JERUSALEM, Israel: In a transfer being praised by many Christian leaders, the federal government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lately introduced the appointment of a brand new place of envoy to the Christian world — with the aim of higher and smoother relations with the Christian world.
In an unique interview in Jerusalem, Ambassador George Deek informed Fox Information Digital the significance the Netanyahu authorities has placed on his place.
“We see the ethnic cleaning of the area from its Christians, who’ve been diminished from 20% of the inhabitants of the Center East to lower than 2% of the inhabitants at present,” Deek mentioned. “All these locations that used to have thriving Christian communities at present have been decreased to nothing.”
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Israel counts 300 church buildings, double the quantity in 1948, whereas its Christian inhabitants has grown from 34,000 in 1948 to greater than 180,000 at present.
Deek mentioned of his function. “My hope is to additionally be capable to construct robust bridges between the State of Israel and Christian leaders… by telling a fuller story of the State of Israel, which I believe is missed in many of the narratives we hear at present on the planet,” he mentioned.
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In response to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, as of December 2025, Israel’s Christian inhabitants stood at roughly 184,200, representing 1.9% of the nation’s whole inhabitants. The group grew by 0.7% over the earlier 12 months.
Deek, who served for six years as Israel’s ambassador to Azerbaijan earlier than assuming his present function, mentioned most individuals know Israel solely by its Jewish identification and are unaware of the complexity and variety of Israeli society.
Deek mentioned the choice introduced by the International Ministry in April to nominate him to the function stems from three components: first, the particular connection between Christians and the land of Israel because the birthplace of Christianity.
Christian pilgrims carrying picket crosses stroll by Jerusalem’s Outdated Metropolis towards the Church of the Holy Sepulchre through the Orthodox Good Friday procession on Could 3, 2024.
(Getty Photographs)
Second is the deep historic bond mirrored within the church buildings of the Holy Land and in Christians and Jews residing below shared biblical values, from which they derive societal ideas together with democracy, individualism, and freedom of conscience and thought.
Third is the significance Israel locations on relations with individuals of all denominations and religions.
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“It has a particular relationship with the Christian individuals overseas and the Christian group in Israel, which is the one Christian group in your complete Center East that’s truly rising in numbers and mainly thriving as a part of Israeli society,” Deek mentioned.
“As the one nation to nominate a particular envoy to the Christian world, Israel has indicated its deep appreciation for Christian assist and its long-term curiosity in guarding Christian-Jewish relations. That is particularly very important on this time of resurgent antisemitism spreading like wildfire within the poorly regulated digital sphere,” Worldwide Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) ‘s President Dr. Jürgen Bühler informed Fox Information Digital.
Israel’s northern metropolis of Nazareth and its Catholic Basilica of the Annunciation on Dec. 18, 2021.
The group has operated from Jerusalem for 46 years and maintains department places of work and representatives in 95 international locations, with a presence spanning roughly 185 nations worldwide.
It lately organized an emergency summit on antisemitism that introduced collectively greater than 200 theologians, pastors and ministry leaders from over 30 international locations in particular person, alongside roughly 3,000 members attending on-line.
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He says Israel has the potential to function each an inspiration and a accomplice throughout the area and past, serving to be sure that individuals can follow their religion freely and stay within the lands of their forefathers.
Nonetheless, Deek famous that in current months there have been a number of remoted incidents involving assaults on Christian symbols and, in a single case, an assault on a Christian nun.
“Greater than something, this was an assault on the values on which this nation is established—values of tolerance and acceptance — the place nobody has the precise to assault anybody or use violence towards anybody for any motive by any means, particularly not assault an emblem of Christianity, Islam or Judaism,” he mentioned.
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“That’s completely unacceptable and that’s the reason the management of the State of Israel, from the prime minister to the international minister and others, have all condemned it unequivocally and unanimously,” he added.
The Israeli soldier who desecrated a cross in southern Lebanon is in jail, as is the person who pushed a nun to the bottom and attacked her in Jerusalem. These circumstances, Deek mentioned, display that the State of Israel takes such incidents very severely and absolutely enforces the regulation.
Amid a surge in antisemitic incidents in Europe and elsewhere following the Hamas-led Oct. 7 bloodbath, Deek mentioned hate that begins with Jews by no means ends with Jews, and that the identical hate that drove out Jews from Arab international locations within the twentieth century has over the previous twenty years been directed towards different minorities within the area.
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“We see it even with Hamas pushing out the Christian inhabitants there, which has utterly disappeared from Gaza,” he added.
Inside this surroundings, Israel is the one place the place such minorities have been in a position to stay safely and follow their religion with out worry. Actually, they don’t merely survive within the State of Israel, they thrive, Deek mentioned.
The Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, Theophilos III, leads a ceremony as a part of the Orthodox Feast of the Epiphany on the Qasr al-Yahud baptismal web site close to Jericho on Jan. 18, 2025.
He nonetheless pointed to a well-oiled marketing campaign by forces on the woke left and proper, together with extremist Islamist teams, which might be manipulating the Christian religion and selling claims of what he says is the so-called mistreatment of Christians in Israel.
“I see it as a private mission to carry as many Christians as doable to go to the land of Israel, not as a political marketing campaign…. I need them to come back right here to hook up with their Bible. I need them to hook up with their Scripture, I need them to hook up with the roots of their values by merely going to these locations,” Deek mentioned.
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“And, below the safety of Israel because the guardian of the holy websites of Christianity… to reconnect to those values and to do not forget that these are the biblical values that join Jews, Christians and all of the individuals of the e book on this world,” he added.
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