OK, 1000 US Pastors and "Christian influencers" were invited to Israel for a shepherded tour to get their support. So many things wrong with this which even this atheist can see, but people who claim to know the Bible side with a nation which has been harassing Christians.
Bethlehem is in the occupied territories and these people would have seen the reality of the occupation instead of stage managed propaganda to get their support for very un-Biblical activity.
Standing with Israel in this season of death and destruction is neither heroic nor is it Biblical. Expressing solidarity with the Church in Gaza is since this community has been Christian since the beginning. This is the home of the Christian religion.
Al Jazeera recently quoted several Christians from Gaza as saying that they think the current war will be the death blow for their community in the Holy Land. Mitri Raheb, an Evangelical Lutheran pastor and founder of Dar al-Kalima University in Bethlehem, said it was conceivable that the current conflict would spell the end of its long history in this strip of land. “This community is under threat of extinction,” Raheb said. “I’m not sure if it will survive the Israeli bombing, and even if it survives, I think many will want to emigrate.”
“We know that within this generation, Christianity in Gaza will cease to exist. This is the home to the oldest and most significant church in Christian history.”
Presently, the Gazan Christian community is concentrated in Gaza City. The majority are autochthonous inhabitants and the rest are descendants of refugees from the 1948 Palestine war. As of 2025, they reportedly number around 1,000 individuals, less than 1% of the total population of the Gaza Strip. Israeli bombing during the Gaza war (2023–present) has put the community at risk of extinction.
As of 2015, Palestinian Christians comprise between 1% and 2.5% of the population of the West Bank, and about 3,000 (0.13%) of the population of the Gaza Strip. Many individuals of the Palestinian diaspora who identify as Christians are descendants of the post-1948 Palestinian Christian refugees who fled from the Arab–Israeli conflict and settled in Christian-majority countries.
1 Corinthians 12:25-27: And so there is no division in the body, but all its different parts have the same concern for one another. If one part of the body suffers, all the other parts suffer with it; if one part is praised, all the other parts share its happiness. All of you are Christ’s body, and each one is a part of it.
John 17:21-23 (the final prayer of our Lord Jesus): I pray that they may all be one. Father! May they be in us, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they be one, so that the world will believe that you sent me. I gave them the same glory you gave me, so that they may be one, just as you and I are one: I in them and you in me, so that they may be completely one, in order that the world may know that you sent me and that you love them as you love me.
Here's what these 1000 hypocrites look like:
May the truth shine brighter than the lies and deception.
This region is sacred to four world religions, and none of them should monopolise it or prohibit the practise of the other faiths.
And this from Husam Zomlot, Ambassador of the State of Palestine to the U.K. and Former Ambassador to the US.
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