Iranian media claims a rabbi was jailed in Israel for his anti-Zionist views. It is completely and hilariously wrong.

From the front page of Iran's PressTV:

Israeli police have detained Rabbi Abraham Katz, a prominent anti-Zionist figure from New York, for over two months under a non-departure order, demonstrating the Benjamin Netanyahu regime's hostility toward everyone opposed to their genocidal war crimes. 

Rabbi Katz, a citizen of both the United States and Canada, has been languishing behind bars for his pro-Palestine and anti-genocide activism in the occupied Palestinian territories. 

Many prominent Jewish organizations around the world have urged the US and Canadian governments to intervene and pressure the Tel Aviv regime to release Rabbi Katz.

Well, besides that Rabbi Katz is not "behind bars," and Israel hasn't showed any interest in his anti-Zionist opinions, and no prominent Jewish groups have urged any intervention, sure, this is accurate.

Here' what really happened:

A man in the United States has been refusing to give his wife a religious divorce for ten years, which means that she is an "agunah," or "chained" to him - she cannot marry anyone else. The man then used a sketchy loophole, apparently under false pretenses, to get a dispensation to marry a second wife under Jewish law. Rabbis that signed that dispensation have since retracted their signatures. 

Nevertheless, the man then did marry a second wife, and Rabbi Avraham Katz participated in the ceremony (according to his supporters, he was honored by reading the ketubah; he did not officiate.)

When Katz visited Israel, the wife's supporters petitioned the government not to allow him to leave the country, in an effort to help pressure the husband to issue the divorce. 

In November, Katz tried to leave Israel and was stopped by police and then placed under house arrest. He is not "behind bars," and in fact he spent this past Shabbat in Tiberias. 

Meanwhile, the Satmar Rebbe - who is famously anti-Zionist - issued a proclamation to excommunicate the husband in his community of Monroe, NY, after the husband promised and then reneged on his promise to issue the divorce. The husband then fled to another community. 

It is just a small example of how Iranian and Arab media - not to mention Neturei Karta and other anti-Zionists - will take a grain of truth and build an edifice of lies around it. 

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