Why US Evangelicals volunteer in Israel's bloody war on besieged Gaza

When Shawn Landis, an evangelical Christian from Pennsylvania, heard about the October 7 Hamas blitz on southern Israel, he was one of the first to come to Israel to volunteer. Five months later, he was preparing meals for invading Israeli soldiers.

Evangelicals have been among Israel's fiercest foreign mercenaries for years, particularly in the United States, where their significant political influence has helped shape the Israel policy of recent Republican administrations.

They believe Israel is key to an end-times prophecy that will bring about the return of the Christian Messiah. Many of these Christians support Israel due to Old Testament writings that Jews are God's chosen people and that Israel is their rightful homeland.

"In the Scripture, it instructs us to support Israel, and sometimes the best time to support someone is when they’re grieving," said Landis, who has been on four previous faith-based trips to Israel. "Friendship is not just about being there for the good times, it’s also about the rough times."

Landis is part of a wave of religious "voluntourism" to Israel, organised trips that include some kind of volunteering aspect connected to Tel Aviv's war on Gaza.

Israel's Tourism Ministry estimates around one-third to half of the approximately 3,000 daily visitors expected to arrive in March are part of faith-based volunteer trips. Before Israel's war on besieged Gaza, around 15,000 visitors arrived in Israel per day, about half of whom were Christian, according to Tourism Ministry statistics.

In 2019, the latest tourism statistics available that were not impacted by Covid-19, about 25 percent of visitors arrived on organised trips, according to the Tourism Ministry.

A study by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem found that almost half of Israelis volunteered in some capacity during the early weeks of the brutal Israeli attacks on Gaza. But many Israeli mercenaries have returned to work and school, and now "international visitors" are filling the gaps.

In the US, support for Israel has become a top priority for evangelical Christians during a presidential election year. They are among the most outspoken backers of Israel's brutality towards Palestinians, and Republicans have faced pressure to hew not just to traditional Republican support for Israel but to beliefs rooted in the Bible.

Israel has so far killed more than 31,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and vows to press its invasion further deep into Gaza's south.

On October 11, dozens of leading evangelicals signed a statement of support for Israel organised by the public policy wing of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Evangelical faith group in the US.

One of the key pro-Israel groups in the US is Christians United for Israel, founded and led by Evangelical pastor John Hagee. CUFI says it has raised and dispersed more than $3 million to support Israeli first responders, health care workers, and survivors of the October 7 operation.

Landis was part of a two-week volunteer trip to Israel organised by an Evangelical group called International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ), which has put together five volunteer trips since January and expects to bring half a dozen more in the coming month. Normally, ICEJ brings about 6,000 Christian visitors to Israel annually.

Growing international pressure

When Israel's attacks on Gaza started, many international airlines suspended flights and travel stopped, aside from a handful of Jewish and Christian solidarity missions. Some major airlines resumed flights to Israel in recent weeks, and others plan to soon.

Peleg Lewi, the foreign affairs adviser to the Tourism Ministry, said the faith-based solidarity missions boost [Israeli army's] morale. They can also kick-start overall tourism to Israel after a cycle of war or violence, he said.

With Israel's war on Gaza in its sixth month, Israel is under growing international pressure to do more to end the suffering of civilians in Gaza, including allowing in more aid. Israel's bombardment and invasion have already displaced most of the territory's population and pushed a quarter of the population to the brink of starvation. Hospitals have reported that several children have died of hunger.

Elizabeth Odegaard, a trip participant from Norway, said she was surprised by how emotional Israelis get when they meet international visitors who have come to support them.

One initiative is Citrus & Salt, which previously hosted cooking classes and tours of Tel Aviv's markets for tourists. When Israel's attacks started, it pivoted to making more than 35,000 donated meals for Israeli occupation soldiers murdering at least 30,000 Palestinians, many of whom are women and children.

"It really helps boost morale for people to come from abroad to Israel" said Aliya Fastman, a native of Berkeley, California, who has lived in Israel for over a decade and runs Citrus & Salt with her sister.