Article 18

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Article 19

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression: This right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

English translation here: http://jij.org.il/files/Unbelievable.pdf

on the other hand I think religious freedom is a basic human right

I thought MJ stood for Michael Jackson

“Some 83 percent of Israeli Jews said they support “ensuring freedom of religion and conscience.”

“Only 9 percent of fervently Orthodox respondents said they support freedom of religion”

http://jta.org/news/article/2009/10/12/1008455/poll-majority-of-israeli-jews-support-reigious-freedom

I think I should be allowed to smoke together with my pint or my meal, and also on a plane or train journey or in my office.

You’re comparing a 15-year old’s right to a basketball career and a life free from terror with your right to smoke??? Really?

So my rights and freedoms are curtailed because I am in the minority and I can either accept that or go to live elsewhere where the law is different.

So black people should have gone back to Africa and not bothered with MLK and the civil rights movement? Is that also why the Jews left Spain in 1492?

It’s the trying to persuade others to change their religion which people find offensive and a common factor between all of the MJ posters here seems to be that you completely refuse to see just how objectionable that is.

So why just pick on the ones who believe in Jesus? When Israel gets rid of all its Chabad missionaries I might appreciate a consistent argument.

Minorities will sometimes not get what they want precisely because they are a minority, so the liberty of the few will sometimes have to take a back seat when it comes into conflict with the liberties of the majority.

Isn’t that fascism?

Again the point must be made that everything that used to be said about “The Jews” in Europe in the Middle Ages is now being said about Messianic Jews.

I have not ignored your point about Ami Ortiz -” Obviously violence of any kind is to be condemned”.

“Also, how exactly are you left-wing, when you’re siding with the identity of the state against democratic law and the liberties of citizens?”
In any democracy the rule of the majority takes precedence. Minorities will sometimes not get what they want precisely because they are a minority, so the liberty of the few will sometimes have to take a back seat when it comes into conflict with the liberties of the majority.
I personally find it unacceptable that my liberties as a smoker have been curtailed in almost every public place. I think I should be allowed to smoke together with my pint or my meal, and also on a plane or train journey or in my office. I’m not forcing anyone else to smoke, and preventing me from doing so is a violation of my civil rights in a democracy. However, the majority don’t think like that, do they? So my rights and freedoms are curtailed because I am in the minority and I can either accept that or go to live elsewhere where the law is different. Obviously the Israeli government thinks that by allowing you the liberties you demand, the liberties of the majority would be compromised.
Nobody is objecting to MJ worshipping as they see fit. It’s the trying to persuade others to change their religion which people find offensive and a common factor between all of the MJ posters here seems to be that you completely refuse to see just how objectionable that is. Such disregard for the sensibilities of those surrounding you would suggest that you have little interest in their civil rights, whilst having no problem demanding your own right to act as you please. Or maybe the point is that although you know full well that people find such missionary activities objectionable, you actually don’t care because for you, ’saving’ those people is more important than their civil liberties.

‘How would you treat an elderly Messianic Jew who was in your care, out of interest?’
I would find out what their beliefs entailed and what their wishes were and try to accomodate them as much as possible. I would certainly not try to persuade them to change their beliefs, customs or traditions.

That means helping them to live, worship and die according to their beliefs, not ours. I, for example, was specially trained in the customs and traditions of all the various religious and ethnic groups within Israeli society regarding death. I deal with different bereaved people in completely different ways, according to their customs, not mine. Anyone who cannot keep his own religion to himself has no place in working in public service, I’m afraid. It’s the client and his/her beliefs who are the focus of public service, not the service provider.

That’s a fair position. Please ignore my second paragraph in the comment 2 above.

How would you treat an elderly Messianic Jew who was in your care, out of interest?