JORDAN RIVER CROSSING - In an event that underscored the potential for peace between Israelis and Palestinians, about 150 Christians, Jews and Muslims gathered on the border between Israel and Jordan to pray at the eastern gateway to the Promised Land—a site packed with biblical and prophetic significance.
“This is the eastern gateway opened up—this is no small matter,” said Karen Dunham who runs a ministry in Palestinian-ruled Jericho.
The restricted area is opened only three times a year by the Israeli army for certain groups, including one led by Dunham, who comes every year. This year the army even suggested that she bring a bus load of new Muslim converts from her church to join the prayer meeting. The site is also opened once a year to both Catholics and Orthodox Christians to perform baptisms in the Jordan.
An offering collected to help the Israeli army maintain the site was in turn given by the army to help Palestinians in Jericho. An Israel soldier guarding the border said that unlike the usual tension between Palestinians and Israelis, the atmosphere there and with Jericho residents is friendly.
Dunham listed Biblical events that occurred at or near this location: Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River across from Jericho; Joshua brought the Israelites across the Jordan; Elijah went up in the chariot of fire; and David reconciled with Judah at Gilgal on the eastern edge of Jericho.
Christians, Messianic Jews and Muslims joined in prayer and several were baptized in the Jordan.
One soldier, asked whether there could be peace between Israel and the Palestinians, said, “At this place right now, anything is possible.”
Some Palestinians from Jericho also joined in the worship. The women, although converts, still wore the Islamic headdress while some of the men are still Moslem.
“I’m Muslim but what does it matter?” said Shadi Mahmoud Fuda. “I go to hear Karen everyday. She teaches the Bible and about God.”
Iyad Abu Rashed said the atmosphere in Jericho has changed for the better in the three years that Dunham has been in Jericho. “Freedom has come not from Bush, Abu Mazen [i.e., Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas] and Arafat,” he said, “but it comes from Jesus.”
Jan 11, 2007
Jan 4, 2007
Night Watchmen
Giving up social lives and sunlight to pray through the night in Jerusalem
It is midnight and the busy city is finally winding down, traffic has dwindled and most residents have retired for the evening. But some are just beginning their day.
It’s the graveyard shift at Succat Hallel (Tabernacle of Praise), a 24/7 prayer ministry, and the diligent “night watchers” are taking over at the prayer room. They put in a six-hour shift of worship and intercession until one of the “day watchers” files in at 6 a.m.
While most people in Israel are sleeping, these Christian volunteers are keeping the nation covered in prayer. At least two houses of prayer in Jerusalem operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week: Succat Hallel directly across from Mount Zion in West Jerusalem, and the Jerusalem House of Prayer for All Nations on the Mount of Olives, on the eastern side of the city.
But why pray through the night in addition to the other 18 hours of prayer?
“The devil is working 24 hours a day, so we cannot sleep,” said Sam Dewald, administrator of the Jerusalem House of Prayer.
It’s a challenge and a reward. “You work all day and are tired, then cover a night watch,” Dewald, who is from India, told Israel Today. “The thing that keeps us going is the calling of God.”
Lindy Heidler, head of the Succat Hallel night watch, sees their mission as “shaking the wicked” out of the night based on Job 38:12-13—stewarding the time when evil and occult practitioners operate more intensely. Heidler, from Denton, Texas, and her team, ranging in age from 22 to 34 years old, have completely revamped their lives to a night schedule. Giving up the social scene and sunlight, they head to bed and usually sleep until around 3 p.m., when the sun is already low in the winter sky.
Steve Hansen, who began night watches at Succat Hallel with his wife Tonya three years ago, provided biblical backing for praying through the night: The Lord called Samuel and appeared to Solomon, both times at night. He said God releases strategy and revelation in the night season, without the distractions of the day. Plus, Hansen said, they are preempting the Moslem call to prayer, which occurs before 5 a.m.
The Bible speaks of four night watches, each divided into three hours beginning at sundown or approximately 6 p.m. and ending at around 6 a.m.
Both Succat Hallel and the Jerusalem House of Prayer operate 24 hours a day. The JHOP is divided into two-hour watches covered by two intercessors per shift while Succat Hallel’s night watch is an intense, six-hour shift staffed by a team of about four to six.
“The night watch lifestyle is a complete sacrifice—it’s a fast,” Hansen said.
The watches ebb and flow, sometimes exhaustion takes over, but many times they are propelled by worship or a prayer focus. The Succat Hallel team takes a “devotional” break at around 2 or 3 a.m. where they pray individually and eat what is, for them, lunch.
The team has experienced various seasons. Before Ramadan one year, they went on a silent fast, not speaking to each other or praying out loud for an entire week. Each morning after four hours of individual prayer, the team headed out to the Western Wall at 4 a.m. where they prayed silently and then marched around the Old City, encircling the Temple Mount.
Dewald said the hours from 2 to 4 a.m. are the most powerful times of prayer: “Darkness is where evil spirits prevail, so we pray against it. The power of God flows more, especially during the night watches.”
And the night watch bears fruit. Many times they read the results of their prayers in the newspapers the next day. And for one, there have been no terrorist attacks since 2004 in Jerusalem, the most spiritually contested city in the world.
“This is the city where God will set up His throne and this is where He wants to be worshipped,” Hansen said. “It’s an eternal thing, but we’re to replicate in the natural what God is doing in eternity.”
“The Bible says that the Word of the Lord will go out from Zion [Jerusalem],” Heidler said. “There’s an anointing and authority here.”
Jan 1, 2007
Once Lost, Now They are Found
Indians believed to be a lost tribe return to Israel
CARMIEL – Just a few months ago, rockets were battering this well-manicured town in the North and residents were living in bomb shelters. But that didn’t stop a group of Indian Jews from moving here, motivated by their simple yet profound faith in one thing: Israel is the Promised Land.
“Our dream is to be in Israel. Hashem [the Lord, literally ‘the Name’] promised His people to be in one Land,” Dagan Zohmingtea Zolat said. “Our dream has been fulfilled.”
Many other immigrants gave a similar answer: They made aliyah (immigrated to Israel) because Israel, not India, is the Promised Land for the Jewish people. So now, 87 of the 218 who arrived in Israel this fall will live at an absorption center in Carmiel for one year while the rest are at two centers in Upper Nazareth.
The arrival of these Jews, known as the Bnei Menashe (sons of Manasseh), unlocks one of the age-old mysteries of the Lost Tribes of Israel.
“This Aliyah of the Bnei Menashe is nothing less than a miracle of biblical proportions,” said Michael Freund, the head of the Shavei Israel organization, which was instrumental in bringing the Indian Jews here. “Exactly as the prophets foretold, God is gathering his people from the four corners of the earth and we are witnessing the prophetic fulfillment right before our eyes.”
A New Life
After fanfare at the airport hailing their arrival, the welcome to Israel for the Bnei Menashe was a dingy government building—the absorption center where they would spend their first year. The rooms are like dorms and kids play in the hallway when organized activities are not taking place.
Their day begins with prayers at 6 a.m., breakfast, and Hebrew classes until early afternoon for the adults. Children are already attending Israeli schools. Volunteers at the center help the new immigrants open bank accounts, apply for health insurance and tackle other bureaucratic necessities.
Yitzhak Kolni, who immigrated to Israel six years ago from India, is helping the new immigrants to settle in just like he did. “The ones here now are very Zionistic and religious,” said Kolni, who lives with the immigrants in the absorption center.
Rivka Pachuau who arrived with her husband and three children, said the family’s preparation to make aliyah took several years and a lot of prayer. Now they are glad to be in Israel where they can observe Shabbat (the Sabbath) and keep kosher much more easily than in India.
Some of the immigrants joined relatives already here, but most left family behind. Zolat’s family was worried that he was leaving with his wife and three young children to live on the frontline.
“But we came here based on the promises of God,” he said. “Whether in India or here in Israel, Hashem protects us.”
Zolat also hopes to be an example to secular Israelis, encouraging them to return to a pure biblical faith like the Bnei Menashe.
The Long Road Home
As the mass wave of Russian aliyah was beginning to fade in the mid-1990s, the Bnei Menashe came to Freund’s attention.
“When I first heard about the Bnei Menashe 10 years ago, I didn’t buy into the whole lost tribe idea,” Freund said. “But knowing the struggle to retain their Jewish identity over the centuries, I believe they are members of the lost tribe.”
At the time, the government allowed 100 Jewish Indians to enter Israel as tourists each year and then undergo the official conversion process to Judaism. This influx of 218 marks the first time the Bnei Menashe have arrived in Israel already converted under Halacha (Jewish Law), which makes them eligible to receive new immigrant incentives including major tax breaks.
The Ministry of Interior froze Indian aliyah in 2003 until Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar sent a delegation of religious judges to meet the people of the remote northeastern Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur and learn of their customs. Based on their long-held traditions, Amar ruled that the 8,000 Indians were indeed descendants of Israel.
The ruling was expected to clear the way for the resumption of aliyah, but there were complications. First, the Interior Ministry refused to register the expected newcomers as Israeli citizens. Then, the Absorption Ministry decided to withhold benefits from them. After a three year hiatus, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert personally intervened in June 2006, and aliyah finally resumed.
But as the Bnei Menashe were set to embark upon their journey this summer, the war in the North broke out further delaying their return. They waited it out and then proceeded with their move to Israel.
“The Bnei Menashe are a blessing for Israel,’ Freund told Israel Today. “They were lost to us for centuries, but they never forgot who they were and where they came from.”
History of the Tribe
Long before the modern day opposition, the return to Israel had been a long, hard road for the lost tribe. Exiled by the Assyrians in 721 BC, the 10 tribes of Israel were scattered eastward.
Today, the Bnei Menashe live in Manipur and Mizoram but look more like their Asian neighbors in Myanmar and Tibet than like Indians. About 90 years ago, British missionaries visited the region and discovered a people already living a biblical life.
“They were convinced they stumbled upon one of the lost tribes,” Freund said.
The Indians there practiced a biblical form of Judaism, were monotheistic, called God by His Hebrew name Yah, celebrated Passover and the other Feasts, observed the Sabbath, practiced circumcision and kept kosher.
Most of the community converted to Christianity after the missionaries’ visit, with the notable exception of the 7,000 Jews slated to make aliyah, following the 1,000 who already have. Nevertheless, all of the 750,000 residents of Mizoram—Jews and Christians alike—believe they are Bnei Menashe.
“Not everyone in Mizoram is Jewish, but all are Bnei Menashe,” said Zolat, who believes that the Christian descendants of Manasseh will return to the roots of their faith. “They will know the name of God and the Messiah and that the Jewish people were always protected by God. They will be here in Israel. Some are already awakening.”
The state of Mizoram is 90 percent Christian and so Zionistic that officials considered renaming it “the second State of Israel” and its main road “Zion Street.”
Freund is focusing on bringing the professed and practicing Jews to Israel. And what about the Christians? “If those people are Bnei Menashe and are fated to be here,” he said, “God and the Messiah will do so.”
Dec 1, 2006
Report: Palestinian Women Abused
P.A. taken to task for tolerating crimes against women
Nearly one-quarter of Palestinian women are victims of domestic violence, abused or raped while governmental agencies do nothing to protect them, according to a new report.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch blamed the Palestinian Authority (PA) for failing to make violence against women and girls a legislative priority and urged the government to take steps to prevent it.
“PA officials across the political spectrum appear to view security only within the context of the ongoing conflict and occupation, all but ignoring the very real security threats that women and girls face at home,” said Farida Deif, a researcher in the Women’s Rights Division and co-author of the report.
The report found that violence against women “is getting worse while the remedies available to victims are being further eroded: Palestinian women and girls who report abuse to the authorities find themselves confronting a system that prioritizes the reputations of their families in the community over their own well-being and lives.”
Entitled “A Question of Security: Violence Against Palestinian Women and Girls,” the study documents cases of violence from spousal and child abuse to rape, incest and murder. It is based on research conducted in the Palestinian territories from November 2005 to early 2006.
Police officers and clan leaders regularly “mediate” rape cases by returning the abused women to the “care and protection” of their attackers, without referring cases to the courts. Few cases of sexual violence are ever prosecuted: According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Palestinian courts rendered only one rape conviction in 2004.
Laws reduce penalties for men accused of “honor killings” or attacks against female relatives who commit adultery and absolve rapists who agree to marry their victims. Rape within marriage is not considered a crime. Victims say they are often afraid to report abuse or rape.
Even social service centers, such as the Bethlehem Home for Girls, force pregnant girls to marry their rapist for the sake of the child. “The majority do not want to marry him [the rapist],” the head of the home told Human Rights Watch. “But the baby is what’s important.”
There’s also been an increase in incest cases and fathers don’t deny it. “They say, ‘I have a right to her body over others’ or ‘I want her to go to her husband experienced,’” said Lina Abd al-Hadi, the legal advisor to the governor of Nablus.
“When confronted with cases of violence against women and girls, the Palestinian criminal justice system is more interested in avoiding public scandal than in seeing justice done,” said Lucy Mair, the report’s other co-author. “A woman’s basic right to life and bodily integrity are seen as a secondary concern at best.”
Nearly one-quarter of Palestinian women are victims of domestic violence, abused or raped while governmental agencies do nothing to protect them, according to a new report.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch blamed the Palestinian Authority (PA) for failing to make violence against women and girls a legislative priority and urged the government to take steps to prevent it.
“PA officials across the political spectrum appear to view security only within the context of the ongoing conflict and occupation, all but ignoring the very real security threats that women and girls face at home,” said Farida Deif, a researcher in the Women’s Rights Division and co-author of the report.
The report found that violence against women “is getting worse while the remedies available to victims are being further eroded: Palestinian women and girls who report abuse to the authorities find themselves confronting a system that prioritizes the reputations of their families in the community over their own well-being and lives.”
Entitled “A Question of Security: Violence Against Palestinian Women and Girls,” the study documents cases of violence from spousal and child abuse to rape, incest and murder. It is based on research conducted in the Palestinian territories from November 2005 to early 2006.
Police officers and clan leaders regularly “mediate” rape cases by returning the abused women to the “care and protection” of their attackers, without referring cases to the courts. Few cases of sexual violence are ever prosecuted: According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Palestinian courts rendered only one rape conviction in 2004.
Laws reduce penalties for men accused of “honor killings” or attacks against female relatives who commit adultery and absolve rapists who agree to marry their victims. Rape within marriage is not considered a crime. Victims say they are often afraid to report abuse or rape.
Even social service centers, such as the Bethlehem Home for Girls, force pregnant girls to marry their rapist for the sake of the child. “The majority do not want to marry him [the rapist],” the head of the home told Human Rights Watch. “But the baby is what’s important.”
There’s also been an increase in incest cases and fathers don’t deny it. “They say, ‘I have a right to her body over others’ or ‘I want her to go to her husband experienced,’” said Lina Abd al-Hadi, the legal advisor to the governor of Nablus.
“When confronted with cases of violence against women and girls, the Palestinian criminal justice system is more interested in avoiding public scandal than in seeing justice done,” said Lucy Mair, the report’s other co-author. “A woman’s basic right to life and bodily integrity are seen as a secondary concern at best.”
A New Deal at the Shuk
From down and dirty to class act, Jerusalem’s market undergoes a renaissance
It is one of Jerusalem’s last bastions of gritty Israeli culture, the real bustle and chaos of Middle Eastern life. But now even the shuk has been swept up in the city’s continuing development and modernization.
Once the calling card for loud heckling, surly shopkeepers, harried shoppers—and bargains—the outdoor market has been invaded by swank cafes and gourmet food shops. It’s a twist as surprising as the imported specialties that now appear at every turn. Some even deign to describe the shuk, called Mahane Yehuda, as “yuppie.”
“It’s more like a yuppie destination now,” Ada Spitz, a Jerusalem native, told Israel Today. “They started selling sushi in the shuk. Who would’ve thought they’d sell sushi in the shuk?”
Spitz herself works in one of the new designer clothing shops surfacing in the market with designer—not shuk—prices.
New and old are now side by side: designer clothing, imported cheese, eclectic wine collections, cozy cafes and haute cuisine restaurants are interspersed between the traditional colorful arrays of fruits and vegetables, raw meat and fish, stacks of pitas and other breads, pastries, dried fruits and nuts, olives of all colors, and of course shwarma (meat roasted on a spit) and falafel shops, among many other things.
Woven together by alleys and nooks, the three lengthwise shuk streets off of Jerusalem’s main Jaffa Road are about a half a mile west of downtown. The new delicacy and designer shops combined with the city’s aesthetic renovations contributed to an upsurge in customers this past year, merchants say. They also credit a decline in terrorist attacks since the last one there on April 12th, 2002. The shuk was one of Jerusalem’s recurring targets for terrorism in the early years of the intifada (Palestinian uprising).
These “yuppie” changes seem to be welcomed by all so far, if not with a sniff of sarcasm from some old-timers. “We call that part ‘North Tel Aviv,’” said Yossi Ankona, a lifelong shop owner, making a dig at the new shops’ trendy ambiance not typically associated with the gruff shuk.
But Eli Mizrahi, considered by many the pioneer of this renaissance, resists that label. “Is it like France? Italy? Is it like Barcelona? No, it’s Mahane Yehuda!” he said, insisting that there was nothing out of place with a classy café in the midst of a grimy market.
Mizrahi, who grew up in the family’s shop at the shuk, took a risk four years ago when he opened up his gourmet coffee shop. “Fifty percent of the people thought I was a genius, 50 percent thought I was a lunatic,” he said. “But I knew this is something that was missing in the market. It changed the market totally.”
Considering the renewed busyness of the shuk and copious media coverage, Mizrahi proved genius. He has been followed by other “hip” shops including his own high end restaurant, Zahko, on the perimeter of the shuk. Mizrahi believes the time was right for attracting a younger generation of customers.
“Customers have gone, some died or they’re too old to make it here,” Mizrahi said, standing outside the narrow porch of Café Mizrahi which overhangs one of the shuk’s lanes. “We get more young people now, and—I hate this word—‘yuppie’ people.”
Indeed, the shuk now rivals the ultra-popular Jerusalem mall for convenience and surpasses it for connoisseurs seeking specialty items. “There’s no need to go to the mall. You can find everything here,” said Yitzhak Cohen, a shuk veteran selling Syrian olive oil and halva (a sesame sweet) for more than 20 years.
In fact, shuk regulars have marveled at the tour groups of Israelis that have traipsed through the market lately, with guides even. Regulars, unruffled by all the attention and modernization, are almost as much tourists as the real sightseers. “If I don’t come here to shop, I come to tour,” said Mordechai Maloun, an Orthodox Jew and regular customer.
Shopper Ze’ev Mizrachi said the new shops and tourist pilgrimages add color to the market: “It’s about the experience,” he said. “We have friends here, we talk to people. It’s a meeting place.”
Meanwhile, one of the so-called yuppies, Asher Kravitz, was studying mathematics while enjoying coffee and apple strudel at JD Cafe, which serves beer on tap, another shuk novelty. “It’s a big innovation,” he said. “We live nearby so we come here all the time,” he said. “It’s a new voice, it’s a new spirit and it sounds good.”
It is one of Jerusalem’s last bastions of gritty Israeli culture, the real bustle and chaos of Middle Eastern life. But now even the shuk has been swept up in the city’s continuing development and modernization.
Once the calling card for loud heckling, surly shopkeepers, harried shoppers—and bargains—the outdoor market has been invaded by swank cafes and gourmet food shops. It’s a twist as surprising as the imported specialties that now appear at every turn. Some even deign to describe the shuk, called Mahane Yehuda, as “yuppie.”
“It’s more like a yuppie destination now,” Ada Spitz, a Jerusalem native, told Israel Today. “They started selling sushi in the shuk. Who would’ve thought they’d sell sushi in the shuk?”
Spitz herself works in one of the new designer clothing shops surfacing in the market with designer—not shuk—prices.
New and old are now side by side: designer clothing, imported cheese, eclectic wine collections, cozy cafes and haute cuisine restaurants are interspersed between the traditional colorful arrays of fruits and vegetables, raw meat and fish, stacks of pitas and other breads, pastries, dried fruits and nuts, olives of all colors, and of course shwarma (meat roasted on a spit) and falafel shops, among many other things.
Woven together by alleys and nooks, the three lengthwise shuk streets off of Jerusalem’s main Jaffa Road are about a half a mile west of downtown. The new delicacy and designer shops combined with the city’s aesthetic renovations contributed to an upsurge in customers this past year, merchants say. They also credit a decline in terrorist attacks since the last one there on April 12th, 2002. The shuk was one of Jerusalem’s recurring targets for terrorism in the early years of the intifada (Palestinian uprising).
These “yuppie” changes seem to be welcomed by all so far, if not with a sniff of sarcasm from some old-timers. “We call that part ‘North Tel Aviv,’” said Yossi Ankona, a lifelong shop owner, making a dig at the new shops’ trendy ambiance not typically associated with the gruff shuk.
But Eli Mizrahi, considered by many the pioneer of this renaissance, resists that label. “Is it like France? Italy? Is it like Barcelona? No, it’s Mahane Yehuda!” he said, insisting that there was nothing out of place with a classy café in the midst of a grimy market.
Mizrahi, who grew up in the family’s shop at the shuk, took a risk four years ago when he opened up his gourmet coffee shop. “Fifty percent of the people thought I was a genius, 50 percent thought I was a lunatic,” he said. “But I knew this is something that was missing in the market. It changed the market totally.”
Considering the renewed busyness of the shuk and copious media coverage, Mizrahi proved genius. He has been followed by other “hip” shops including his own high end restaurant, Zahko, on the perimeter of the shuk. Mizrahi believes the time was right for attracting a younger generation of customers.
“Customers have gone, some died or they’re too old to make it here,” Mizrahi said, standing outside the narrow porch of Café Mizrahi which overhangs one of the shuk’s lanes. “We get more young people now, and—I hate this word—‘yuppie’ people.”
Indeed, the shuk now rivals the ultra-popular Jerusalem mall for convenience and surpasses it for connoisseurs seeking specialty items. “There’s no need to go to the mall. You can find everything here,” said Yitzhak Cohen, a shuk veteran selling Syrian olive oil and halva (a sesame sweet) for more than 20 years.
In fact, shuk regulars have marveled at the tour groups of Israelis that have traipsed through the market lately, with guides even. Regulars, unruffled by all the attention and modernization, are almost as much tourists as the real sightseers. “If I don’t come here to shop, I come to tour,” said Mordechai Maloun, an Orthodox Jew and regular customer.
Shopper Ze’ev Mizrachi said the new shops and tourist pilgrimages add color to the market: “It’s about the experience,” he said. “We have friends here, we talk to people. It’s a meeting place.”
Meanwhile, one of the so-called yuppies, Asher Kravitz, was studying mathematics while enjoying coffee and apple strudel at JD Cafe, which serves beer on tap, another shuk novelty. “It’s a big innovation,” he said. “We live nearby so we come here all the time,” he said. “It’s a new voice, it’s a new spirit and it sounds good.”
Nov 1, 2006
Egyptian Campaigns on Israel’s Behalf
When Majed El Shafie told Israeli soldiers he was Egyptian, some recoiled, some welcomed him warmly and some simply stared in shock. At a time when Islamic militants from Hizbollah were attacking Israel, here was a former Moslem, now living in Canada, greeting Israeli troops and expressing his support for them—and planning to tell their story back home.
“We are making a movie about the war, what’s behind the war,” El Shafie said. “I want to show the human side of Israel—hospitals, shelters, mothers of soldiers. And not just Jews, but Arabs, Christian Arabs, Russian immigrants.”
El Shafie came to Israel as a human rights observer during the war this summer to visit Israeli troops and tour the destruction caused by Hizbollah rockets. He said that the only thing he saw from the media in Canada was the destruction of Lebanon.
“Israel lost the media war,” he said. “From the beginning of the war, everyone was against Israel. I believe the Lebanese also suffered, but nobody spoke up for Israel.”
El Shafie took video footage of Israelis in shelters and hospitals and even brought back shrapnel from a rocket that was launched at Israel to present as evidence to parliament.
“How could you hit civilian areas?” he asked of Hizbollah. “At least Israel dropped leaflets [announcing where they were going to bomb] which took from Israel the element of surprise.”
El Shafie was raised as a Muslim in Egypt and was taught to hate Israel. After he converted to Christianity, which is illegal in Egypt, he was arrested and tortured for weeks. Then he made a daring escape to Israel, the only non-Muslim neighboring country. He was imprisoned for more than a year until he received political asylum and for the next two years he lived in Israel under the name Mack Smith and began to cultivate a love for the Land.
Now in Canada, he runs a human-rights organization, One Free World International, that helps people who are persecuted for their beliefs. This was El Shafie’s first trip back to Israel since moving to North America two years ago. As part of his work, he broadcasts the Gospel through three Arabic-language radio shows including one to Iraq.
While studying law in Egypt, El Shafie, who had Christian friends, saw discrepancies in Egyptian law, which regards Christians as lower class. This prompted him to search out Christianity for himself. He made a radical conversion and started an underground Christian organization that eventually grew to thousands. Then he was arrested.
“I had my hair shaved and was hung upside down with my head submerged in boiling hot and then ice cold water,” he said. “I was threatened with killer dogs. I was tied to a cross for three days, had my back slashed with a knife and then had lemon juice and salt rubbed in the wound until I finally fell unconscious from the pain.”
Though he was released from prison, El Shafie was summoned back to court. Awaiting his court date, El Shafie decided to try to escape to Israel, rather than face a certain death sentence. At the Red Sea, he rented a jet ski and with Egyptian and Israeli patrols pursuing him from both sides, he made for shore. He evaded the patrols, ditched his jet ski on an Eilat beach and ran to a nearby hotel. He was caught and jailed for 16 months, but was safely in Israel.
“We are making a movie about the war, what’s behind the war,” El Shafie said. “I want to show the human side of Israel—hospitals, shelters, mothers of soldiers. And not just Jews, but Arabs, Christian Arabs, Russian immigrants.”
El Shafie came to Israel as a human rights observer during the war this summer to visit Israeli troops and tour the destruction caused by Hizbollah rockets. He said that the only thing he saw from the media in Canada was the destruction of Lebanon.
“Israel lost the media war,” he said. “From the beginning of the war, everyone was against Israel. I believe the Lebanese also suffered, but nobody spoke up for Israel.”
El Shafie took video footage of Israelis in shelters and hospitals and even brought back shrapnel from a rocket that was launched at Israel to present as evidence to parliament.
“How could you hit civilian areas?” he asked of Hizbollah. “At least Israel dropped leaflets [announcing where they were going to bomb] which took from Israel the element of surprise.”
El Shafie was raised as a Muslim in Egypt and was taught to hate Israel. After he converted to Christianity, which is illegal in Egypt, he was arrested and tortured for weeks. Then he made a daring escape to Israel, the only non-Muslim neighboring country. He was imprisoned for more than a year until he received political asylum and for the next two years he lived in Israel under the name Mack Smith and began to cultivate a love for the Land.
Now in Canada, he runs a human-rights organization, One Free World International, that helps people who are persecuted for their beliefs. This was El Shafie’s first trip back to Israel since moving to North America two years ago. As part of his work, he broadcasts the Gospel through three Arabic-language radio shows including one to Iraq.
While studying law in Egypt, El Shafie, who had Christian friends, saw discrepancies in Egyptian law, which regards Christians as lower class. This prompted him to search out Christianity for himself. He made a radical conversion and started an underground Christian organization that eventually grew to thousands. Then he was arrested.
“I had my hair shaved and was hung upside down with my head submerged in boiling hot and then ice cold water,” he said. “I was threatened with killer dogs. I was tied to a cross for three days, had my back slashed with a knife and then had lemon juice and salt rubbed in the wound until I finally fell unconscious from the pain.”
Though he was released from prison, El Shafie was summoned back to court. Awaiting his court date, El Shafie decided to try to escape to Israel, rather than face a certain death sentence. At the Red Sea, he rented a jet ski and with Egyptian and Israeli patrols pursuing him from both sides, he made for shore. He evaded the patrols, ditched his jet ski on an Eilat beach and ran to a nearby hotel. He was caught and jailed for 16 months, but was safely in Israel.
Sep 1, 2006
Economy Takes a Pounding during War
The statistics are grim and continue to mount: 10,000 businesses are on the brink of collapse, unemployment in the north is nearly 14 percent, workers haven’t been paid in weeks, and farmers are looking at devastated crops and distraught livestock.
From hotels and tourist attractions to farms and vineyards, businesses that slowed down or shut down completely because of the war are expected to have a ripple effect on the economy.
The Defense Ministry estimates that the conflict has cost the government 7 billion shekels ($1.5 billion). The Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor has set up a task force to deal with the damages and repercussions of the war.
Restaurants and Shops
The most visible impact is on the closed restaurants and shops throughout the northern cities and towns. At some hotels and restaurants, the only patrons are foreign reporters who moved north when residents fled south or underground. From small convenience stores to pubs and restaurants, business hours were reduced and along with it, the clientele.
“I have 46 employees,” Moshe Taylor, a restaurant owner in Haifa, told Israel Today. “I have to pay them. How do you pay them?”
Haifa Mayor Yonah Yahav said the city’s “losses are desperate.” “We have the largest number of malls in Israel and they are empty,” he told us. “I have a friend who owns a shoe factory. But who feels like buying shoes right now? Sometimes owners opened up their stores because they wanted to be tough, but the clients didn’t show up.”
Municipalities are also grasping with new challenges. Haifa’s Deputy Mayor Tsvika Dahari said the city’s regular functions must carry on under fire like garbage collection and social services. But now they are saddled with new tasks as well.
“After a rocket falls, we must immediately repair the street,” he said. “We bring inspectors from the government to assess the damage. We also bring residents whose homes were hit to hotels so no one is ever sleeping on the street.”
Farms
Farmers say their livestock have been terrified by the continual blasts and gunfire from the border. Hens are laying eggs with an extremely brittle shell and cows are giving less milk. Many foreign workers fled south leaving fruit rotting on the trees.
Fires sparked by rockets have burned thousands of acres of grazing land for the region’s 30,000 cattle. “The damage is severe,” said Haim Dayan, director general of the cattle-raisers union. He said cows miscarried at a significantly higher rate this season because farmers could not reach the herd regularly to provide the necessary care.
Wine
Also hit hard by the war was Israel’s $150 million wine industry—a booming business with hundreds of wineries ranging from small enterprises to large ones which produce 10 million bottles a year.
Moshe Haviv, CEO of Dalton Winery, is one example. He estimates a loss of 1 million shekels (more than $220,000) in one month and possibly the entire harvest. Haviv said a bumper crop was expected this year, but with the grapes ripening, workers were unable to tend the vines because of falling rockets, let alone bring in the harvest. A rocket landed in one of Dalton’s fields, burning two acres of vines.
“Half my workers left with their families in fear of the Katyushas,” Haviv said, “and some of the others have been called up to reserve duty.”
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