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Illustrative Photo Credit: Mark Neyman, GPO
President Rivlin meets delegation of ‘Christians For Israel – International’
Article Courtesy: Israel GPO
President Reuven Rivlin this morning (Tuesday) met with a delegation of ‘Christians For Israel – International’, led by the organization’s chairman Dr. Leon E. Meijer.
President Rivlin welcomed them and told them of his family’s long history in Jerusalem, and of their arrival in the early 1800s. He said, “We came to return to our homeland, and we were welcomed by the people of Jerusalem, Muslims, and Christians, and Jews. In 1856, already the majority of Jerusalem was Jewish. Many of the Jews who came were returning to Zion, not just to the Land of Israel, but to Jerusalem.”
He said, “I remember as a young child going to the Western Wall with my father to hear the Shofar blown at the end of Yom Kippur – even though the British did not allow it. Today,” the President told them, “as we celebrate 50 years since the reunification of the city of Jerusalem, the State of Israel stands firm behind the importance of freedom of religion, and Jerusalem is a city in which everyone can worship God according to their beliefs.”
The President concluded, “Jerusalem is a city which can unite people. Jerusalem is a microcosm of all our ability to live together, all faiths, and all communities.”
Dr. Meijer thanked the President and told him about the work of ‘Christians For Israel – International’. He said, “We are based in the Netherlands, but we have people from all over the world”. Dr. Meijer presented the President with the organization’s ‘Jerusalem Declaration’ which he noted reaffirmed that, “We believe in a unified city of Jerusalem, from where peace will come forth, and we will continue to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.”
He stressed, “Our intention is not to bring people to change their religion. Some say that what we are working to hasten the Messiah, we leave that in the hands of God. We bring with us the Chief Rabbi of the Netherlands, and we are happy also to have his support for what we are doing to support the Jewish people, with no hidden agenda.”
