Israel’s foreign ministry plans to bring 8,000 young Christian leaders to visit by the end of 2026 - report

After the appointment of a special envoy to the Christian world, the Israeli Foreign Ministry has announced another step to strengthen ties with the global Christian community, Israel HaYom reports. 

One of the main goals of the project is to "remove young people from the influence of social media discourse and bring them to encounter Israel in real life. Not through a [social media] feed or a headline, but through a personal encounter, territory and people.” 

The Foreign Ministry announced a plan last week to bring around 8,000 young leaders and influencers to Israel, with the majority from the Christian world. 

The ministry said that experience shows that personal visits are one of the most effective tools for helping foreigners understand the situation in Israel. 

As a result, despite the high financial cost and logistical complexity, and given the influence these leaders have on younger generations online, the ministry has decided to move forward with the project. 

The project comes as 2025 ended up being a record-breaking year for Christian visits to the Jewish State, with about 300 delegations coming to Israel, despite the Gaza and Iran conflicts. This represents an increase of almost 12 times the average of previous years. 

As part of this program, participants will spend eight intensive days in Israel. During the first five days, they will tour the country, visiting mixed Jewish-Arab cities, seeing historical sites, and witnessing war damage. After the tours, the participants will spend three days receiving in-depth briefings and training to help them understand the key issues shaping daily life in Israel. 

According to the Foreign Ministry, "this is a long-term strategic process to create a global network of influential young people, who will return to their countries with a deeper, more direct and well-founded understanding of Israel, and will serve as ambassadors of a complex reality - far from the simplistic images that shape the digital discourse.” 

The hope is that on-the-ground visits to communities, exposure to real-time security challenges, and open dialogue with a variety of voices in Israeli society will create a living experience, showing how Jews, Christians, and Muslims living side by side in Israel will help tell the story of Israel more accurately. 

The Foreign Ministry, along with the Diaspora Affairs Ministry, has recently begun focusing more effort on combating negative views and attacks on Israel in social media discourse. However, a significant issue has been the claim that Jewish Israeli “hasbarah” is easily dismissed by those hostile to Israel. It is hoped that by sharing their personal experiences, these influencers will be able to reshape the anti-Israel narrative and assumptions over time.