Christians for Israel International

Christians for Israel International is a Christian Zionist organisation and the international wing of the Netherlands-based Christians for Israel. The organisation was founded in 1998 by the Dutch, American, Canadian and German affiliates of Christians for Israel. It is a registered non-profit (Dutch Chamber of Comerce No. 32070120).

The organisation claims to have 'affiliates, partners and representatives in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Botswana, Brazil, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, India, Indonesia, Italy, Israel, Kenya, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pacific Islands, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia and Former Soviet Union, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, South Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States of America and Zambia.

The organisation's website provides the following mission statement:

Our mission is to bring Biblical understanding in the Church and among the nations concerning God's purposes for Israel and to promote comfort of Israel through prayer and action.

Our vision is to establish a global network of Christians having local impact, for the blessing of the nation of Israel, the Jewish people and the church.

Our strategy is to equip Christians in the nations to understand God’s purposes with the Jewish people and the nation of Israel, and to stand in the gap between Israel and the Church.

Projects and Activities

Aliyah

CFII engages in efforts to facilitate Jewish migration to Israel. According to the CFII website, working in collaboration with the Jewish Agency for Israel and other Christian Zionist organisations, it has facilitated the migration of 100,000 Jews since 1996.

It describes this work as 'fulfillment of biblical prophecy'. It also works with the United Israel Appeal. It's main centre of aliyah operations appears to be in Ukraine.

In 2004 CFII began a 'strategic alliance' with the Ebenezer Emergency Fund International a Christian Zionist organisation based in the UK.

Supporting Occupation

In September 2011 it was reported that in advance of Palestinian diplomatic efforts at the UN Christians for Israel International, together with the European Coalition for Israel were to hold a join protest on September 13 at The Hague and September 19 in Brussels. The stated aim of the demonstrations was 'to defend Jerusalem as the undivided capital of the Jewish state of Israel.' Andrew Tucker, executive director of CFII declared that:

As Christians, we feel it is our task to be obedient to God, and to warn the nations to respect God's sovereignty... We simply cannot remain silent while the nations are planning to give Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria to Israel's enemies.

It was also reported that the two organisations had published a series of articles in English, German and Dutch arguing for Israel's rights to occupy all of historic Palestine on a website called Why Israel (www.whyisrael.org). The same month it was reported that the German affiliate of Christians for Israel had produced a declaration in support of Israel signed by 40,000 people.

Support for Israeli Settlements

Through Christian Friends of Israeli Communities the CFII supports activities that bolster illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories.

Opposing Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions

The group campaigned against the Dutch pensions firm PGGM after it divested from Israeli companies as well as several supermarket chains that had reportedly boycotted produce from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Operation Protective Edge

In 2014, during Israel's attack on Gaza (Operation Protective Edge) CFII launched an appeal to raise $500,000 for use in southern Israel. Amongst other assistance the funds would be used purchase food parcels for IDF personnel.

During the conflict the CFII established an office staffed by 50 Dutch citizens in Tel Aviv for promoting the Israeli government's narrative on social media platforms:

The volunteers at the Buitenveldert situation room began working last week out of the the cafeteria of the local Jewish Cultural Center, which they converted into a space where 80 people can work in two 14-hour shifts each day. The volunteers have created hundreds of posts and articles on Israel, which they disseminate through the Holland4Israel Facebook group and on Twitter, among other social media.

“The idea is to empower pro-Israel advocates who used to work out of their student apartments by giving them a community framework, interaction and facilities,” said Ron Eisenmann, a former community leader from Amsterdam who spearheaded the project with Rabbi Yanki Jacobs, director of the Dutch branch of the Chabad on Campus network, and Christians for Israel, an international network of Christian Zionists.

Israeli Advocacy in the FSU

CFII has sought to propagate Zionist views amongst the Christian population of the former Soviet Union. According to the coordinators of CFII's programme in the FSU:

Christians in the FSU have an enormous hunger for the truth. They like to read, but there is little teaching available about God’s relationship with the Jewish people and His plans with the nation of Israel. That is why we have translated the book “Why Israel?” into Russian and Ukrainian. Now we are actively developing a Russian-language newspaper that seeks to put the current affairs around Israel in Biblical perspective.

'Global Prayer Call Study Tour'

The CFII organises what it describes as 'study tours' of Israel. The tours include attendance at the Global Prayer Call Conference in Jerusalem. The most recent tour took place from 10-18 May 2015. Attendees at the event included Willem J. J. Glashouwer, Tomas Sandell, Markus Ernst, Harald Eckert, Andrew Tucker, Rick Ridings, George Annadorai, Benjamin Berger, Pete Stucken, Drake Kanaabo, and Conrado Lumahan.

Visiting Israel

In December 2011 it was reported that the South Sudanese affiliate of Christians for Israel International had organised tours from South Sudan to Israel for March, April and October of 2012. One of the organisers described the purpose of the trips as being 'to connect South Sudanese with Israel through holy land study tour and praying for Israel and Jerusalem.'

European Coalition for Israel

Reportedly CFI was one of the organisations which founded the European Coalition for Israel.

Philanthropy

CFII supports a number of ostensibly philanthropic projects through the Hineni Foundation and the Jaffa Institute.

Publishing

The organisation publishes a newspaper called Israel and Christians Today. In 2011 it was reported that the publication had more than 200,000 subscribers. The newspaper is published in Dutch, English, German and Bahasa. The Dutch version is distributed in the Netherlands, Belgium and Surinam. The German version in Germany and Austria. The English version in the UK, mainland Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Uganda, Nigeria and the United States. The Bahasa version is distributed in Indonesia.

Biennial Forum

CFII hosts a week-long biennial Forum for the organisation's international leadership in Jerusalem. The fourth such event was held in Jerusalem in March 2013. More than 80 members of the CFII leadership were in attendance at the Kibbutz Hotel Ramat Rachel in Jerusalem.

Views

The Second Coming

As a Christian Zionist movement the CFII believe that the establishment of Israel and conflict in the Middle East portends the second coming of Christ:

We are living in momentous days. The Jewish people are coming home to the land. Collapse of the Israel/Palestinian

peace talks. The nations of the world in conflict. Rise of extreme Islam. Demise of the US and rise of

other global superpowers. Financial, environmental and energy crises, confusion in Europe. Rise of humanist

secularism, and collapse of institutional churches. The Gospel of the Kingdom being preached in many nations

and languages.

Jesus said – learn the lesson of the fig tree. Heed the signs of His coming. Keep watch and pray... the return of the Jewish people which we are witnessing today is fulfilment of Biblical prophecy, in preparation for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Israel, the coming of Jesus Messiah and the establishment of God’s Kingdom on earth...

Refugees

CFII do not accept Israeli responsibility for causing Palestinians to flee what is now the state of Israel in 1949:

Just before and during the Independence War (1948-1949) many Palestinian Arabs - about 650,000 people in total – fled the land. These were different groups of Arabs, each with their own reason to leave the country. The great-mufti of Jerusalem, who collaborated with the Nazi’s and the governments of the Arab countries, incited many Palestine Arabs to abandon Israel and to go to the Arab neighbors. The refugee problem was and still is very complex, and is remains a major issue in the negotiations for peace.

An article by Jonathan S. Tobin hosted on the American CFII website also denies Israeli responsibility for the refugee problem:

The Palestinian refugees, whose exit from the country was caused more by a general fear of the war sweeping over the land than by any action on the part of the Israelis...

Another article hosted on the site, authored by Steven Plaut, accuses Arabs (without providing sources) from neighbouring countries of masquerading as Palestinian refugees:

Hundreds of thousands of Arabs from other Arab countries then declared themselves “Palestinian refugees” in order to get handouts from the UN and other international relief organizations.

Settlements

The organisation describes the international community's designation of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories as illegal as 'a lie'.

Muslim Brotherhood

CFII describes the Muslim Brotherhood as an organisation bent on world domination:

The Brotherhood`s goal is to turn the world into an Islamist empire. The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928, is a revolutionary fundamentalist movement to restore the caliphate and strict shariah (Islamist) law in Muslim lands and, ultimately, the world.

CFII also alleges that the Brotherhood was allied with Nazi Germany.

Israeli Arabs

The CFII America website provides material claiming that Israeli Arabs are unusually well-treated by Israel:

Israeli Arabs are quite simply the best-treated political minority in the Middle East and are in some ways better treated than are minority groups in many European countries.

International Committee of the Red Cross

CFII has accused the ICRC of corruption and accused the ICRC of changing international law by applying the Fourth Geneva Convention to the Occupied Territories.

Palestinian Statehood

The organisation denies Palestinians right to self-determination and questions the existence of a Palestinian people (a common trope of Zionist organisations) and compared Arab concern over Palestinian refugees with Nazi Germany's utilisation of the ethnic Germans of the Sudetenland in its aggression against Czechoslovakia:

Palestinians are not a “people” at all and do not consider themselves such... The Arab world invented the “Palestinian people” so that it would serve the same role as the Sudeten Germans did in the late 1930s.

People

Rev. Willem J. J. Glashouwer (President) Harald Eckert (Chairman) Andrew Tucker (Executive Director)

Board Members circa May 2015

Bert Fluit | Pim van der Hoff | Drake Kanaabo | Leon Meijer

Contact

Address circa 2015

Head office:

Christians for Israel International

P.O. Box 1100

3860 BC Nijkerk

Netherlands

Tel: +31 33 24 588 24

Fax: +31 33 246 3644

email: info@c4israel.org

Website: http://www.c4israel.org/