Flags of fellowship: Jews and Christians stand together in commemorating Oct. 7 victims
An initiative to plant 1,200 flags in a variety of public settings have taken off since its launch in 2024, with the intention of uniting Christian and Jewish communities in support of Israel
More than 3,000 churches, universities and synagogues across the globe are set to plant some 3.5 million Israeli flags this October 7, in the third annual “Flags of Fellowship” campaign launched by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ). What began as a one-off memorial on the first anniversary of the Hamas massacre has become a worldwide tradition, with each 1,200-flag display representing every life lost on the darkest day in Israel’s modern history.
Creating a Global Movement
The initiative started in October 2024, when roughly 220–250 churches in the United States and Canada planted fields of 1,200 miniature Israeli flags on their lawns to mark the first anniversary of the October 7 attacks. By the second anniversary, participation had jumped to more than 1,350 organizations in North America and 10 countries, resulting in over 1.5 million flags planted worldwide.
This year, the IFCJ is on track to engage more than 2,500 congregations and institutions across all 50 U.S. states and in countries including the UK, India, South Africa and Latin America. If the goal is met, more than 3 million flags will be on display.
Yael Eckstein, the Fellowship’s president and global CEO, has described the campaign as a way for “the silenced majority” of Christians to visibly stand with Israel and the Jewish people at a time of surging antisemitism. “These Christians are saying: the enemies of Israel burn the flags; we’re going to plant them,” she said in remarks tied to the project.
Following in Jesus' Footsteps
This year’s flagship IFCJ event was held at the restored Byzantine church at Banias in the Golan Heights, a site with deep resonance for both faiths. Tradition holds that this is where Jesus told his disciple Peter, “You are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church,” making it one of Christianity’s foundational locations. At the same time, the site has become a modern symbol of Jewish–Christian coexistence in Israel.
The church was abandoned after Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967 and stood in ruins for decades. Following years of restoration and cleanup, it is now a functioning church overlooking the Banias Nature Reserve, used for services and interfaith gatherings.
George Deek, Israel’s newly appointed special envoy to the Christian world and one the speakers at Banias, called events like this “a living testimony” to the bond between Christians and Jews in Israel, not just between diaspora Christians and Israeli Jews.
Rising Antisemitism and a Counter-Narrative of Support
The Flags of Fellowship campaign is explicitly designed as a response to rising antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment since October 7, 2023. IFCJ materials describe the project as a way for Christians, congregations and community leaders to “visually and vocally demonstrate their support for Israel during this time of unprecedented antisemitism worldwide.”
Eckstein has emphasized that while antisemitism is “raising its ugly head once again,” what is new is the scale of non-Jewish support now visible around the world. “We might have antisemitism that’s raising its ugly head once again today, but that’s nothing new,” she said. “What’s new is that we have hundreds of millions of friends, non-Jews, who are standing with us.”
Attacks on Christians Becoming More Visible
Amid the coexistence displayed by the IFCJ, there have also been incidents in which Jews have assaulted or harassed Christians in Israel, particularly in mixed cities such as Jerusalem. These include spitting, verbal abuse, vandalism and graffiti targeting Christian cemeteries, crosses, statues and church properties, as well as occasional physical assaults.
Monitoring groups have documented a rise in such incidents in recent years. The Jerusalem-based Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue reported 155 attacks on Christians in Israel and East Jerusalem in 2025, a 40% increase from 2024, with physical assaults such as spitting, hitting and pepper-spraying accounting for 39% of cases. The Religious Freedom Data Center recorded 181 incidents in 2025 and 88 so far in 2026, putting the year on track to surpass previous records. More than 80% of reported incidents occurred in Jerusalem, with the Armenian Quarter particularly affected.
At the same time, Israeli officials and Christian leaders stress that these are small, isolated acts, often perpetrated by fringe elements such as certain Orthodox Jewish or religious-Zionist individuals and seminary students, rather than reflecting broader Jewish or Israeli attitudes. The Israeli government has prosecuted some of the most visible cases, including soldiers jailed for smashing a statue of Jesus in Lebanon, signaling official condemnation of such behavior.
“As we speak, there is a campaign that’s trying to drive a wedge between Israel and Christians around the world,” according to George Deek. “These kinds of events are the immune system against that campaign, coming from the far left, from the far right, from Islamist movements, who are trying to separate the Jews and the State of Israel from its connection to the Christian world.”
Deek has made countering exaggerated narratives about these incidents a core goal of his. “It’s basically part of my mission to make sure that we spread the truth, to counter those false narratives, the narratives that are trying to portray Israel as if it’s a hostile or a dangerous place for Christians to live in, because nothing could be further from the truth,” he has said. He points to the growth of the Christian population in Israel, from about 34,000 in 1950 to roughly 184,000 today, as evidence that Christians continue to live and flourish in the country.
The message of the flags
For the IFCJ, the core message of Flags of Fellowship is that light and good can outshine hate. “I believe light always outshines hate. I believe good always outshines bad,” Eckstein said. “I believe the planting of Israeli flags will ultimately give the message to the world that the Jewish people are here to stay, that we’re not alone.”
The campaign is meant to serve both as remembrance and as a shield against efforts to isolate Israel. Deek described these gatherings as “the immune system” against campaigns seeking to separate Israel from its Christian allies, while Eckstein framed them as proof that “the enemies of Israel burn the flags; we’re going to plant them.”
As October 7 approaches, millions of small Israeli flags will rise from church steps, university quads and synagogue grounds around the world, each one a memorial to a life lost, and each one a statement that, in the words of the Fellowship, “the Jewish people are not alone.”