A leading US evangelical Christian is in charge of aid distribution in Gaza. Should this be a concern? What does it say about US intentions in the Strip?
Amid the war of words over who is and who’s not responsible for starvation in Gaza (or even if there is starvation), the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has emerged as the Israel-US preferred way to feed the 2 million residents — a move they say is necessary to cut the resistance/terrorist group Hamas out of the picture.
Moore (or less)
The man in charge of the foundation is Pastor Johnnie Moore Jr, once right-hand man to televangelist and conservative activist Jerry Falwell Jr, having graduated from Falwell’s Christian university, Liberty. Moore was appointed by US President Donald Trump in June, as Israel and the US moved to take control of aid away from the UN and international aid agencies on the grounds that Hamas was commandeering aid, either to feed its supporters, sell it to Gazans at a profit or withhold from Gazans to induce a starvation crisis.
Moore was recently forced to defend the foundation against allegations that its distribution locations have become a focal point for killing Palestinians by the IDF. The UN said that as of July 21, 1,054 had been killed while trying to get food: 766 near Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites and 288 near UN and other humanitarian organisations’ aid convoys. (GHF and the IDF dispute the figures and have denied targeting civilians. The IDF has, however, admitted to firing “warning shots” towards “suspects”.)
Former green beret Anthony Aguilar, who worked for GHF, has accused it of being “amateur”, alleging that it was “inexperienced, untrained” and had “no idea how to conduct operations of this magnitude”: “That would be my most benign assessment.” (The foundation denied Aguilar’s claims and attacked his credibility.)
Holy orders
Moore was part of Trump’s evangelical advisory board in 2016, alongside other members of America’s evangelical Christian royalty. Packed with star power, the board included Fallwell Jr and firebrand preacher Kenneth Copeland and his wife, Gloria. (Copeland, who preaches the so-called prosperity gospel, has a nett worth of some $450 million.) Others included glamorous Trump favourite Paula White, and Jentezen Franklin, the millionaire preacher who has had a long association with Hillsong’s Brian Houston.
Side by side with his Christianity, Moore has built a career as an evangelical public relations executive through his company Kairos.
As Christianity Today reports, American evangelicals are driven by a biblical vision to protect Israel, and have long been integral to US diplomacy in the Holy Land. Moore enjoys especially close ties with Israel. He was awarded the Simon Wiesenthal Centers Medal of Valor in 2017. Last month, after his appointment to the GHF, Moore was interviewed by The Jerusalem Post about his “journey to Zionism” and his views on a World Zionist Village to be completed in Israel 2028 (“ … a powerful opportunity to deepen Christian engagement with Israel and Zionism”.)
The Christian Zionist movement followed by Moore supports a mass Jewish return to the land of Israel as fulfilling a biblical prophecy. In this, he joins the Trump administration’s ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, another evangelical Christian who has espoused the end-of-days Christian Zionist belief. In 2020 Huckabee was named in a list of top 50 US supporters of Israel, along with a host of Trump-supporting evangelical pastors including White and Franklin.
Blood runs cold
Last Friday, amid growing international outrage over starvation in Gaza, Huckabee and Trump envoy Steve Witkoff travelled to Rafah in Gaza’s south to inspect a GHF site. At the same time, a Human Rights Watch report called the Moore-run foundation “a flawed, militarised aid distribution system that has turned aid distributions into regular bloodbaths”.
“It would be near impossible for Palestinians to follow the instructions issued by GHF to stay safe and receive aid, particularly in the context of ongoing military operations, Israeli military-sanctioned curfews, and frequent GHF messages saying that people should not travel to the sites before the distribution window opens.”
There are reports today of another 27 Palestinians shot and six others dying of starvation and malnutrition. Witnesses said Israeli forces fired on Palestinians at a GHF site.
In the face of constant questions over its ability to do the job, GHF has launched a public relations blitz. Yesterday it released figures claiming that it had distributed nearly 105 million meals in Gaza and “more than 1.5 million meals [were] delivered today across three distribution sites”. The GHF site features pictures of smiling Gazans, with impossibly white teeth giving the thumbs-up as they walk away with sacks of aid.
It’s an improbable take on a dark reality, as discordant as placing a high-profile far-right Christian Zionist in charge of food relief to a starving Muslim population.
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