Israeli society is one in which Arab Christians have a combination of “freedom, opportunity, and belonging,” which is why many of them “are proud to be Israeli,” Israel’s ambassador to the Christian World, George Deek, told The Jerusalem Post.
Deek’s comments referred to a May public opinion survey of Arab citizens of Israel published by Tel Aviv University’s Konrad Adenauer Program for Jewish-Arab Cooperation. Among Christian Arab respondents, Israeli identity was the most commonly cited as the most important component of their personal identity.
The survey found that 37.8% of Christian Arab respondents said this was the case. A total of 33.4% said their Arab identity was most important to them, 24.9% selected their Palestinian identity, and 3.9% chose their Christian identity.
“Israel has succeeded where much of the region has failed: it has created a society in which Arab Christians can preserve their faith and identity while participating fully in the life of the state,” Deek stated. “Christians in Israel worship freely, receive a strong education, build successful careers, and serve in medicine, law, diplomacy, academia, business, and public life. That combination of freedom, opportunity, and belonging is why many Arab Christians are proud to be Israeli.”
However, he cautioned that “pride should never be taken for granted” and that more had to be done to ensure equal opportunity for Israel’s Arab Christians.
Deek called on Israel to “invest in Christian towns and institutions, confront crime and discrimination, protect Christian holy sites, and respond firmly to every act of harassment or religious hatred.”
He also said Arab Christians should also have a stronger and more consistent role in shaping the country’s policy and representing Israel internationally.
“The goal should not be to ask Christians to choose between being Arab, Christian, and Israeli. Israel is at its best when its citizens can be all three, confidently and without apology,” he added.
Christian World Ambassador comes from longest continuous lineage in Jaffa
Deek’s comments followed a Sunday meeting between the ambassador and a small group, including the Post, at the Israel365 office in Beit Shemesh on Sunday.
Deek comes from a centuries-old line of Christians to inhabit the port city of Jaffa.
“We are a family that can prove the longest continuous lineage in the city of Jaffa, about 370 years, which makes us the natives and everyone else in the city an immigrant,” he joked at the meeting.
Deek, who earned his LL.B from Reichman University, is an attorney who has served in the Israeli Foreign Ministry since 2008. There, he was the Israeli ambassador to Azerbaijan from 2019 to July 2025, becoming the country’s first Christian ambassador in its history.
Appointed as the country’s envoy to the Christian world in April of this year, he is also the first ever to fill the role.
During the meeting, Deek framed Israel’s treatment of its Christian minority as part of a wider struggle over the future of religious and ethnic diversity in the Middle East.
“Israel is a home to thriving minority communities, whether Muslim or Christian or Druze or others, showing a different model to the rest of the region,” he said.
Israel as Jewish state inseparable from concern for Arab Christians
Deek argued that his work on behalf of the Jewish state was inseparable from his concern for Arab Christians and other minorities.
“I don’t do this because I care about Jews more than I care about others,” he said. “In fact, I do this precisely because I care for the future of my community, my people.”
“A Middle East that has no room for a Jewish state is a Middle East that has no room for anyone,” he said, adding that he saw defending Israel’s right to exist as central to safeguarding the rights and existence of other minorities in the region.
“We know all of the frustrations that everybody has, and the fact that Israel has not has not been doing enough to meet the needs of our Christian allies, or doesn’t respond appropriately when something unfortunate happens,“ Israel365 founder Tuly Weisz told the Post after the meeting. “This is why I was so excited to hear that the government finally did appoint a special envoy. We really all just want to help him.”
Israel365, which focuses a lot of its work on the relationship between Israel and broader Christian and conservative audiences, launched the Israel Truth Network to “respond rapidly to fake news about Israel.”
Weisz noted that the organization launched the initiative at the request of the Israeli government following a recommendation from the late pro-Israel conservative Christian activist, Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated last year.
