Invited by Ambassador Liora Herzl and Israel´s Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The mayor of Sderot points to the border with Gaza where Hamas fires at Israel several times a day (photo: Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

Ambassador Liora Herzl (Photo: Mark Neyman / Government Press Office of Israel, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=65975762)

Pentecostal pastor Jan-Aage Torp has returned to Norway after his four-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian-Arab territories, at the invitation of Israel´s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Torp tells Dagen that he will present his report and challenge to the Pentecostal Movement's Preachers' Conference in Filadelfia, Oslo, which begins tomorrow.

Torp's trip was initiated by Israel's ambassador to Norway, Liora Herzl, a relative of Theodor Herzl, who in cooperation with the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs set up a program that included visits to the city of Sderot, which is located right next to the Gaza border; several places along the much-discussed security fence around Jerusalem; the cities of Jericho and Ramallah; the Ecumenical Theological Research Center at the Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem, which is led by Secretary General Dr. Petra Heldt, professor of theology at the Catholic Pontifical Institute in Jerusalem; as well as a number of other meetings with Jewish and Christian religious leaders. His local host was diplomat Mark Regev.

Jan-Aage Torp next to a simple rocket launcher that Israeli authorities have confiscated in Gaza (photo: Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

After Pentecostal preachers Marit Landrø, who is the director of Synzygus – the Pentecostal Movement’s office for pastoral care and guidance, and Frank Matre, who is the pastor of Tønsberg Pentecostal Church, participated in Norwegian Church Aid’s study trip to the Palestinian-Arab areas in Israel in December, they launched strong attacks on Israel in the Christian press in Norway. Marit Landrø told Vårt Land: «I was reminded daily of the apartheid system from my missionary time in South Africa. The parallels are clear. I am embarrassed on behalf of my people, in the same way that I was embarrassed by the behavior of the whites in South Africa».

Torp immediately contacted Ambassador Herzl to see for himself the places that Landrø and Matre described so negatively.