Presentation of the declaration in The Hague, July 4, 2024. (Photo: Chris van Beek.
Hundreds of Christians from 45 nations participated in a conference in support of Israel held in The Hague earlier this month. The event preceded the anticipated release on Friday of the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) non-binding advisory opinion on the legality of Israeli control over Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem.
In November 2022, the ICJ was asked by a group of 98 nations to present an advisory opinion on Israel’s “prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation of Palestinian territory.”
The resolution was passed in December of 2022 in the UN General Assembly with 87 nations voting in favor, 26 against and 53 abstentions.
The pro-Israel event was hosted by Christian leader Jack van der Tang, who lives in The Hague, along with a number of Christian organizations, including the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ)
The event, held near the Peace Palace, the seat of the ICJ, was attended by 800 pro-Israel Christians from 45 countries. During the conference, participants signed a declaration supporting Israel’s right to its historic land, including Judea and Samaria (known internationally as the West Bank), and expressed their opposition to the partition of the land.
Former Rep. Michelle Bachmann signs the declaration in The Hague, July 4, 2024. (Photo: Chris van Beek)
The declaration was hand-delivered to the court registrar for each of the UN court’s 15 judges, as well as to Israeli Deputy Ambassador to the Netherlands Yaron Wax.
Christian participants at the conference protested the fact that the ICJ allowed the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to express their views on the legality of Israel’s control over Judea and Samaria – considered to be Israel’s biblical heartland – while Christian organizations were prevented from doing so.
Delivering the declaration at The Hague (Photo: Chris van Beek)
David Parsons, vice president of ICEJ, said the organization was proud to be part of the declaration.
“The Christian Embassy came to support this initiative in The Hague to make sure the justices at the World Court heard the perspective of tens of millions of God-fearing Christians worldwide who stand with the Jewish people’s 4,000-year-old claim and connection to the Land of Israel,” Parsons said.
He slammed the World Court’s decision not to accept Christian opinion on the issue of Israeli control over the biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria.
“It would not be just or fair for the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to be allowed to present their shameful annihilistic view on the very existence of Israel, while an even larger global Christian constituency was being ignored. In our eyes, the modern-day Jewish restoration to their ancestral homeland is the greatest example of historic justice in the entire course of human endeavors.”
The OIC brief included various perspectives, including the view that the whole territory of Mandate Palestine belongs to the Palestinians; the re-establishment of the Jewish homeland was a breach of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination; and a call to end all Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.
Van der Tang told the Jewish National Syndicate that Christian support for Israel is biblical.
“Everyone is talking about international law, but this is 100% biblical,” van der Tang affirmed.
The president of the Hague-based International Conference of Truth Justice and Peace, which helped sponsor the initiative, stated: “My hometown, The Hague, is called the ‘capital of peace and justice,’ but a local rabbi taught me that world Jewry stands on three pillars: truth, peace and justice. And I send to the International Court of Justice the third page of the truth about Israel, especially in the week when their advisory opinion is about to be published.
“Against this background, we decided to hold a kind of public trial, for the Jews’ right to their historic homeland, and we signed the declaration,” he added.
