s strongest and most influential supporters in the United States. The bill was introduced in January by two ultra-Orthodox Jewish lawmakers, including Moshe Gafni, who heads the Parliament’s Finance Committee. It says soliciting someone to convert their faith should be punishable by one year in prison and solicitation to convert a minor would be punishable with a two-year sentence, Associated Press reports.
According to the rationale of the draft law, recently the attempts of missionary groups, mainly Christians, to solicit conversions, have increased.
This draft law in Israel never advanced beyond the “proposal” stage, but it attracted attention among American evangelists.
Therefore, as the Associated Press reports, Netanyahu stated the following:
We will not advance any law against the Christian community.
Gafni said that he had introduced the bill as a procedural matter, as he had done in the past, and there were no plans to advance it.
Israel has long welcomed evangelical political and financial support, and it has shrugged off concerns about any hidden religious agenda.
Joel Rosenberg, editor-in-chief of All Israel News, welcomed Netanyahu’s announcement, which comes at a time of domestic turmoil.
Netanyahu is a longtime and proven friend to the global Christian community and his action today – amidst all the other issues on his plate – is further proof, said Rosenberg.
Christianity is the third largest religion in Israel, after Judaism and Islam. At the end of 2022, Christians made up 1.9% of the Israeli population, numbering approximately 185,000. 75.8% of the Christians in Israel are Arab Christians. Christians make up 6.9% of the Arab citizens of Israel. Ten Christian churches are formally recognized under Israeli’s system, for the self-regulation and state recognition of status issues such as marriage and divorce: the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Armenian Catholic Church, the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, the Greek Orthodox Church, the Latin Catholic Church, etc. The practice of religions in Israel is free, without restrictions on other religions.
The Israeli Declaration of Independence, issued in 1948, describes the country as a Jewish state, but clearly extends religious freedoms to all of its inhabitants by stating that the State of Israel will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education, and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions.
Due to all of the above-noted facts, we consider this post as omitting context. The proposal that all who claim that Jesus Christ is God to go to prison has not been translated into effective law in Israel and is not enforced. Practicing Christianity is allowed in Israel.
