Evangelicals invest $40m. In Aliya (But it is the Christian & Muslim Arabs That Suffer)

By ETGAR LEFKOVITS, Jerusalem Post, Oct. 10, 2006

A Jerusalem-based Evangelical Christian organization announced Tuesday that it had assisted 100,000 Jewish immigrants to move to Israel over the last decade and a half.

The International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem said that it had invested $40 million in the immigration project, which has focused on Jews from the former Soviet Union, since its inception in 1989.

The pro-Israel group, which is best known for its sponsorship of the annual Feast of the Tabernacles celebrations taking place this week in Jerusalem, said that the immigration assistance was provided in coordination with the Jewish Agency, the quasi-governmental agency that works to promote immigration.

"It is quite remarkable that over the last 16 years the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, with much hard work and commitment throughout the vast former Soviet Union and many other regions in the world, has been able to assist 100,000 Jewish people to return to the land of their forefathers and to the glory of Zion," said Rev. Malcolm Hedding, Executive Director of the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem.

Among other things, the group's "aliya network" sponsored 54 aircraft to bring Jews to Israel from the former Soviet Union, with the majority of the immigrants assisted by the organization brought to Israel from St. Petersburg via Finland, Hedding said. The group said that it was also involved in assisting Jewish immigration from Kaliningrad, Ukraine and Uzbekistan, and has most recently been asked by the Jewish Agency to reach out to Russian-speaking Jews who moved to Germany after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Over one million Russian Jews have immigrated to Israel since 1989.

The major channel of Christian support for Jewish immigration comes from the Chicago-based International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, which provides the Jewish Agency with about $10 million a year for Jewish immigration, while various other Christian Evangelical groups, such as the International Christian Embassy, are also involved in promoting Jewish immigration, Jewish Agency spokesman Michael Jankelowitz said.

The Christian support represents 2.5 percent of the Jewish Agency's total budget.

Decades of Christian Evangelical support for Jewish immigration has hit all time high over the last decade and a half since the fall of the Iron Curtain, he added.

The support stems from their hardcore Bible-beliefs that the return of the Jews to the Holy Land is foretold in the Scriptures, and heralds the return of the messiah.

The organization's announcement about its involvement in Jewish immigration to Israel at a Jerusalem press conference came as it was hosting nearly 5,000 Evangelical Christians from 80 countries around the world for the week-long Feast of the Tabernacles celebration.

The 27th annual event is expected to pump $15 million into the Israeli economy, in what has been billed as the single largest tourism event of the year.

The highlight of the festive events was a colorful march through the streets of downtown Jerusalem Tuesday afternoon.

The march, which has become something of a Jerusalem tradition, was attended by thousands of flag-waving staunchly pro-Israel pilgrims, with the largest group coming from Norway.

This year's festivities comes as Israel is trying to recover from a 40% slump in foreign visitors following this summer's month-long war in Lebanon.
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Its nice that these Evangelical organizations are helping people all around the world, fulfil their dreams of achieving their Aliya and settle in Israel, but what about the Palestinian Arabs (this includes Christian Arabs) who were born in the old Palestine but forced out of the country? Shouldn’t these groups also be looking after their interests?

Most of the Jewish immigrants do not have any links to Israel (other than spiritual) but nor do some of their forefathers, but does this give them the right to settle in Israel at the expense of the Palestinian Muslims and Christians who were born and bought up there? Israel should be for everyone, regardless of his or her religion.

Earlier this year, the Vatican's envoy in the Holy Land and bishops from three other churches launched a rare attack on the Christian Zionist movement, accusing it of promoting "racial exclusivity and perpetual war."

"The Christian Zionist program provides a world view where the Gospel is identified with the ideology of empire, colonialism and militarism," a declaration read.

A 1990 study conducted by Dr. Bernard Sabella, Assistant Professor of Social Studies at the University of Bethlehem, shows that 714,000 Palestinians were forced to leave their homes in 1948, other sources speak of 750,000 including 50,000 Christians. "These Christian refugees were 7 per cent of the total refugees and 35 per cent of the total number of Christians who lived in Palestine prior to May 15, 1948."

The recent war in Lebanon, where Hezbullah was bombing the northern Israeli city of Haifa once had of population of 75,000 Jews 61,000 made up of Muslim And Christian Arabs, but after the creation of Israel only 3,566 Palestinians (Christian & Muslim) were allowed to stay, the rest were forced off their homes (many forced to move to the Lebanon & Syria, and a few scattered across Israel).

Christians and Muslims were prohibited from building, adding onto their property or repairing their buildings. This happened in Jaffa, Haifa, Akko, Nazareth after 1948. The same happened after 1967 to Palestinians in Jerusalem and other cities or villages in the West Bank. The amount of land controlled by Christians or Christian institutions in Jerusalem has also fallen since the Zionist took control.

Muslim and Christian alike are mistreated by Israel on social, economic, educational and religious levels.

Fr. Abuna Elias Chacour, a Palestinian archbishop, wrote in his books, Blood Brothers details of two Christian Villages Ikrit and Birim near the northern borders of Israel that were destroyed by the Israelis for no other reason than to clear the land of its inhabitants.

He also said in a recent interview “When we heard the Jews were coming, we prepared a banquet for them. We gave them our beds to use, and only ten days later they deported us, and we are still deportees, while our homes and land were turned into wasteland.

So what is the solution?
The evangelical Christians are clearly disrupting any chance of peace in the region by favouring Jewish settlement to fulfil their religious duties, and at the same time the Zionists are using biblical terms to rally pro evangelical/ pro American support.

According to Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, ex-director of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, said many Evangelicals make donations in keeping with the Christian tradition of tithing, based on Genesis 12, verse 3, where God tells Abraham: "And I will bless those who bless you."

Professor Abe W. Ata (a Christian Palestinian academic) said: “The Holy Land was promised to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their descendants, as stated in the Bible. These are the Palestinian Muslims, Christians, and Jews, who have been living in the land for thousands of years. The Bible never mentioned that God promised it solely to Jews. Anyone can be a Jew, but not anyone can be a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their descendants. Many people are unable to tell the difference between a Jew, Israelite, and Israel.”

Fr. Chacour summarises it perfectly "Either we stop claiming we are children of Abraham, or we act as brothers and try to reconcile."


Useful Readings:
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Dr. FR. Labib Kobti: Israel: The Land and People: A Palestinian Christian Perspective
Abe W. Ata: Palestinian Christians: persecuted, betrayed, forced out of their homes and sacrificed
Zionism - Definition and Early History
Neturi Karta International: Jews United Against Zionism
BBC: Why leave the UK for this?
Jon Zens: Today's Israel: Is God On Her Side?
Google Video: Peace, Propaganda & The Promised Land
Palestinians Remembered: Welcome to Haifa - Statistics
What really Happened Website: Hate Speech used by Zionist Leaders of Israel