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“Bringing God's Chosen People Home”

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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by NORA - Norwegian Open Research Archives “Bringing God’s Chosen People Home” A study of Christian Zionist strategies used to support and assist the State of Israel Silje Belghaug Knarud Master’s Degree Thesis in History of Religion 60 Credits Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages UNIVERSITY OF OSLO Autumn 2014 II “Bringing God’s Chosen People Home” A study of Christian Zionist strategies used to support and assist the State of Israel Silje Belghaug Knarud Master’s Degree Thesis in History of Religion 60 Credits Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages UNIVERSITY OF OSLO Autumn 2014 III © Silje Belghaug Knarud 2014 “Bringing God’s Chosen People Home” Silje Belghaug Knarud http://www.duo.uio.no/ Print: CopyCat IV Abstract In recent decades, growing academic attention has been paid to the Christian Zionist movement. ‘Christian Zionism’ represents the theological position of Christian that support the modern Israeli state and believe that this state will play a central role before the return of Jesus. Most of the research on Christian Zionism, as well as media comments, has focused on its apocalyptic aspects and its influence on foreign policy making in the USA. However, Christian Zionism is a global movement that is highly active also inside of the Israeli state. This thesis argues that more attention should be paid to how organizations, from the Christian Zionist movement, strategically work to settle Jews in Israel. By assisting in Jewish migration, these organizations attempts to restore the Promised Land with the hope of restoring Israel back to its biblical borders. By taking the onset in one Christian Zionist organization, the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ), the aim of this thesis is to explore the strategies used in order to bring Jews to Israel, but also the effects and potential consequences this might have. The ICEJ has been active in assisting Jewish migration from the early 1990s and has helped more than115,000 (2014) Jews move to Israel. The empirical foundation of this thesis is based on position statements, reports and articles published by the ICEJ. This material has proved the organization adapts a pragmatic approach in order to influence the Israeli society. By assisting in Jewish migration to Israel, the ICEJ has actively positioned itself in a central role in God’s providential plan. However, the Israeli- Palestinian conflict is understood as a threat to the Jewish character of Israel, by the ICEJ. Therefore, the ICEJ is active in advocating for Israel in the international community. Through advocacy and by assisting Jews to Israel, the ICEJ hopes to preserve the Jewish character. The ICEJ’s work, as part of the Christian Zionist movement, has become a forceful actor inside Israel and also on a global scale. The impact the Christian Zionist movement has on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should not be underestimated. V VI Acknowledgments I first want to thank my supervisor Ragnhild Johnsrud Zorgati, for giving me good feedback on my chapters, and for showing interest for my project. I also want thank Torkel Brekke for giving me the extra push to do a four-week fieldwork in Israel. In Israel want to thank David Parsons and Howard Flower with the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem and Jack Corcos with the Jewish Agency for their willingness to be interviewed. I must also thank the staff of the Swedish Theological Institute in Jerusalem for their hospitality and for showing my project interest. I am also grateful for all the people I met with there, who made my stay in Jerusalem less lonely. I am also grateful to the Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights for hiring me as an intern and letting me participate on a fieldtrip to Kyrgyzstan. Thanks goes also to all of the staff for warmly including me in the office. I especially want to thank Anne Hushagen for giving me an insightful experience in human rights work and for giving me the opportunity to use my skills on the Freedom of Religion and Belief project in Kyrgyzstan. I also must thank all my amazing friend and co-students at the UIO – you know who you are. I am also grateful to my friends at the reading room, for showing interest for my project and for giving me a good time during the two years of MA studies. A special thanks to Hanne Amanda Magrethe Kalvatn Trangerud for insightful discussions, good advises and for believing in me in my most frustrating hours. To all my friends outside the UIO, thanks for waiting, see you soon! And last, but not least, special thanks go to my family for supporting me through five and a half years of studies at the University. To my mother, Inger, for comforting words in frustrating times, to my father, Ernst Ivar, for endlessly proofreading my term papers and this thesis and to my brother, Jon Ivar, for exciting conversations and good help. VII Abbreviations CIPAC – Christian’ Israel Public Action Campaign EU – European Union FSU – Former Soviet Union ICEJ – International Christian Embassy Jerusalem IKAJ – Internasjonale Kristne Ambassade Jerusalem, norsk avdeling NCR – New Christian Right PA – Palestinian Authorities PLO – Palestinian Liberation Organization UN – United Nations VIII Contents 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Aim of inquiry ............................................................................................................. 2 1.2 Clarification of terms ................................................................................................... 3 1.3 Former research ........................................................................................................... 4 1.4 Theoretical perspectives .............................................................................................. 6 1.5 Empirical foundation ................................................................................................... 7 1.6 Methods ....................................................................................................................... 9 1.7 Content....................................................................................................................... 10 2 Historical development of Christian Zionism .................................................................. 11 2.1 From millennial thoughts to politics: The restoration of Israel ..................................... 12 2.2 Dispensational premillennialism ............................................................................... 14 2.3 The establishment of Israel: A divine sign of the coming end .................................. 18 2.4 Revival of Christian Zionism in America.................................................................. 19 2.5 Criticism of Christian Zionism .................................................................................. 21 3 The International Christian Embassy Jerusalem .............................................................. 23 3.1 The founding of the ICEJ .......................................................................................... 23 3.2 Activities .................................................................................................................... 27 3.3 Central staff members ................................................................................................ 29 3.4 Members and economy .............................................................................................. 30 3.5 Denominational rooting ............................................................................................. 31 3.6 Reception from the Jewish society ............................................................................ 34 4 The narrative behind restoration of Eretz Israel ............................................................... 35 4.1 The ICEJ’s conception of the Bible ........................................................................... 36 4.2 Restoration of Eretz Israel – A matter of saving the world ....................................... 38 4.3 “See. I will beckon to the Gentiles” .......................................................................... 45 4.4 A theopolitical engagement ....................................................................................... 49 5 Assisted migration: The key to Jewish homecoming ....................................................... 52 5.1 Jewish Aliyah and the Law of Return ....................................................................... 53 5.2 The Diaspora/homeland dichotomy........................................................................... 55 5.3 A scope of the ICEJ’s Aliyah work at a global scale ................................................ 57 IX 5.4 An assisted homecoming ........................................................................................... 60 5.5 “Planting the Jews in their homeland” ...................................................................... 68 6 Fighting Israeli de-legitimization in the public sphere ..................................................... 70 6.1 Advocacy in the public sphere ................................................................................... 71 6.2 The arguments against de-legitimization ................................................................... 72 6.3 An influencing factor ................................................................................................
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