JERUSALEM, Israel – After nearly three years of war, both airlines and tourists are returning to Israel. In this holiday season of Sukkot, also known as the Feast of Tabernacles, Christians are returning to celebrate.
Against the hostile backdrop of U.N. delegates walking out of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech in New York last week, the opposite is happening in Jerusalem.
Dag Juliussen, a Norwegian regional director for the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ), welcomed delegates to the 2026 Feast of Tabernacles celebration.
“We are gathered here these days to celebrate, to worship, and to adore the King of Kings in His own city,” Juliussen observed. “We’re all together here…to bring a strong and warm message to the Jewish people: you are not alone.”
More than 1,800 Christians from 70 nations came up to Jerusalem to celebrate the biblical holiday of Sukkot. On their first night in the city, they began with worship in English, Hebrew, and Arabic.
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Popular Christian singer Aaron Shust introduced Shiloh and Nizar, one Jewish and one Arab. He noted, “We are friends, dear friends, only because of Jesus.”
Then, one at a time, representatives from each nation attending crossed the stage, waving their countries’ flags.
George Deek, Israel’s first Israeli Arab ambassador to the Christian world, welcomed the visitors, saying, “And tonight, my friends, we are standing right here in Jerusalem. The dream survived. The people survived, and the State of Israel lives.”
Deek spoke to the crowd about the trials Israel experienced over the generations, including October 7th, 2023.
He exhorted, “To every nation represented here, thank you for coming to Jerusalem. Thank you for standing with Israel. And when you return home, carry something of Jerusalem with you. Tell about our country. Stand against hatred and for truth, and help us build the future generations.”
Christians founded the ICEJ in 1980 as a response to the decision by many countries to withdraw their embassies from Jerusalem.
The ICEJ has been hosting the Feast since then as a sign of the future fulfillment of Zechariah 14, which says that one day all nations will come up to Jerusalem to celebrate Sukkot.
The theme of this year’s Feast is from Joel 3:16. ICEJ President Jurgen Buehler read the passage, “The Lord roars from Zion, He utters his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth quake. But the Lord is a refuge to His people, a stronghold to the people of Israel.”
Buehler believes that we are living in the last days of Joel 3, when the nations turn against Israel. He urged participants to pray for their nations.
“And the word of God is clear. The Lord rose from Zion. It’s a roar of warning to the nations of the world that if you deal with My people, you are poking your finger in the eyes of God,” Buehler warned.
He said God is now dealing with nations, and while He cares about the needs of individuals, participants represent their nations, and they need to cry out that their countries will stay on the side of Israel and God.
Published by agreement with CBN News.
Julie Stahl is a correspondent for CBN News in the Middle East. A Hebrew speaker, she has been covering news in Israel fulltime for more than 20 years.
Julie’s life as a journalist has been intertwined with CBN – first as a graduate student in Journalism; then as a journalist with Middle East Television (METV) when it was owned by CBN from 1989-91; and now with the Middle East Bureau of CBN News in Jerusalem since 2009.
As a correspondent for CBN News, Julie has covered Israel’s wars with Gaza, rocket attacks on Israeli communities, stories on the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria and the Golan Heights, as well as stories on the return of the Jewish people to their biblical homeland and archaeological stories that backup the Bible. She has traveled to Tanzania to cover Israeli doctors giving life-saving heart surgery to children there; to Poland to cover Holocaust-related events; to Paris to cover the Jewish response to the rise in anti-Semitism there; and Portugal to cover events surrounding the Bnei Anusim – Jews forced to convert to Catholicism during the Spanish Inquisition, many of whom would now like to be recognized as Jews and return to Israel.
Julie is also an integral part of CBN News’ award-winning “Jerusalem Dateline”, a weekly show about events in the Middle East that is translated into multiple languages and has a broad viewership across the world.
As the Jerusalem Bureau Chief for CNSNews.com, from 1999-2008, Julie covered Israel’s pullout from Lebanon; traveled to both Egypt and Jordan to cover aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process; covered the Second Intifadah, from 2000-2005 when terror attacks were sometimes a daily occurrence, Israel’s 2005 Disengagement from Gaza and the 2006 Second Lebanon War. Her work included almost daily contact with Israeli and Palestinian officials.
While working as a news writer for METV, Julie covered the historic fall of Communism in Eastern Europe.
Julie received her bachelor’s degree in Theatre from Florida State University and master’s degree in Journalism from Regent University before heading to Israel, in 1987. She enjoys playing the guitar, having guests for Sabbath Eve meals, exploring, traveling, meeting people and gardening.
