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JERUSALEM, Israel: In a move being praised by many Christian leaders, the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently announced the appointment of a new position of envoy to the Christian world — with the goal of better and smoother relations with the Christian world.
In an exclusive interview in Jerusalem, Ambassador George Deek told Digital the importance the Netanyahu government has put on his position.
“We see the ethnic cleansing of the region from its Christians, who have been diminished from 20% of the population of the Middle East to less than 2% of the population today,” Deek said. “All those places that used to have thriving Christian communities today have been reduced to nothing.”
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Ambassador George Deek is Israel’s first envoy to the Christian world. (Yoav Dudkevich/TPS-IL)
Israel counts 300 churches, double the number in 1948, while its Christian population has grown from 34,000 in 1948 to more than 180,000 today.
Deek said of his role. “My hope is to also be able to build strong bridges between the State of Israel and Christian leaders… by telling a fuller story of the State of Israel, which I think is missed in most of the narratives we hear today in the world,” he said.
According to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, as of December 2025, Israel’s Christian population stood at approximately 184,200, representing 1.9% of the country’s total population. The community grew by 0.7% over the previous year.
Deek, who served for six years as Israel’s ambassador to Azerbaijan before assuming his current role, said most people know Israel only through its Jewish identity and are unaware of the complexity and diversity of Israeli society.
Deek said the decision announced by the Foreign Ministry in April to appoint him to the role stems from three factors: first, the special connection between Christians and the land of Israel as the birthplace of Christianity.
Christian pilgrims carrying wooden crosses walk through Jerusalem’s Old City toward the Church of the Holy Sepulchre during the Orthodox Good Friday procession on May 3, 2024. (Ahamd Gharabli/AFP via Getty Images)
Second is the deep historical bond reflected in the churches of the Holy Land and in Christians and Jews living under shared biblical values, from which they derive societal principles including democracy, individualism, and freedom of conscience and thought.
Third is the importance Israel places on relations with people of all denominations and religions.
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“It has a special relationship with the Christian people abroad and the Christian community in Israel, which is the only Christian community in the entire Middle East that is actually growing in numbers and basically thriving as part of Israeli society,” Deek said.
“As the only nation to appoint a special envoy to the Christian world, Israel has indicated its deep appreciation for Christian support and its long-term interest in guarding Christian-Jewish relations. This is especially vital in this time of resurgent antisemitism spreading like wildfire in the poorly regulated digital sphere,” International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) ‘s President Dr. Jürgen Bühler told Digital.
Israel’s northern city of Nazareth and its Catholic Basilica of the Annunciation on Dec. 18, 2021. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP via Getty Images)
The organization has operated from Jerusalem for 46 years and maintains branch offices and representatives in 95 countries, with a presence spanning approximately 185 nations worldwide.
It recently organized an emergency summit on antisemitism that brought together more than 200 theologians, pastors and ministry leaders from over 30 countries in person, alongside approximately 3,000 participants attending online.
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He says Israel has the potential to serve as both an inspiration and a partner across the region and beyond, helping ensure that people can practice their faith freely and remain in the lands of their forefathers.
The annual Christmas parade in Nazareth, Israel on Dec. 24, 2025. (Eitan Elhadez-Barak/TPS-IL)
Still, Deek noted that in recent months there have been several isolated incidents involving attacks on Christian symbols and, in one case, an assault on a Christian nun.
“More than anything, this was an attack on the values on which this country is established—values of tolerance and acceptance — where no one has the right to attack anyone or use violence against anyone for any reason whatsoever, especially not attack a symbol of Christianity, Islam or Judaism,” he said.
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“That is absolutely unacceptable and that is why the leadership of the State of Israel, from the prime minister to the foreign minister and others, have all condemned it unequivocally and unanimously,” he added.
The pastor of the Home of Jesus the King church in Nazareth says one of the biggest challenges facing Israel’s Christian community is a low birth rate. (Pastor Saleem Shalash)
The Israeli soldier who desecrated a cross in southern Lebanon is in prison, as is the individual who pushed a nun to the ground and attacked her in Jerusalem. These cases, Deek said, demonstrate that the State of Israel takes such incidents very seriously and fully enforces the law.
Amid a surge in antisemitic incidents in Europe and elsewhere following the Hamas-led Oct. 7 massacre, Deek said hate that begins with Jews never ends with Jews, and that the same hate that drove out Jews from Arab countries in the 20th century has over the past two decades been directed against other minorities in the region.
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“We see it even with Hamas pushing out the Christian population there, which has completely disappeared from Gaza,” he added.
Within this environment, Israel is the only place where such minorities have been able to live safely and practice their faith without fear. In fact, they do not merely survive in the State of Israel, they thrive, Deek said.
The Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, Theophilos III, leads a ceremony as part of the Orthodox Feast of the Epiphany at the Qasr al-Yahud baptismal site near Jericho on Jan. 18, 2025. (Hazem Bader/AFP Via Getty Images)
He nevertheless pointed to a well-oiled campaign by forces on the woke left and right, along with extremist Islamist groups, that are manipulating the Christian faith and promoting claims of what he says is the so-called mistreatment of Christians in Israel.
“I see it as a personal mission to bring as many Christians as possible to visit the land of Israel, not as a political campaign…. I want them to come here to connect to their Bible. I want them to connect to their Scripture, I want them to connect to the roots of their values by simply going to those places,” Deek said.
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“And, under the protection of Israel as the guardian of the holy sites of Christianity… to reconnect to these values and to remember that these are the biblical values that connect Jews, Christians and all the people of the book in this world,” he added.
