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Pastor John Hagee made headlines after several videos of him speaking at the “March for Israel” rally made it to social media. With the thousands of people who gathered for the rally at the National Mall in Washington D.C. on November 15, 2023, Pastor John Hagee specifically raised the eyebrows of many as he has been criticized for his antisemitic comments over the years.
Disclaimer: This article contains sensitive information and opinions about the Israel-Palestine conflict. Readers' discretion is advised.
As he made an appearance as a speaker at the rally, Pastor John Hagee spoke up about the hostages, and expressed his support, saying:
“We were not here during the holocaust. But we are here now. And we stand shoulder to shoulder with the Jewish people. We stand until those 240 hostages are returned to their homes.”
However, as many videos of the Pastor made way on social media, many criticized him, and claimed that he should not be allowed to speak on the stage due to his history of allegedly antisemitic comments.
Many cited one particular sermon by Hagee from 2008, where he mentioned Hitler. As per Huffpost, he allegedly said at the time:
“God sent a hunter. A hunter is someone with a gun and he forces you. Hitler was a hunter… How did it happen? Because God allowed it to happen. Why did it happen? Because God said my top priority for the Jewish people is to get them to come back to the land of Israel.”
Born in 1940, Pastor John Hagee is an American pastor and the founder and chairman of the Christian Zionist organization, Christians United for Israel.
Pastor John Hagee founded the Cornerstone Church: Details explored as he earns criticism for his appearance at "March for Israel"
Pastor John Hagee is also known to be the founder of the Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, as per his bio on the website of Simon and Schuster. He is also the president and CEO of John Hagee Ministries.
He graduated from Trinity University in San Antonio, following which he got a Master's degree from the North Texas University. That apart, he also has a degree in Theological Studies and an honorary doctorate and has authored 22 books thus far, as per Simon and Schuster.
In 2006, he formed a community, Christians United for Israel. Around the time, he also received many death threats for his stance. Over the years, the pastor has been relentlessly bashed for his comments about Jewish people - in particular for what he said about Hitler - which became the reason why he raised many eyebrows when he was invited to speak at the “March for Israel” rally.
Speaking about the matter, Edward Ahmed Mitchell, the national deputy director of The Council on American-Islamic Relations, noted:
"Hypocrisy does not begin to describe the decision by pro-Israel groups to invite an antisemite to speak at a rally against antisemitism after they spent weeks falsely accusing every pro-Palestine march of being antisemitic."
Hadar Susskind, the president of a nonprofit peace advocacy group, Americans for Peace Now, also posted online about how he believes that the pastor's "history of hateful comments should disqualify him from decent company, much less from speaking on stage."
As Pastor John Hagee uploaded a video of his speech supporting Israel from the "March for Israel" rally, he was bashed by netizens on Twitter:
While the pastor has remained tight-lipped about the backlash and the negative comments, social media users have continued to slam his speech at the rally.
