Why the Pacific Backs Israel: The Faith Alliance – Jerusalem Pattern

Why do these tiny Pacific islands that proclaim anti-colonial self-determination so often vote with or lean towards Israel at the UN? What has seemed a mystery is, in fact, a pattern

Begin not in Suva or Honiara, but in The Hague. On 26 January 2024, the International Court of Justice ordered provisional measures in South Africa v. Israel. Fifteen judges moved one way; Judge Julia Sebutinde of Uganda went the other, dissenting across the board, even as Israel’s ad hoc judge, Aharon Barak, joined the majority on several measures.

Months later, speaking to a church congregation in Kampala, Sebutinde reportedly said “the Lord is counting on me to stand on the side of Israel,” casting the choice in explicitly spiritual terms. Her own words framed it. The same grammar helps explain the Pacific.

When island cabinets vote No or sit out on Palestine while speaking anti-colonial self-determination at home, religious conviction is a primary driver alongside alliances and diplomacy. Strip the policy memos away and the through line is spiritual: mobilised, organised, and fused to statecraft.

WHAT THE VOTE SHOWED

On 12 September 2025, the UN General Assembly called for a ceasefire in Gaza.

From the Pacific: Palau, Papua New Guinea, Micronesia (FSM), Nauru and Tonga voted No; Fiji abstained; Solomon Islands and the Marshall Islands voted For.

The floor speeches were familiar—peace, dignity, decolonisation then the buttons lit up and the map fractured. From outside, the pattern looks contradictory. Up close, it is the predictable outcome of three currents running in tandem.

FIELD NOTES: HOW IT FEELS

A Sunday in Suva: paper blue-and-white flags trimmed the night before; a pastor streams a vigil, Psalms stitched to current affairs. In Port Moresby, a stadium chorus belts “pray for Jerusalem” while flyers circulate for a clergy tour of the Holy Land. In Honiara, a civil-society forum talks nuclear injustice and occupation law. On the Golan, a Fijian peacekeeper writes home about a quiet night and the weight of the vest. Scripture, security, soft diplomacy: once you hear that soundscape, the votes stop sounding strange.

THE RELIGIOUS CURRENT (ORGANISED, NOT ABSTRACT)

This is not generic “faith.” It has branches, calendars, logistics. The International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) runs visible operations in Fiji and PNG rallies, clergy briefings, pilgrimages, knitting local churches into a global Christian-Zionist network.

Allied ministries (including Christians for Israel) and large Evangelical denominations provide distribution. In parts of Solomon Islands, revivalist traditions within the South Seas Evangelical Church have long carried millenarian tones. None of this compels a UN vote; it frames one—giving cabinets a morally certain register (“standing with Israel”) and a base that turns out.

THE STRATEGIC SPINE (COFA REALITIES)

Where Compacts of Free Association bind defence, aid and mobility (Palau, FSM, RMI), cohesion with Washington rises on high-salience files. That spine predates Gaza-2023. This year, the Marshall Islands backed the declaration—proof the rule is strong, not mechanical. Religion explains how the policy is sold at home; COFA explains why the default tilt endures.

THE JERUSALEM CHOREOGRAPHY (SYMBOL → ACCESS → BENEFIT)

Embassies translate theology and alignment into policy. Papua New Guinea cut the ribbon in Jerusalem in 2023, with public statements noting Israeli underwriting at the outset. In September 2025, Fiji opened its Jerusalem mission; Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka cast the step in values-and-faith terms (“build bridges—not walls”). Embassies unlock the virtuous cycle—visits, training slots, water and agriculture projects—making elite affinity durable.

WHY IDENTITY AND VOTES DIVERGE

The Pacific’s political language stands on three pillars: anti-colonial memory, nuclear injustice, indigenous rights—pillars that map cleanly onto Palestinian claims. Divergence appears when another triad aligns: a Christian-Zionist narrative that saturates congregational life; a COFA structure that shapes strategic horizons; and active Israeli courtship that delivers tangible returns. In that braid, No or Abstain are not hypocrisies; they are surface ripples of deeper incentives. Skeptics argue U.S. leverage is the real enforcer, with faith a convenient gloss; yet evidence from non-COFA states like Fiji and PNG suggests conviction runs deeper, with diplomacy reinforcing it.

DIVERGENCES THAT MATTER

The region isn’t a bloc. Solomon Islands and the Marshall Islands voted For; others held firm against. Inside churches and cabinets, arguments for Palestinian rights persist—proportionality, occupation law, the “ocean of peace” ethos. The Pacific Conference of Churches and other ecumenical groups have urged leaders to recognise Palestinian statehood and adopt consistent peace language. Talk radio runs both sides. Think micro-coalitions, shifting caucuses. The politics looks contradictory only if you assume there is one Pacific mind to be made up.

LEGAL CODE (WOVEN, NOT WAVED)

• Rule: Consistency is a currency in international law.

• Application: Privileging one self-determination claim on religious grounds while downplaying a parallel claim abroad invites exceptions to your own decolonisation arguments (West Papua, New Caledonia).

• Consequence: A credibility discount applied later—at the General Assembly, in Paris, in Washington, in Port Vila—precisely when leverage is needed most.

A Fijian pastor on a windy overlook near the Mount of Olives holds a phone so Suva can see the Old City beyond the olive trees. In Port Moresby, a choir rehearses a Hebrew chorus beside an irrigation demo set up by visiting technicians. In Malaita, teenagers learn a hymn to Zion from a Bluetooth speaker; in Honiara, a jurist drafts talking points on self-determination for next week’s forum. That is where the circle is squared: pro-self-determination rhetoric at home, pro-Israel—or cautious—votes abroad. The language of faith persuades; the alliance pays; the diplomacy delivers. The mystery isn’t a mystery. It is a choice—made openly, and made in the idioms that matter in the islands.