- ARAB NEWS
- 01 May 2025
Since 1975
DUBAI: A video published on Nov. 24 showed a group of Japanese people visiting an Israeli Defense Forces base, signing bombs planned for Gaza and dancing with the soldiers.
The now-deleted video was published on a YouTube channel named ‘Solomon Channel,’ whose owner, Kenmon Kokubo, is a Japanese man living in Jerusalem.
Kokubo led a large group of Japanese people, believed to be part of the ‘Makuya – The Original Gospel Movement,’ to visit several Israeli villages surrounding the besieged Gaza Strip.
During their visits, they wrote messages of prayer on artillery shells and took photos with the war tanks and ammunition.
An account on X with the name Johnny, who claims to be a Japanese student enrolled in an Israeli university, posted several images of a similar tour shown in Kokubo’s video.
On Nov. 24, Johnny said: “A while ago, I toured the besieged Gaza Strip. This is the area affected by the attack by the terrorist organization Hamas on October 7th.”
少し前ですが、ガザ地区包囲地域を視察してきました。10月7日のテロ組織ハマスによる襲撃の被災地です。
— Johnny 🇮🇱🇯🇵 (@m081542460) November 24, 2023
特に野外パーティー周辺は悲惨な状態でした。車は破壊され、落ちていた服には無数の銃弾とされるものがありました。… pic.twitter.com/LcmHzOtsFn
The Japanese student also posted photos of the areas Israel claimed to be attacked by Hamas as well as IDF weapons. He also showed the smoke billowing from Gaza as Israel continued its bombardment of the strip.
The term “makuya” is a Japanese word for a tent, or the holy tabernacle in the biblical sense. The Makuyas do not have a specific church building or place of worship as they believe in ‘non-church’ worship.
The movement, also known as ‘new Zionism,’ was established in 1948 and founded by a successful Japanese businessman Abraham Ikuro Teshima.
Teshima, a deeply religious Christian, believed that in order to grasp the spirit of the Bible, it was essential to reach a deeper understanding of the Jewish faith, its people, language and history.
That is why the Makuya movement conducts pilgrimages to Israel. The movement also has over 300,000 Japanese subscribed to its newsletter.
