Dangerous Deals and Deafening Silence

Here is a trivia question for our bright human rights buffs: where is the only place in the world where a person can receive the death penalty for selling real estate property to a Jew? Of all the places in the world, I doubt that any of you expected the answer to be the Palestinian Authority (PA), within the nation of Israel. Anwar Brigith, from the village of Bet Umar, north of Hebron, probably didn't expect this either when he sold a piece of property to a Jewish person.

This week, Brigith received the death penalty by hanging in a "military court" in Hebron after being con-victed of this "heinous act". The verdict came shortly after the PA's chief Islamic judge, Sheikh Tayseer Tamimi, issued yet another fatwa (religious decree) banning Muslims from selling land or houses to Jews. The court was headed by Gen. Abdel Karim al-Masri, who sat together with two other PA security officers, Muhrez Atyani and Nabil Jaber. The court also confiscated Brigith's money and property.

Wow. Just when they started to convince us that the PLO areas are run by "moderate Muslims", whereas the Hamas areas are run by "radicals", we must come to the sad conclusion that Sharia law is Sharia law, is Sharia law. I know that this is quite shocking. What is even more shocking is the silence of the UN Human Rights Council, and the other approximately 130 nations who fully participated in the Geneva Durban II conference on racism in April.

It would seem logical that punishing a person by execution for selling some land to a Jew, just because he is a Jew, would constitute a grave act of racism. Apparently the Islamo-fascism agenda and good old healthy logic just don't mix.

Please don't let the world's spin masters convince you that it was the Jew who actually committed an act of racism by being so audacious as to purchase land from a Palestinian.

"The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing."

- Albert Einstein
Religious Fanaticism and our Children

Several weeks ago Rivka (fictitious name used for confidenti-ality purposes), an 11-year old daughter of a Messianic Pastor from a city in the center of Israel, was asked by the principal of her school to leave her sixth grade class, in the middle of a lesson, and come to the principal's office.

Not sure of why she was being singled out, Rivka walked hesitantly from her classroom with the principal to the principal's office. She was surprised to meet three men in the principal's office – a well-known rabbi in the city and two others who have been identified by undisclosed sources as Yad L'Achim "anti-missionary" activists. The principal explained to Rivka that these men "wanted to help" her and instructed her to fully cooperate with them. The principal proceeded to exit her office and left Rivka alone with her "new friends".

The three men asked Rivka questions for the better part of the next hour; questions such as "Where does your (Messianic) congregation meet?", "At what times during the weeks do you have meetings?", "Can you give us names of members of the congregation?", "Can you please give us their addresses?", and "What is your family’s address?".

When the principal returned to this special meeting, she carefully instructed Rivka not to disclose to her parents anything that took place in her office. Rivka, wanting to be a good girl, did not mention anything about her odd experience to her parents when she came home from school that day.

It was only about 2 weeks later, when her father's car was firebombed in the driveway adjacent to Rivka's bedroom window, that she felt it would probably be good to tell her parents what had happened in the principal's office. Fortunately, the fire did not spread to the family's house and none of the family members were injured.

The Jerusalem Institute of Justice, PO Box 2708, Jerusalem 91026, ISRAEL (a Messianic Jewish legal service) has initiated a public complaint and a thorough investigation into this matter, via the Ministry of Education, the Israeli Police and the Israel National Council for the Child.