Cult members cause Israel a real headache
The Israeli government lately received calls from abroad demanding that experts specialized in Christianity be included in the series of contacts and consultations the government does before taking any further decisions to deport Christian messianic cult members.
Director-general of the Anti-Defamation League, David Rosen, has appealed to Israeli Minister of Tourism Amnon Shahak and Jerusalem Affairs Minister Haim Ramon, demanding that they include consultants who specialize in Christianity on the team making decisions about deportation of groups of Christian believers in Israel. In his letter, reported by the Hebrew papers on Wednesday, Rosen argued that some of the Christians who were deported on the grounds that they constitute a risk to public safety have been living in Israel for many years and have never posed a threat or a risk. Rosen added that deporting groups of believers could become a serious boomerang in tourism to Israel.
But "Concerned Christians" messianic cult members continue to cause concern for Israel. Nine months ago, the Israeli government deported 14 members of the cult on grounds of threatening public security. Lately, Israeli reports said, those cult members were trying to make their way back to Israel in groups and have tried to infiltrate as tourists along with dozens of fellow members. Israeli police assess that some, of not all, cult members might try to fulfill their chilling vision, which is to greet the year 2000 with mass suicide in Jerusalem, in order to hasten the coming of the messiah.
A Hebrew daily on Wednesday quoted Denver Colorado city police as saying that all 90 members of the cult, including the 14 deported from Israel last January, had recently congregated in a suburb of Athens, Greece. Now they are trying to make their way from there to Israel, police sources said. They hinted that this information about the cult members' intention was recently corroborated during questioning of relatives of cult members.
"The determination of the Concerned Christians to go the short distance between Greece and Israel is a confirmed fact," Mark Rogman of the Denver police told the paper. He said that the only question still open is "how many of them will manage to enter Israel." Israeli police assess that some of those cult members may have already obtained false documents that would help them enter Israel without any problem.
Concerned Christians are considered the most dangerous of all the "millennium cults." Kim Miller, leader of the cult, sees himself as a prophet. According to Miller's vision, cult members must end their lives in an act of bloodshed in Jerusalem streets on December 18th, an act which must cost the lives of all the residents of the city. According to this prophecy, Miller himself is to be resurrected together with cult members.
The Israeli police have not spoken officially of the real intention of those cult members, leaving it to sources close to the police to give vague ideas of what these members are likely to do by the end of this year. The most likely scenario is that some members might try to link up with extreme Jewish elements and try to blow up the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem in order to make ground for the return of the Messiah.
The police have set up a special unit whose job is to follow up all developments and preparations for the possible arrival of those cult members. A senior police source refused to give interviews on the matter, saying that strict orders were issued to the senior police echelon not to give interviews or speak openly about those cult members, out of fear that the continued reporting on the matter might decrease the number of potential tourists expected to arrive in the country to mark the start of the third millennium.
Back in January, Israel had believed that it had rid itself of the cult members, when it deported 14 of them. The group was put on a plane and sent back to Denver, but then it transpired that the U.S. government did not want, and could not legally stop them from making their way back to Israel. After six weeks of holing up in a Denver hotel, they vanished without leaving a trace, Israeli press reports said.
Some critics of Israel's policy with regard to the cult's movements argue that Israel made a grave mistake when it allowed those members to leave after being arrested. "I had hoped Israel would hold onto them until after the start of the millennium, but what happened is that now they are on their way back to Israel," said Mark Rogman of the Denver police. "We suspect they will infiltrate back with the help of forged passports and false names. Miller must continue to try to reach Israel and materialize his prophecy. Otherwise he will lose all his control over the cult in one blow."
Family members of the cult told the Hebrew paper Yediot Ahronot that their contact with cult members has become minimal and has come down to messages through the Internet. "You will go to hell if you do not join us," said an e-mail message sent recently by the Malsik brothers who were arrested in Israel and deported to their four sisters in New Jersey.