{"id":370,"date":"2012-01-08T11:48:08","date_gmt":"2012-01-08T16:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/isittheendoftheworld\/?p=370"},"modified":"2012-01-08T11:48:08","modified_gmt":"2012-01-08T16:48:08","slug":"religious-freedom-in-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2012\/01\/religious-freedom-in-israel.html","title":{"rendered":"Religious Freedom in Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Critics of the Jewish state often bear false witness by claiming that Israel is an apartheid state. Among the charges is that religious freedom is not available to people other than Jews.<\/p>\n<p>This is glaringly false and in fact, before Israel took control of the Old City in 1967, Jews and Christians were severely restricted from praying at, or even visiting religious sites. (Even today, on the Temple Mount, where the Palestinian wakf has been given control of the holy site, Jews and Christians are not allowed to pray.)<\/p>\n<p>Today, of course, Israel is actually the protector of the holy sites, including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where many tourists visit each year.<\/p>\n<p>Would that people who are victims of anti-Israel propaganda could actually know the truth about the country.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/isittheendoftheworld\/files\/2012\/01\/religious-freedom.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/237\/2012\/01\/religious-freedom-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-371\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Critics of the Jewish state often bear false witness by claiming that Israel is an apartheid state. Among the charges is that religious freedom is not available to people other than Jews. This is glaringly false and in fact, before Israel took control of the Old City in 1967, Jews and Christians were severely restricted&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":392,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Religious Freedom in Israel - Is it the End of the World?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2012\/01\/religious-freedom-in-israel.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Religious Freedom in Israel - Is it the End of the World?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Critics of the Jewish state often bear false witness by claiming that Israel is an apartheid state. Among the charges is that religious freedom is not available to people other than Jews. This is glaringly false and in fact, before Israel took control of the Old City in 1967, Jews and Christians were severely restricted&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2012\/01\/religious-freedom-in-israel.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Is it the End of the World?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-01-08T16:48:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/isittheendoftheworld\/files\/2012\/01\/religious-freedom-300x225.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim Fletcher\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Religious Freedom in Israel - Is it the End of the World?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2012\/01\/religious-freedom-in-israel.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Religious Freedom in Israel - Is it the End of the World?","og_description":"Critics of the Jewish state often bear false witness by claiming that Israel is an apartheid state. Among the charges is that religious freedom is not available to people other than Jews. This is glaringly false and in fact, before Israel took control of the Old City in 1967, Jews and Christians were severely restricted&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2012\/01\/religious-freedom-in-israel.html","og_site_name":"Is it the End of the World?","article_published_time":"2012-01-08T16:48:08+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/isittheendoftheworld\/files\/2012\/01\/religious-freedom-300x225.jpg"}],"author":"Jim Fletcher","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2012\/01\/religious-freedom-in-israel.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2012\/01\/religious-freedom-in-israel.html","name":"Religious Freedom in Israel - Is it the End of the World?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2012\/01\/religious-freedom-in-israel.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2012\/01\/religious-freedom-in-israel.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/isittheendoftheworld\/files\/2012\/01\/religious-freedom-300x225.jpg","datePublished":"2012-01-08T16:48:08+00:00","dateModified":"2012-01-08T16:48:08+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/#\/schema\/person\/e4febb70ba13f920c6255f1d7aaf0c96"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2012\/01\/religious-freedom-in-israel.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2012\/01\/religious-freedom-in-israel.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2012\/01\/religious-freedom-in-israel.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/isittheendoftheworld\/files\/2012\/01\/religious-freedom-300x225.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/isittheendoftheworld\/files\/2012\/01\/religious-freedom-300x225.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2012\/01\/religious-freedom-in-israel.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Religious Freedom in Israel"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/","name":"Is it the End of the World?","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Jim Fletcher","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/#\/schema\/person\/e4febb70ba13f920c6255f1d7aaf0c96","name":"Jim Fletcher","description":"Blogger and researcher Jim Fletcher has worked in the book publishing industry for 15 years, and is now director of the apologetics group Prophecy Matters. 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