Messianic Jews may seek Israeli citizenship without discrimination

The Supreme Court of the State of Israel, on April 16, 2008, acknowledged the right of Messianic Jews (Jews who believe in Jesus) to immigrate Israel (aliyah). This landmark ruling is little known among Christians worldwide, but is a huge encouragement from the Lord that the end times are approaching!

The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 11:25-26 that "a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, and in this way all Israel will be saved." Large numbers of Jews have put there faith in Jesus as the Messiah ever since his first coming. The Messianic Jewish movement of the past 150 years has helped Jews understand that when they commit their lives to Jesus, they do not stop being Jewish, but they have become fulfilled Jews.

However, Messianic Jews have suffered the persecution of other Jews within the State of Israel since its independence. This Supreme Court ruling in 2008 apparently was in reaction to violence committed on Messianic Jews, and recognizes that this persecution and discrimination is illegal. Please pray that this will opens doors for the gospel to reach more Jews in the land of  Israel!

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Here is more information, as Erin Roach reported in the Baptist Press article Israeli Supreme Court sides with Messianic Jews from April 21, 2008.

With the ruling, Messianic Jews may seek citizenship in Israel without religious discrimination, according to Jim Sibley, a professor at Criswell College in Dallas and a former missionary to Israel. Jewish believers had been excluded from the law of return by previous court rulings, including one in the 1980s declaring that if a Jew believed in Jesus as the Messiah, he was not to be considered Jewish. With the ruling, Sibley said, Messianic Jews may seek citizenship in Israel without religious discrimination.

It's really a huge ruling because the court apparently further ordered the Israeli Ministry of Interior to stop persecuting Jewish believers,” Sibley said. “Some of the very Orthodox Jewish sectors of society had taken positions in the Ministry of Interior and had been using their positions to revoke believers' citizenship, deny visas and generally harass not only Jewish believers in Jesus but also Christian workers in Israel."

The Supreme Court's decision should alleviate some of the pressure that Jewish believers and foreign Christian workers have felt in Israel, Sibley said, adding that he "can't help but believe" the ruling is related to a terrorist attack on the Messianic community that occurred in March, 2008.

In that incident, 15-year-old Ami Ortiz, whose parents are noted Messianic congregational leaders in Ariel, opened a bomb disguised as a gift delivered to his home. He suffered extensive damage to his body but is expected to recover after at least a year of treatment. Though a police investigation is ongoing, anti-missionary Orthodox Jews were among those originally suspected as perpetrators.