Protestant Groups in Israel Told They Can Broadcast Their Services over Govt. Radio

Prime Minister David Ben Gurion today addressed letters to five Protestant leaders in Israel notifying them that their communities in the Jewish state are free to use the Hebrew language in broadcasting their religious services over the “Voice of Israel” station in Jerusalem as long as their messages do not constitute an affront to the religious feelings of other religious denominations.

The Premier’s letter was in reply to a protest by the leaders of the Protestant groups last month following the refusal of the station to broadcast in Hebrew a portion of Protestant religious services scheduled for the middle of June. The refusal was based on the argument that the Hebrew broadcasts would constitute missionary activities among the Jewish population.

A spokesman for the Israel Government today said: “The fact that all religious communities, Christian and Moslem, are invited to make use of the government broadcasting service is in itself evidence of our desire that all faiths should enjoy every reasonable facility for exercising their religious functions. However, the exercise of these functions by one denemination ought not to be of a nature likely to offend adherents of other denominations.”