Arena Peace Stadium in Jerusalem, and I step inside from one of the entrances and fall into a wonderful world. All around on the seats there is a huge and dense crowd. They sit in groups that sometimes look like one division of color, because there are groups whose members are dressed in uniform clothes. Each group also has flags, from all the nations of the world, and sometimes someone waves the flag of the country they come from, but each group in the audience also has Israeli flags. On the stage, in front of all this huge audience crowding the seats of the stadium, there are dozens of musicians, a podium and television cameras hovering above. I sit next to a group of dark-skinned people. I ask them where they came from. They are from Fiji. Not far from my seat there is a group from Nepal, one of them blows a long curled shofar during the cheers and applause that accompany this meeting. Not far from me there is a group from Finland.
They are all evangelists who came to Israel from all over the world to express their love for Israel and its ways. Evangelicals have been doing this for several years every Sukkot holiday. The corona interrupted this pilgrimage, and now they came again. In previous years, 5,000 arrived, while this time 2,200. The world has not yet returned to what it was, but they have arrived nonetheless.
There is a verse in the Bible in the book of Zechariah. This verse is very important to them, it is written like this: “And it came to pass that all the remnant of all the nations came to Jerusalem; And they went up from year to year to worship the King of the Lord of hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles” (Zechariah, 14, 16).
There is also a warning in the next verse: “And it shall come to pass that he who shall not come up from among the families of the earth, to Jerusalem, to bow down, to the King of the Lord of hosts–and not on them, let the rain be.”
They don’t come because of the fear of the warning, there is enough rain in most of the countries they come from, they come because they love us. Love for Israel is not usually reported in the media, not even when it comes to the love of over 500 million evangelicals around the world. I was the only Israeli journalist who came to see this conference in Jerusalem last Sukkot, but I also did not accompany the entire week and more that they were in Israel, not only in Jerusalem. They started in Kinneret, later they were also in localities surrounding Gaza to express support. In recent years, they have donated 140 mobile shelters and over 20 fire trucks to help Israelis in the Gaza Strip deal with the constant threat from Gaza. They also contribute throughout the year to finance the immigration of Jews from troubled countries to Israel. No one knew, no one heard.
The audience at Arena Peace in Jerusalem (Photo: Meir Uziel)I will tell a little of what is happening in the world and in Israel. I have been in contact for several years with the main organization of the evangelical communities, called “The International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem”, and I talk occasionally with the leaders of this organization – Jürgen Buhler and David Parsons. Of course I met them there as well, at Arena Peace in Jerusalem, and again I thanked them, at least with a handshake. I said that I thank you on behalf of all the people of Israel. Since you didn’t come, or significant Israeli leaders didn’t come there, I hope it’s okay that I included you in the thanks they deserve.
It should be noted that Jürgen Buhler was just a month earlier, in September 2022, in Basel, Switzerland, at an event to mark the 125th anniversary of the First Zionist Congress, and said there: “125 years after the First Zionist Congress, which was held in this very hall in 1897, the State of Israel was born in a miracle. I believe it can be said Today, those founding fathers of the State of Israel who met here in this hall 125 years ago, could not imagine what is happening today in the Land of Israel – that Israel has become a ‘Startup Nation’ and a leader in global research and development. We are here today to celebrate what God has done for the Jewish people , and also to confirm our position and our support for the Jewish state in the years to come.”
A personal thank you
Meanwhile, on stage in Jerusalem there is a musical program mixed with speeches. An evangelical priest (they are called a pastor, meaning a shepherd) from a Scandinavian country says: “If we don’t raise our voices and shout for the Jews and Israel, we are not allowed to sing our prayer hymns, our Gregorian chants, in the church.”
Next to me in the rows of the audience the shofar cheers again and again.
And here above the stage is a great gospel. A black singer sings. Finally, American gospel. A woman in the audience next to me sang the gospel with the singer on stage. Sarah sings beautifully and moves beautifully. She is from New York and she tells me: “I love God, I love Israel.”
Then a song in Norwegian, a woman in traditional Norwegian clothing sings about Israel, with a huge orchestra on stage behind her, and dancers with Israeli flags dancing below the stage, and the host announces: “86 countries have sent representatives here, and thousands of people in the world are now watching it live.”
Before the conference, in the reception hall that I am allowed to enter, I have the privilege of personally thanking a person I had only known through the news until now (and I was the only one who wrote about it in Israel here in “Maariv”). This is the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of South Africa. A black man who expressed his love for Israel and his support for Israel with rare courage in relation to South Africa, which is today ruled by a party that is hostile to Israel and supports the Palestinians. That way I also finally get to ask him how to pronounce his name. The name is Mohuen Mohuen. Actually: Mochoen Mochoen. When he declared his sympathy for the State of Israel (at a Jerusalem Post conference), it caused a scandal in South Africa and he was required to resign from his position, the highest position in the South African judicial system, or apologize. He was not afraid, and refused to apologize.
Judge Mochuan Mochuan in Jerusalem (Photo: Meir Uziel)“When you love, you overcome fears,” he told me, “that’s why I didn’t agree to kneel and I wasn’t willing to go back. Even though 50 million people demanded it, I couldn’t go back on my love for Israel, unless I was ready to stop From being a Christian. If I am a Christian, I must not go back on my side of Israel.”
At the end of the struggle, he is no longer the president of the Supreme Court. He retired (also because he reached retirement age). A court ruling required him to apologize publicly, he agreed to do so only in a letter, and only because he respects the law. He was later cleared of any wrongdoing by the South African court. “I was purged. Initially they claimed that, as a Supreme Court judge, I was criticizing South Africa’s policy towards Israel, which is a forbidden act for a senior judge like me. I proved that there is no such anti-Israel policy in an official law or in any other official way,” he said.
Now I am standing in front of him in Jerusalem, but there are no distinguished representatives from me, not even from the world of Israeli law, to express my appreciation to him. He tells me that on the side of criticism, he also received a lot of support. “There was tremendous support in my country and throughout the world. I did not yet know the ‘International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem’ at the time. Now with their help I came here, to Jerusalem.” He also gives a small speech to those gathered in the reception room.
At the reception, an Israeli also speaks, the spokesperson for the lobby for contact with the evangelicals from the Knesset: “Thanks to you, it is forbidden in many countries in the world to boycott Israel,” he says.
In the hall itself, in front of thousands of Zionist Christians, there is finally a speech by official Israel as well. The one who came to bless is Sharan Hashakal, a member of the Knesset. She says: “We created the only democracy in the Middle East. Light in the darkness of the Middle East. Christians are persecuted in the Middle East, but not in Israel. In Israel they are protected. The last few days in Iran show us how much this is not obvious.” She adds: “Your support is important and vital to us. Look at us, we are the proof that the prophecies of the Bible are true,” and reminds us that we, Jews, are not allowed to pray on the Temple Mount.
She also thanks the moral South African judge, then she asks the people in the audience to lobby all their countries for the women in Iran. demand sanctions on Iran. She even symbolically cut her hair for the women of Iran. I also sympathize with the oppressed of Iran, but I think to myself: too much talk about Iran. It was a week where a soldier was killed and a female soldier was killed. I wrote to myself: “Who told you that those released in Iran will not be part of the destroyers of Israel?”
12 languages
The hall is overflowing with love for Israel that it is impossible not to be emotionally overwhelmed by it yourself, even if you are a journalist who just came to see what is happening in the world and to tell about it to the readers who have no one to tell them about such things in Israel.
It’s their third day in Israel, everyone shouts hallelujah as if they just arrived. Some come from countries that have no relations with Israel, and some are exiles from their countries in evangelical communities outside dangerous countries.
The moderator lists the names of the countries, and they send a representative with a flag from the seats in the stadium to the front of the stage. I register and I hope I didn’t miss a country: Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, New Zealand, Samoa, United States, Canada, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanganyika, Zambia, Norway, United Kingdom, Germany, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina , Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Ireland and Northern Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, Macedonia, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, China , Japan, Hong Kong, India, Iran (Iranian exile), Iraq, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Nepal and more. Next to the team from Nepal with the special Nepali flag among world flags because it is not a cloth rectangle, but two cloth triangles.
When all the representatives of each group with all the flags are standing in the square, covering each other with many flags, the moderator shouts: “And which flag is missing?” The audience asks: “Israel”, then a man runs with a large Israeli flag on a pole and stands in front of all the flags of the nations and waves it, and the audience cheers. I feel uncomfortable with love. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.
The moderator explains that the event is simultaneously translated into 12 languages. The interpreters sit in cubicles above the hall, and there are other online translators. A total of 23 translation teams. The moderator says: “All the translators into Russian are Israelis”, and the whole audience cheers again, as they do every time the name of Israel is mentioned.
It was this year. It was the same in previous years. Next year, many thousands more will come again, with great effort and at their own expense. We are drowning in love.
If I could, I would get up and walk past all the chairs in this huge stadium, and shake the hand of each of these men and women, who came from all over the world, and say to each of them: “Thank you.” And emphasizes to each of them how important their love for Israel is to me, how much I appreciate it. I said this to three or five or 20 people around me and no more. If the evangelical institutions help me convey these words that are written here in the newspaper to each of the participants, I would be happy. However, this is not at all sufficient or satisfactory.
I would like at least 2,200 Israelis to enter the hall, pass by and shake the hands of each of these 2,200 Zionist Christians who love Israel, who made a huge personal effort and came to Israel to express their love for us and their admiration for the country that the Jews built in this land of our ancestors.