Israel's seventh Christian Media Summit was held in Jerusalem from November 2 to 6, 2025, for the first time in person since the Hamas-led attack in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
Hosted by the Government Press Office (GPO) in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ), the summit drew more than 150 Christian journalists and influencers from over 40 countries, urging for a fight against misinformation and for truth and more cooperation and solidarity with Israel.
Nitzan Chen, GPO director, gave opening remarks on the first day, underscoring the duty of Christian media to tell the truth in a media environment easily exploited to spread lies, disinformation, and deception. "As journalists, it is our duty to report the facts as we see them on the ground." However, "People swallow disinformation whole and headlines have become little more than clickbait." He stressed the duty of journalists to "show reality as it is to resist the trap of easy headlines or the unverified images" and "to bring honest and responsible reporting to the readers and viewers who place their trust in us."
At the opening gala night on November 3, Amichai Chikli, Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs, greeted the participants with a welcome in the rough and challenging time that the past two years have lost "many good men and women." Chikli said that the war against the Jihadists, radical Islam, is far from being over. "It's not just here in Israel. We are seeing what's happening in Nigeria, and no one speaks about what's happening to Christians in Nigeria just for their belief." So is the same that's happening in South Sudan and for the Christian minorities in the Middle East. Built on the three common values of faith, morality, and freedom, "Jews and Christians need to be united."
"You're here at an important tipping point for Israel [and] for the world." Isaac Herzog, president of Israel, addressed the participants via a recorded video, "My dear friends, the role of the free press in mediating the reality on the ground is making truth accessible to the public, and ultimately, in driving global developments, it remains paramount for all of us."
Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel, thanked the Christian participants for their consistent support over the past two years via a recorded video. In the Middle East, Israel is a safe place for Christians, as Jews and Christians are brothers, he added. "I'm proud to say that we have no better friends in the world."
Yael Eckstein, president and global CEO of IFCJ, talked about the meaning of "Hineni" ("Here I am"). She cited "Hineni" moments in the Bible when God called Moses, Abraham, and Joshua, who all responded with "Hineni," to change history. "God called each of you, 'Ayaka' (Where are you?)," she said. "We have a choice: Do we move forward alone or do we go with God?" Eckstein encouraged the participants to respond with "Hineni," which chooses "truth in the face of lies, even when sometimes standing on the side of lies could be easier."
Troy Miller, president and CEO of National Religious Broadcasters (NRB), which has equipped Christian media leaders for truth, freedom, and proclaiming the gospel for over 80 years, stated that while we are in the golden age of communication, where messages travel faster than ever before, discernment is left behind. "We're surrounded by voices, yet we are starving for truth," he said.
Miller acknowledged that more than seventy percent of Americans don't trust mainstream media, but 66% believe in Christian media, according to a recent NRB survey. "Christians and Jews are bound by more than our shared history found in scripture. We are bound by the truth, the values, and the morality found in scripture." Citing Paul's words in the book of Romans, he referred to the Jews as the cultivated olive branches and the Gentiles as the wild olive branches grafted in. "Our partnership must be reciprocal," he called out to Jews to speak out when Christians are persecuted across the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, and also to Christians to stand with the Jewish people. Miller also mentioned that NRB will hold a historic media convention in Jerusalem in late 2026 during the next Christian Media Summit in cooperation with GPO.
Featuring Israel's political, civic, cultural, and religious landscape, the conference conducted panels, speeches, tours to the Gaza border, Samaria, the northern Golan Heights, Mount Bental toward Syria, and a visit to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In addition, "The Pillars of Jerusalem Awards" were given by Moshe Lion, mayor of Jerusalem, Nitzan Chen, director of GPO, and Yaakov Livne, Israel's ambassador to Poland, to Dr. Jurgen Buhler, president of International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ), Douglas Murray, British author, journalist, and political commentator, Charlie Kirk, the recently deceased founder and president of Turning Point USA, and Yael Eckstein, president and global CEO of IFCJ, for their contributions to and alliances with Israel.
On the third day, Christian media professors travelled to a Christian site in Capernaum and Kibutz El Rom in northern Golan Heights to learn about the main ministry of Jesus and the local Jewish community, in which thousands of residents were forced to be relocated in the Galilee region and the Golan Heights. A Zoom meeting connected participants with a Syrian citizen from Sweida, where many Christians live, to discuss the situation of the Druze and Christian communities in Syria.
On the fourth day, two survivors of the October 7 massacre, which killed more than 1,400 people and took 253 people kidnapped, and families of hostages shared their stories. At the Noval festival site, where an open-air music festival began on October 7, 2023, a Zaka representative said that she lost five friends and eventually escaped the murder after three days' running and hiding.
Special panels about modern manifestations of antisemitism, Jewish-Christian relations, and faith and journalism were held on the last day at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
