Dutch Christians organize pro-Israel flyover to celebrate Jewish state's 75th anniversary

Former head of Christians for Israel in the Netherlands, Roger van Oordt, decided to express his solidarity for Israel by organizing a pro-Israel flyover in the Netherlands to honor the Jewish nation's 75th anniversary as an independent nation.

As Israel’s honorary consul in the Dutch city of Nijkerk, van Oordt decided to hire a fleet of four planes to stage a flyover across the Netherlands with banners on Wednesday to celebrate Israel’s 75th Independence Day.

His idea for the flyover came after he had recently witnessed an anti-Israel demonstration in the Netherlands and felt provoked by it but wanted to give a response that “channeled the idea in a more positive direction.”

The result was the creation of a 65-foot (20-meter) banner with the message: “The Netherlands congratulates Israel," and featured the website that Christians for Israel, an international lobby group based near Amsterdam, set up to promote the flyover.

The website encouraged visitors to write a greeting or donate a tree to be planted in Israel by the Jewish National Fund.

Like other Christian Zionists around the world, van Oordt stressed the importance of widespread support for the Jewish state and the Jewish people. 

“We want to show Israel that it has widespread support in the Netherlands and we also want to encourage the Jewish community of the Netherlands through the flyover, to show it’s not alone,” he said. 

Van Oordt hails from a family with strong Israel connections. His late father Karel established the organization Christians for Israel in 1979. Since then, it has evolved into a larger center with conference halls and workshop rooms. In addition, they own a store that sells Israeli health products from the Dead Sea. 

Christian Zionists in the U.S. and Europe are among the Jewish state’s strongest supporters. However, the younger generation of Westerners is increasingly exposed to growing hostility towards Israel. This societal development has also reached the Evangelical Christian community in the United States. Joel C. Rosenberg, the editor-in-chief of ALL ISRAEL NEWS and ALL ARAB NEWS, recently noted a worrying trend that younger Evangelicals are not as pro-Israel as their parents and grandparents.