GOD TV Confirms Israel Wants to Shut Down Shelanu Messianic Channel
by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – GOD TV has confirmed Israeli authorities want to shut down its new Hebrew-language Gospel channel, the Christian Post reports. The Shelanu (“Ours” in Hebrew) channel recently began broadcasting Christian content on Israel’s popular HOT cable network.
Concerns have been raised about what GOD TV intends to do through the new channel as Israel has laws against certain types of missionary activity. In Israel, it is prohibited to proselytize minors under the age of 18 and to offer material gain in exchange for conversion to Christianity. Although the Shelanu channel was granted a seven-year license to broadcast, Israel’s Communications Minister David Amsalem stated last week that this had been an “oversight” and that there would be an investigation to ensure the channel was removed if it aired missionary material.
In a video posted over the weekend, GOD TV CEO Ward Simpson said: “Since we have started to broadcast, it has created quite a stir in Israel. The governing authorities that manage these things have been receiving numerous complaints about our content and about different things with the channel, especially as it relates to the rules and regulations of what can and cannot be said on TV in Israel.”
Simpson stated that, under the terms of Shelanu’s license, missionary activity is indeed prohibited but that the channel had not been proselytizing unlawfully. He said: “our attorneys and our staff over there have all told me that we are in compliance and that we are following the rules and regulations, that we are legal and that there is no way that they can really pull us off the air because we haven’t done it.”
Simpson confirmed: “As far as we have been told, the [Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Council] would like to shut down the channel. However, he explained, GOD TV lawyers are working with the Israeli Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Council “to try and figure out what to do.”
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