Prime Minister Naftali Bennett reaffirmed the “uncompromising” relationship between Christian Zionists and Israel in an address Monday that kicked off the 42nd annual Feast of Tabernacles celebration from Jerusalem.
For the second year in a row, the event, which has historically drawn some 6,000 Christians to Israel from dozens of nations around the world, is being managed virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In 2019, there were 16 Egyptians who came for the feast, marking the first time Evangelical Christians from an Arab Middle Eastern country participated.
In general, delegates have come for the holiday from exotic islands such as Samoa and Fiji, and from Taiwan, China and Africa, and everywhere in between. The economic impact on Israel of the event is between $18 million and $20m, according to the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem.
“Your love for Israel is legendary,” Bennett said in his video address to hundreds of thousands of Christian viewers. “Your passion for Israel is an uncompromising statement of support for the Jewish state, for its people and for our destiny.
“Your devotion to Israel is not only a blessing for us,” he continued, “but it has helped us sustain our situation during the most trying times, including wars. You rejoice in Israel’s many triumphs, and you stand with us side-by-side when we most need it.”
This year the feast features eight days of broadcasts from important sites around the Land of Israel to a global television and online audience of Christians.
The Feast of Tabernacles is a program of the ICEJ, considered the world’s largest pro-Israel Christian ministry. It has branches in 90 countries and supporters in more than 170.
While top officials, including previous prime ministers and presidents, have addressed the feast, this is the first time that Bennett’s government has had such an opportunity. According to the ICEJ, more senior Israeli cabinet ministers are addressing the feast this year than in previous ones, showing that “the Bennett-Lapid government indeed understands and values the importance of Christian support for the Jewish state and people,” ICEJ president Dr. Jürgen Bühler said.
Foreign Minister Yair Lapid used the opportunity to address the importance of maintaining Israel as “the land we call home.”
“This is also a time to celebrate the land we live on, the land we wandered through the desert to reach, the land we work, the land we built, the land we call home,” he said.
“Sukkot, as you know, is one of the three pilgrimage festivals when the Jewish people would make their way to the holy Temple, to Jerusalem, to the city that stands as the beating heart of our land and of our people.”
President Isaac Herzog, who has proactively engaged with the Christian community throughout most of his career, recalled the ways in which Christian Zionists are helping the country: from tourism to social welfare and from assisting with immigration from around the world to assisting in the absorption of new immigrants.
“You helped our sisters and brothers from the four corners of the Earth to establish [their] homes in the Holy Land,” he said, and “spread the good name of Israel amongst the nations.”
He called the event a “feast of hope.”
Bühler said he was “especially excited about the new Israeli government’s outreach to the Christian world through our feast” and that “the Bennett-Lapid government indeed understands and values the importance of Christian support for the Jewish state and people.”
The event was held on the eve of the Sukkot, because it is a holiday to which many Christians feel a connection. The Book of the Prophet Zecharia, which is read on Sukkot, describes a time when people from all the nations of the world come to the Holy City and celebrate and pray together at the foot of the Temple Mount.
“In the Torah,” Defense Minister Benny Gantz explained, “it is written that the roots of humankind are based on 70 nations. During the time of the Temple, it was tradition to dedicate Sukkot prayers to each nation. People prayed for light to the whole world.
“Today, I would like to do the same,” he continued. “At a time when the world deals with the global pandemic and so many security challenges, I would like to dedicate the prayers of Sukkot for light, healing and peace.”