Behind-The-Scenes Revival Breaking Out at the Olympics - MADELINE C. MULKEY/RNS CHARISMA NEWS

College students volunteer to spread the Good News at the Olympics. (Madeline C. Mulkey/RNS)

Behind-The-Scenes Revival Breaking Out at the Olympics

2/23/2018 MADELINE C. MULKEY/RNS  CHARISMA NEWS

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To those watching on TV, religion may seem absent from the Winter Olympic Games. Away from the spotlight, though, an estimated 3,000 missionaries are on hand.

About 2,000 missionaries — South Korean and international — are working in the city of Gangneung, where the indoor Olympic events are being held. The remaining 1,000 are working in Pyeongchang, site of ski, snowboard and other events.

There is no reliable count of missionaries at Olympics past. But the number of local missionaries here far exceeds previous games, said Marty Youngblood, leader of the Georgia Baptist Convention mission team, who is at his fifth Olympics this year.

South Korea, which is 29 percent Christian, and among whom Protestants predominate, enjoys high levels of religious tolerance. Buddha's birthday and Christmas are both national holidays.

The Winter Games have attracted teams of Baptists, Presbyterians and Methodists. Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons also abound, each group sharing the gospel in its own way. The United Christian Churches of Korea, a coalition of 144 local congregations, is helping foreign mission groups to arrange housing and ministry sites and learn about Korean culture.

Local churches are taking advantage of an Olympics at their doorstep. Many have set up welcome stations in parking lots, where they give away snacks, coffee and Christian literature.

In addition to its coffee and snack giveaway, Somang Presbyterian Church — located in the shadow of the Olympic venues — is showcasing a live orchestra and church members dressed in traditional costume. It's just one of the 26 local churches in Gangneung with Olympic outreach ministries.

Then there's the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Helping Hands Center, a two-story building on prime real estate across the street from the train station in Gangneung. Working there is Coloradan Chandler Petry, chosen by her church with a small group of other Mormon missionaries already in Korea to serve at the Olympics.

The center's multilingual staff will give athletes, members of the media and any Olympic spectator a warm drink and a place to recharge their phones. But its main goal, according to the church's website, "is for as many as possible to see the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ in the eyes of the members and missionaries."

The Jehovah's Witnesses have sent about 1,000 missionaries to the Winter Games, far more than to previous Olympics, said Steven Park, public information officer for the Jehovah's Witness Korea branch. He says that the work they do in Gangneung and Pyeongchang is no different from the ministry they do elsewhere and that some missionaries will remain in the area after the Olympics.

One of the most popular tools of ministry for these Olympic missionaries is lapel pin trading.

Related Articles

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Myungsu No, a campus minister in Seoul, says his students from the Baptist Student Union use pin trading — a pastime at this and previous Olympics — to spread the gospel. While athletes and spectators trade pins that typically depict a certain country, sport or team, mission groups give away a "More Than Gold" lapel pin, borrowing the slogan a consortium of missionary groups adopted in the 1990s to brand their Olympic outreach.

Psalm 119:127 declares that the commands of God are loved "more than gold." The reference to gold at the Olympics, where athletes' highest reward for their performance is a gold medal, is borrowed by the missionaries to suggest there is a higher reward to be sought through faith.

Veteran missionaries trained in the art of Olympic pin trading are passing down the skill to the new generation. The missionaries make an initial pin trade using a nonreligious pin they have collected — say, that of the USA ski jump team. This often prompts a conversation and a chance for the missionary to offer the trader the "More Than Gold" pin as a gift.

Some missionaries who work elsewhere in Asia have decided to take a break to focus on the Olympics.

American Kathryn Daniel, based in China, says she felt called to evangelize at the Winter Games because of her personal connection with Korea. She spent 12 years of her life in the country with her missionary parents.

Nine months ago, she heard her father was getting a group of other retired missionaries to go to the Olympics, and she thought, "I think this is God telling me to go, 'Kathy, just go.'" Daniel is staying in Korea for a week, working with the group from the Georgia Baptist Convention.

The first weekend of the Olympics, mission groups passed out Christian literature in the Olympic park unimpeded.

Then Olympic park officials posted signs informing visitors that passing out religious material in the park was banned, and any materials found would be confiscated.

Youngblood, of the Georgia Baptist Convention, said he is not concerned. His missionaries are also using the pin trading and only give pamphlets to those who want to learn more.

And A-lim Jang, a recent university graduate and student leader with Baptist Student Union missionaries, said pin trading has allowed her and her colleagues to share the gospel "with many people that God puts in our path." 

Madeline C. Mulkey is a senior at the University of South Carolina School of Journalism and Mass Communications. She is doing a special online documentary and a series of articles on "God at the Game." Her project is funded in part by the Magellan Scholarship Program. © 2018 Religion News Service. All rights reserved.

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Unsportsmanlike Conduct: Israeli-Arab Conflict Rears Ugly Head at Olympics - JONATHAN FELDSTEIN CHARISMA NEWS

Maria Bernabeu of Spain and Linda Bolder of Israel (in blue) compete in Judo during the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Toru Hanai/Reuters )

Unsportsmanlike Conduct: Israeli-Arab Conflict Rears Ugly Head at Olympics

8/12/2016 JONATHAN FELDSTEIN  CHARISMA NEWS

I hosted a Christian journalist recently. She wanted to visit a "settlement" to see for herself what life is like—to understand better the Jewish connection to biblical Judea and Samaria and actual life on the ground here in Israel.

What she learned, witnessed and took away is very different from that which is portrayed in the world media, and among those with anti-Israel agendas that delegitimize Israel's very existence. 

At the top of a hill overlooking the adjacent Arab village next to my neighborhood, so close that someone with a good arm could throw a baseball from one to the other, I noted how there was no wall, no fence, and that relations are good. This is because it's in their interest and because they know that, together, we both thrive. They don't want a barrier. If there were to be one, they'd want to be on our side of it.

I shared how until the beginning of the second intifada in 2000, Palestinian Arab kids used to walk across the rock strewn hill between our communities to play soccer with the Jewish Israeli kids of our town. (Full disclosure: I never witnessed that, but was told first hand by numerous others who did.) But I did witness my oldest son playing soccer in Jerusalem against other teams, including a really good Arab team, coached by a legendary former member of Israel's national soccer team. Maybe Israeli Jews and Arabs don't get along all the time, and more so for our Palestinian Arab neighbors, but we do get along much of the time. Sometimes sports can be a means through which to do so.

Sadly, at the global sporting event that's so significant it's only held every four years and supposed to be the penultimate model of sportsmanlike conduct, a code of behavior that extends beyond the field, any sense of Arabs and Jews getting along is the exception to the rule. While most famous was the 1972 slaying of 11 Israeli athletes in Munich, recognized by the International Olympic Committee for the first time this year in Rio, this year's Olympics have been tarred with Arab unsportsmanlike conduct that we've grown to expect. When it comes to Israel and sports, for most Arab neighbors it's still no holds barred.

As the festivities were about to begin this year, literally with athletes on the way to the opening ceremony, members of the Lebanese team refused to travel on the same bus as Israeli athletes, with some physically attempting to block the Israelis from boarding the vehicle.

"I kept on insisting that we board the bus and said that the Lebanese ... are welcome to leave," Udi Gal, Israel's sailing trainer, reported on Facebook. "The driver opened the door, but ... the head of the Lebanese delegation blocked the aisle and entrance. The organizers wanted to avoid an international and physical incident and sent us away to a different bus."

While reported in June when it happened, in the spotlight of Rio and in the context of overall Arab unsportsmanlike conduct there, Syrian boxer Ala Ghasoun quit the world boxing championship, which was a precondition to qualify for the Olympics for refusing to compete against an Israeli. "I quit because my rival was Israeli, and I cannot shake his hand or compete against him while he represents a Zionist regime that kills the Syrian people," Ghasoun crowed. "If I fight against him, it would mean that I, as an athlete, and Syria, as a state, recognize the state of Israel."

Ghasoun added, "The decision to quit was not mine. It was made by the Syrian Sports Federation and by senior Syrian officials. It was a very difficult decision, because I have worked hard to participate in the championship. But I serve my homeland—my honor and my loyalty belong to Syria." He may not have gotten to fight as he trained, but he did deal a knock out to any sense of peaceful coexistence.

Early in the games, a Saudi athlete, Joud Fahmy, similarly forfeited her first-round judo match, in what Israeli media noted was a maneuver to avoid facing an Israeli judo fighter in the next round.

The Saudi team at least tried to mask their intent and not whitewash it in nationalistic pride or anti-Israel rhetoric. They tweeted that Fahmy had sustained injuries while training and was advised by medical staff not to compete was refuted by Israeli TV which reported that Fahmy was not hurt, but simply dropped out to avoid competing against the Israeli.

Though Saudi Arabia does not recognize Israel, an ex-Saudi general led a delegation to Jerusalem recently. Conciliatory moves like this create hope that normal ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia might not be far off. But in this case, the judoka cold have been a sharp shooter because all she did was shoot herself in the foot.

Another foul, but surely not the last, came from a tennis player from Tunis. Malek Jaziri was set to play Israeli Amir Weintraub in the Quarterfinal of ATP Challenger Tennis tournament in Tashkent. But he was sent an email barring him from playing. Tunisia's state news agency boasted that Jaziri received an official email stating, "you are ordered not to play against the Israeli player."

While Israel sported its largest delegation ever, with 47 athletes competing in 17 sports, the Palestinian Authority also fielded its largest delegation with six athletes. Controversy began early with one of their athletes making a series of slanderous claims that she couldn't train because of Israel. Claims of "immense training difficulties" by Palestinian Olympian Mary al-Atrash have rippled across the media over her apparent stretching of the truth.

In June, Reuters reported that the 22-year-old swimmer from Beit Sahour, near Bethlehem, didn't have an adequate pool in which to train. The truth is that she had several places near her hometown where she could have trained. For example, the Murad resort near Bethlehem boasts four Olympic-sized pools.

She could have trained in Jerusalem, but never applied for a permit to do so, as other Palestinian athletes have refused to do in the past. This made her specious claims all the more invalid, that rather than looking to Israel for help or using pools near her home, she chose to blame Israel for something that was a lie anyway, before even dipping her toe in the water.

Lest one think that bad behavior was limited to our Arab neighbors, let me share some "good" news. On opening night a friend in the U.S. noted NBC's lack of coverage of Israel in the opening ceremony. She wrote, "Was I the only one who noticed that almost every country had some combination of intro, map, population, number of athletes, flag bearer's name, and any exciting potential medalists ... oh yeah, every country but Israel! For Israel there was nothing. Israel enters the stadium ... followed by nothing ... less than four seconds and immediately the next country."

The Olympics are still going on, so if you missed these, stay tuned, there's still time for more. However, if an athlete from another country cannot even compete in the same sport as an Israeli without it creating an international incident, there's little hope that we'll be able to reach any kind of long term peaceful coexistence where the pattern of blaming and isolating Israel for all their problems won't just continue. We pray that it will change, but I am not holding my breath, underwater or not. 

Jonathan Feldstein was born and educated in the U.S. and immigrated to Israel in 2004. He is married and the father of six. Throughout his life and career, he has been blessed by the calling to fellowship with Christian supporters of Israel and shares experiences of living as an Orthodox Jew in Israel. He writes a regular column for charismanews.com's Standing With Israel. He can be reached at firstpersonisrael@gmail.com.

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Unbroken: POW Set to Capture Hearts on Big Screen

Louis Zamperini with Billy Graham

Unbroken: POW Set to Capture Hearts on Big Screen

By Efrem Graham

News Anchor & Reporter

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

NEW YORK CITY -- Louis Zamperini'sincredible story of courage has captured hearts and minds around the world. The Olympian and former prisoner of war shared his faith on The 700 Club and in his biography, Unbroken which became a bestseller.

Zamperini's remarkable life story is now hitting the big screen in time Christmas, and just five months after the 97-year-old WWII veteran died of pneumonia.

Hollywood heavyweight Angelina Jolie directed the epic drama.

"What we tried to do was the themes of Louis's story; we would put into this dramatic period of his life, but make sure all of the themes were present," Jolie told CBN News.

Survival, resilience, and redemption are themes Jolie aimed to capture in the film that takes viewers on a journey from Zamperini's troubled childhood to his Olympic journey to his time as a soldier.

During his time in the military, Zamperini's plane crashed and left him stranded him for 47 days on a raft in the Pacific. Following that time, he became a prisoner of war when the Japanese Navy captured him.

He then faced years of unspeakable torture.

British actor Jack O'Connell plays the role of Zamperini in the film. O'Connell spoke with CBN News about how he prepared for the role.

"I just had to know him. I felt like I had to at least connect with him once. And the rest was the result of Laura Hillenbrand's very informative book," O'Connell said.

"And so I wasn't short of resources," he continued. "And Angelina knew him. So, she was able to constantly refer back to the man himself. And we could make decisions based on whether that was Louis or wasn't Louis basically."

Hints of Faith

"Unbroken" is an adaptation of Laura Hillenbrand's best-selling book of the same name.

But Jolie ends her cinema story with Zamperini's return home at the end of the war. That was a year before the war hero became an alcoholic and before he met a then-popular young evangelist, Rev. Billy Graham.

Still, Jolie hints at Zamperini's faith in the film.

"That is what we tried to get into the film. We wanted people to understand that it is not that you suddenly realize there is something beyond you in the world," Jolie told CBN News.

"That man is not alone is something we wanted to say from early on in the raft to the prison camp, that there is this, whatever your faith, there is something there," she added. "And whether you choose to see it is your choice and when you come to it and when you feel it, it is there for you."

"And so, it was very important to us that sometimes in the mother praying, sometimes in the sunrise, there is always what we would refer to as the light in the film," she said.

Unbroken Spirit

There is also darkness in the film.

Jolie tapped Japanese singer and guitarist Takamasa Ishihara, whose stage name is Miyavi, to play Mutsushiro Watanabe. Watanabe was also known as "Birdman" and he made it his mission to break Zamperini's spirit.

Miyavi had to learn English for this intense role, which was also his acting debut.

"Actually I was so nervous and hesitant to tackle this role," Miyavi told CBN News. "But I met Angelina in Tokyo and she said she wanted to make a creation that could be a bridge between America and Japan, countries that have had similar issues in conflict."

"So, even as Japanese I was scared, but I thought it was really meaningful," he explained. "It is not about the war. It's not about the conflict between America and Japan. It's about forgiveness and an unbroken spirit."

Jolie: 'He Inspired Me'

Zamperini met the cast before Jolie wrapped production of the film in in February. He also saw the film before he died.

Angelina showed it to him on her computer. It's a film and a relationship that deeply touched the Academy Award-winning actress.

"It made me, it made me a better person," Jolie told CBN News. "It reminded me, re-inspired me in my faith in the human spirit and the power of brotherhood and love and family and faith that we often, many people don't lean on enough in life, and we often lose and forget that it is there."

"And in Louis' story, I think and we hope that when people leave the theater, they hold themselves a little higher," she said. "And they face their next challenge with a little more strength."

Watch CBN interview: Unbroken

Olympics - Holocaust on Ice for Russian Yulia?

Holocaust on Ice

Thursday, February 13, 2014 |  David Lazarus  ISRAEL TODAY

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This week Russia won their first gold medal in the 2014 Winter Olympics with a performance by Yulia Lipnitskaia, the 15-year-old figure skater who performed to a Holocaust theme. A lot of criticism has followed the young skater for using the theme from “Schindler’s List” in a figure skating competition. But is it wrong to use a Holocaust theme in a sporting event?

This was not the first time Steven Spielberg’s film on the Holocaust has been reenacted in a figure skating performance. Katarina Witt first skated to the John William’s theme to “Schindler’s List” in 1994. At the time, Spielberg himself was so moved by the performance that he went out of his way to express appreciation to Witt. It is especially noteworthy that Witt is German.

Like Witt, the 15-year-old Lipnitskaia also skated wearing a red dress in memorial to the little girl in Spielberg’s film. In the award winning film, Oscar Schindler watches intently as a little blonde Polish Jewish girl rambles about the ghetto streets among the horrors. She is wearing a red dress, the only splash of color in the black and white movie. It is the red dress that makes the little girl stand out so vividly in the film, as it does in the mind of Oskar Schindler. The little girl so touches Schindler and fills him with remorse that he is compelled to find a way to save as many Jews as he can.

Lipnitskaia’s routine was choreographed by Ilia Averbukh, a former Olympic ice dancing medalist who is a Russian Jew. Her artistic reenactment of the film on figure skates is especially effective because she is so close in age to the Little Girl in the Red Dress. Yet even more so as the petite 15-year-old Lipnitskaia’s movements on ice make her performance seem effortless, like a child at play.

Why would anyone criticize such a young teenage girl reminding us again in such an artful and compelling way of the horrors of the greatest tragedy in modern times, if not in all of human history? The world has yet to internalize our need to learn from history. We must continue to use any medium that helps us “never forget” the Holocaust whether in museums, films, books or dance. We should be very thankful for young people who are still so moved by the heartbreak of the Holocaust that they are willing to explore new and creative ways of helping all of us to cry out “never again.”

Watch the routine as Lipnitskaia performed it at the European Figure Skating Championships and the Girl in Red from Schindler’s List: 

Israel Today: Holocaust on Ice

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Get the Gold! - Now Think On This (Steve Martin)

“Get the Gold!”

“Don’t hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it’s safe from moth and rust and burglars. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.” (Matt. 6:19-21, The Message)

I love the Olympics! Be it the winter or summer games, I enjoy watching all the nations’ athletes walk in for the opening ceremonies, all dressed in their colorful and smartly dressed uniforms (as my Brit friends would say) and cultural garments, waving their flags and their hands to the crowd, as they proudly represent their countries. It is a great sight of unity among the people, and the hosting country always puts on a fascinating show. Russians, Chinese, Americans, Europeans, Asians and more have all hosted the grand celebration of completion among athletes. I commend them for it.

It amazes me each time a new country is represented that I have never even heard of, or a country is in the games for the first time. Especially the lone athlete carrying his flag by him or herself. I hope they do well and make new friends. They certainly have worked hard to get there too.

Training and coming together through teamwork, in preparation for the honor of their country and their sport, has been the foundation built on for the competition. It certainly brings out the best. The goal of standing on the podium after their event is completed, holding onto the precious metal of gold, silver or bronze is a grand sight, as their home flag is lifted and their national anthem is played.

As a former athlete myself, in middle and high school, I understand a measure of the effort it certainly takes for these competing. To spend hours, days, months and even years preparing; and then to give it all you have at that specific moment in time, when you have a few minutes to excel in an individual event, or as your teams goes through the bracket toward the championship game, is quite the effort. May they all do well, and accomplish their heart’s desire.

I am chasing gold too. Mine isn’t made up of the earthly metal, but it is being stored up as an eternal reward, to fit on my head as a crown. The King Himself, Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus Christ) will be giving them out. And then we will participate in the Marriage Supper of the Lamb ceremony too. That will indeed be a "crowning moment" for those who have received His salvation through His shed blood. It will be a joyous occasion, as much perseverance and running the race He has given us while in our human body has been accomplished. I look forward to sharing that eternal time with those I have walked with, and those who I will meet for the first time.

While our time remains here on this planet, our hearts are to be set on stockpiling treasure in heaven, as The Message Bible puts it in terms we certainly understand. Laying up those crowns prepared for those who have followed in His plans and purposes will be the award, along with the eternal realm of heaven itself. This is not just a dream or fairy tale, but it is reality. Our labors here on earth are to be for eternal, not just temporal, achievements. My heart and yours must be set on that purpose.

Enjoy the Olympics as you can. Celebrate with the victors as they raise their hands and winning metals in triumph, knowing that your reward, being stored up in heaven, is a treasure worth living for in this time we have been given. This too is a shadow of things yet to come, for those who know the Lord Jesus.

Now think on this,

Steve Martin

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Jerusalem of Gold: Jewish-American medalist Aly Raisman accepts invite to Israel

Jerusalem of Gold: Raisman accepts invite to Israel

By GIL HOFFMAN

08/10/2012

Exclusive: Jewish-American medalist Aly Raisman tells minister she and her family will make their first Israel visit.

Photo: reuters

When American sports superstars celebrate victory, they traditionally go to Disneyland. But gold-medal winning gymnast Aly Raisman will celebrate in Jerusalem after she told Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein on Friday that she would accept his invitation to her and her family to make their first visit to Israel.

In a phone conversation facilitated by US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro, Raisman told Edelstein that she was really happy to be invited and she would decide with her family when would be the best time to come.

Raisman, 18, became a household name worldwide last week when she performed her floor routine to the tune of “Hava Nagila,” making her the first US woman to win gold in that event. She won another gold medal for the performance of the US women’s gymnastics team she captained and a bronze in the balance-beam competition.

When asked why she chose to perform to “Hava Nagila,” she said she was proud to be Jewish and she wanted to represent her heritage at the Olympics. She said that while she did not choose the song in honor of the 11 Israeli sportsmen who were murdered at the Munich Olympics in 1972, she dedicated her medals to them and she would have stood for a moment of silence in their memory had the International Olympic Committee accepted requests for such a gesture.

“Having that floor music wasn’t intentional,” Raisman said in a New York Post cover story under the banner headline “Star of David.”

“The fact it was on the 40th anniversary is special, and winning the gold today means a lot to me. If there had been a moment’s silence, I would have supported it and respected it.”


Edelstein wrote Raisman an impassioned letter congratulating her for her victories and for giving Americans yet another reason to be proud. In the letter, which was obtained exclusively by The Jerusalem Post, Edelstein said Israelis were moved by her performance and her recent statements.

“I am sure you know that beyond your wonderful personal achievement, you also brought great pride to millions of Jews in Israel and around the world,” Edelstein wrote. “For me personally, as the minister in charge of relations with Diaspora Jewry, hearing why you chose the song made me realize that the concept of Kol Israel Arevim Zeh Lazeh [All Jews are responsible for one another] still holds true and that the Jewish people remain united no matter how far apart we may live. I was impressed that someone so young made such a monumental, ethical decision.”

Edelstein invited not only the 18-year-old gymnast, but also her parents, Lynn and Rick, her younger siblings Brett, Chloe, and Madison, as his guests.

“Making your first visit to Israel is not only important because it is the homeland of the Jewish people but also because you can contribute from your experience to the young generation of Israeli athletes,” wrote Edelstein, who has won international competitions in boxing and table tennis.
There have been calls from Israeli politicians this week to do more to prepare the country’s athletes for international competitions.

Culture and Sports Minister Limor Livnat announced Wednesday that she would appoint a team of experts to examine why Israel did not win a medal for the first time in a Summer Olympics since Seoul in 1988.

Edelstein’s ministry was in touch with the US Embassy in Tel Aviv and Raisman’s synagogue in Newton, Massachusetts, to make sure she received the invitation.

US Ambassador Dan Shapiro tweeted congratulations to Raisman in Hebrew.“I am so proud of the American gymnast Aly Raisman,” Shapiro wrote. “She won the floor exercise and immediately dedicated her medal to the Israelis murdered in Munich. What an impressive decision.”

Raisman’s rabbi, Keith Stern of the Reform Temple Beth Avodah, said her family was not particularly observant, but very proudly Jewish.

“I’ve known Aly since she started pre-school here at my temple,” Stern told The Jerusalem Post. “She has always been a sweet, kind, dedicated girl. To see her dancing and tumbling to “Hava Nagila“ was overwhelming.

That a young Jewish-American girl would proudly and yes, courageously perform to what even most non-Jews know to be an Israeli folk song on the international stage was inspiring. That she did it 40 years after Munich is a proclamation of Jewish strength and pride and determination. I will never forget it.”

http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishNews/Article.aspx?id=280808

BBC lists Israel's capital as J'lem after complaint

BBC lists Israel's capital as J'lem after complaint

By JPOST.COM STAFF

07/19/2012

No capital had been listed on BBC's Israel Olympic country profile; East Jerusalem listed as "intended" seat for Palestine.

Photo: Reuters

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's spokesman Mark Regev sent a letter to the Director of the BBC's Bureau in Israel, Paul Danahar on Thursday after the BBC Sport page failed to identify Israel's capital city as Jerusalem.

Until Wednesday afternoon, the page offering information about the Palestinian Olympic team referred to its capital as 'East Jerusalem', but the equivalent page for Israel made no mention of a capital city at all.

In the letter, Regev commented that he is "dismayed by the BBC's decision to discriminate against Israel".

 

The letter has been shared on Facebook over 400 times.

One member commented: "I am shocked, shocked that the UK does not treat Israel as a sovereign nation".

As a result of the controversy, the BBC added Jerusalem to Israel's country profile on Thursday afternoon, informing browsers that the "seat of government is Jerusalem" adding a disclaimer that "most foreign embassies reside in Tel Aviv."

Likewise, the Palestinian page stated that its “intended seat of government is East Jerusalem. Ramallah serves as [the] administrative capital.”



http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=278181