The Gibeon Project: Declaring Solidarity with Israel from the Highest Mountain Tops of South Africa!

The Gibeon Project: Declaring Solidarity with Israel from the Highest Mountain Tops of South Africa!

by Regardt Ferreira, Co-Chairman of the Support Association for Zionism (an association of Jewish and Christian Zionists), who led a dedicated group of South African Zionists proclaiming their solidarity with the Jewish state from the highest mountains of South Africa during September and October 2011

“Mission accomplished. 9 mountains later, through strong winds, snow, hail, heavy rain, dense fog, and thunder, with lots of bumps and bruises, we managed to summit the highest mountains in South Africa.; deciding to brave the elements in showing our support and solidarity with Israel during these difficult times for the Jewish state. Each climb - from 7 Weekspoort in the Western Cape to Mafadi in Natal - held challenging surprises.

“In fact, I remember hiking to Namahadi and being caught up and battered by a hail storm with thunder all around, thinking: this is really the last place I want to be. Still we prevailed by grace and found our way down a 50m chain ladder against a flat rock face, in what felt like a tornado. After reaching base camp and resting for only a day, we headed south towards Mafadi mountain, the highest and most challenging of all the climbs.

“After reaching Njisuthi reserve, the weather looked highly unpromising. However, we decided to go for it, only to be greeted by a hail storm 30 minutes into our hike; having to remind ourselves continually why we were doing this - which helped to overcome our own personal discomfort and spur us on in our determination to support Israel!

“Perhaps our difficult experiences in the mountains were indeed tastes of reality; in keeping with the fact that many Israel supporters throughout the world could be out of touch with the extent of the dire challenges currently facing Israel – just as climbing these mountains to support Israel was not the easy walk in the park we thought it would be.

“However, as South African Zionists we showed our passionate love for Israel, by prevailing against the extreme elements of nature to proclaim our support  loudly on high while raising the Israel and South African flags and shouting from the highest mountains in South Africa: “ISRAEL YOU ARE NOT ALONE!”

Regardt Ferreira
SAZ Co-chairperson

7Weekspoort (2325m) Western Cape
Murch Point (2156m) Northern Cape
Nooitgedacht West (1806m) North West
Toringkop (1913m) Gauteng
Iron Crown (2126m) Limpopo
Die Berg (2331m) Mpumalanga
Namahadi (3291m) Freestate
Kwaduma (3019m) Eastern Cape
Mafadi (3451m) Kwazulu Natal

Note: The name Gibeon in hebrew means hill; This is the hill where the God of Israel appeared to king Solomon and granted him wisdom and understanding to lead the people. In the book of Kings it refers to Gibeon as "for that was the great high place". Interestingly this is also the place where the tabernacle stood before it was moved to Jerusalem.