Friends of Zion Christian delegation tours Shiloh; Yisrael Ganz urges sovereignty lobbying

Right · 1Christian leaders, community representatives and influencers from 123 countries visited ancient Shiloh in Samaria on Friday 9 October as part of the Friends of Zion Ambassador Summit; JNS put the number at some 1,200. 1 Right · 2The summit was led by Friends of Zion founder Mike Evans in cooperation with Israel's Foreign Ministry and marked three years since the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack. 1 2 Right · 1Participants toured the archaeological remains and heard about Shiloh's history. JNS describes it as the spiritual centre of the Jewish people for centuries and home to the Tabernacle before the First Temple was built in Jerusalem. 1

Right · 1Evans told the delegation that "God chose Judea and Samaria" and that 80 percent of Bible stories originate there. He said the group must "secure recognition for Judea and Samaria". 1 Right · 1Yisrael Ganz, chairman of the Binyamin Regional Council and head of the Yesha Council, led a tour and said the visit showed support against a campaign to delegitimise Israel and its communities in Judea and Samaria. 1 Right · 1Ganz urged the visitors to take what they saw to their communities and to Washington and to urge President Trump to recognise Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria. 1 3

Right · 1According to JNS, he also asked the pastors to raise sovereignty from their pulpits on Sunday and send their sermons to Washington with the names of all 1,200 participants. He asked them to pray for Israel, use the names "Judea and Samaria" rather than "the West Bank", bring congregants to visit, and turn solidarity into concrete commitments. 3 Right · 1Ambassador Yacov Livne, the Foreign Ministry's deputy director general for public diplomacy, told the gathering that Israel faces an "eighth front" of lies and "modern-day blood libels", and accused radical political and Islamist movements and neo-Nazis of an "unholy alliance" against Israel. 1 Right · 1Evans told JNS the summit aimed to counter antisemitism and the "big lie" that Jews are alone, and called participants "special forces teams" with large social media followings. He said Shiloh was chosen for its place in biblical history and Christian faith. 3

Right · 1Pastor David Speicher of South Bay Church in Tampa, Florida, and his daughter Abby Martin were among the visitors. Speicher said that "The Bible comes to life in 3D". 3 Right · 2The summit's central event was a 24-hour Global Prayer Day broadcast from Jerusalem on 7 October. JNS reported attendance of nearly 2,000 people from 117 countries at the Davidson Center, while the Jerusalem Post cited organisers as saying more than 2,000 attended at the Southern Wall. 1 2 Right · 1As the summit closed on Tuesday 13 October, Friends of Zion said the broadcast reached more than 250 million people in 176 countries, including 1.3 million views in Syria and 98,000 in Saudi Arabia. These are the organisation's own figures, and the coverage doesn't verify them independently. 2

Right · 2Earlier, Evans had said the summit's events reached about 120 million people through social media. He also said the Brazilian segment drew 8.5 million viewers, and that Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro had urged followers to watch. 3 2 Right · 1Other programme items included meetings with President Isaac Herzog, officials and diplomats, and visits to Yad Vashem, the Old City, Masada and the Galilee. Delegates also met former hostages Noa Argamani, Romi Gonen and Elkana Bohbot at the Nova festival memorial site, where the "Here Am I" Award was presented. 2