more on the “claim to witchcraft” ban

Bains sent a follow-up message that I’m having a hard time pasting, so I will summarize. The timeline here is interesting.

In 1735, the ban on witchcraft was changed to a ban on claiming to practice witchcraft. The fear of actual witchcraft was changed to a fear of “vagrants and con artists” who might try to cheat the gullible with false claims to supernatural power.

Britain repealed even this law in 1951. But bizarrely, it is still in effect in Israel, which inherited the law from the British Mandate over Palestine and never got around to repealing it.