A 12-member delegation of Rwandan Muslim religious leaders arrived in Israel last week for a six-day visit hosted by the Israeli Foreign Ministry.
During their stay, the group, which included two women, toured the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, visited an Israeli-Arab community, a Bedouin village and the mixed Israeli city of Jaffa, as well as some of the sites related to the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 invasion of southern Israel.
Dushimiye cyane Umuryango w’Abayisilamu mu Rwanda @islamrwanda twafatanyije gutegura uru ruzinduko, aho Abayisilamu biganjemo aba 'imam' n'abacuruzi basuye #Isiraheli
Mur'uru ruzinduko, basuye ahantu hatagatifu hatandukanye, basabanye n’abaturage, kandi bagaragaje ko… https://t.co/I4pRoSwAV5
“Especially at this time, we wanted to show the Muslim leaders the religious pluralism that exists in Israel and the history of our nation in order to deepen our interfaith ties,” Israeli Ambassador to Rwanda Einat Weiss told JNS on Wednesday.
She noted that the religious leaders were stunned to see the freedom of religion at the mosque, as they had been certain Israel had taken control of it based on disinformation being spread on social media.
The wartime visit comes amid a major Israeli outreach to hundreds of millions of Christians supporters of Israel in Africa over the last two years.
Two months ago, a group of Muslim religious and community leaders from Europe also visited Israel.
The delegations come amid growing antisemitism across the globe in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 massacre, which sparked an ongoing war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
