At last week's inaugural meeting of the council of South Sudanese refugees in Israel, Charmaine Hedding, who organized the group, sticks out - as usual. Tall, fair-skinned and platinum blonde, she sits surrounded by seven Sudanese men who also tend to be tall, but whose skin is the color of mahogany.

Charmaine Hedding.
Photo: Esteban Alterman

The meeting takes place in the old German Colony mansion that houses the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, where Hedding is in charge of special projects, mainly the annual Feast of the Tabernacles, which is expected to draw some 8,000 Christians to Israel this week. (Her father, Rev. Malcolm Hedding, heads the embassy, which is co-publisher of The Jerusalem Post Christian Edition.)

But in the last year and a half, Charmaine, 35, has become one of the leading activists on behalf of the thousands of African refugees who've crossed the Egyptian border into Israel. Devoting three days a week to their cause, she's put the well-funded, well-connected embassy, the pioneer among contemporary Christian Zionist organizations in Israel, at the refugees' service. With the government generally treating them as an unwanted burden, Hedding at times works with, but at other times around, Israel's powers-that-be, usually in concert with left-leaning Israeli human rights organizations.

She grew up in South Africa identifying with the anti-apartheid struggle, a predominantly left-wing movement that, to outsiders, would seem foreign to Christian Zionism. Yet she is no left-winger on the Israeli-Arab conflict - but then she is no apologist for Israeli abuses of innocent Palestinians, either. In several ways, Hedding breaks the stereotype about Christian lovers of Israel. She sticks out from the evangelical mainstream almost as starkly as she does at a table with seven men from Sudan.

The council, which was elected by the (mainly Christian) South Sudanese refugees around the country, is meant to be a voice for the community to the government. The main thing the community wants, say the men, is education for their children. In Eilat, where the refugees work at the hotels, a lot of Sudanese teenagers are roaming around and getting into trouble because there's no school for them and they're too young to work. The children spent so many years in refugee camps and on the run that they are way behind in their education, and the parents want them to have a future - ultimately, back in Southern Sudan.

Hedding speaks English to them in her soft South African accent while the men speak a jumble of English and Sudanese dialects, which they translate for her. Toward the end of the meeting, one says: "You know, Charmaine, we are Africans, we come from different communities, there are a lot of disagreements, a lot of confusion, and you don't have to help us, you're doing it because you want to, which we really thank you for so much. But it's going to be a long time, a lot of work, until we can go back home. Are you really going to be with us until then?"

Christians from around the world take part in the Feast of the Tabernacles festivities in Jerusalem. [file]
Photo: Courtesy

Hedding has a very quiet, gentle manner, but her composure and purposefulness, together with her tall, blonde good looks and classy clothing, give her an authoritative presence. Folding her hands and leaning slightly forward, she tells the inquirer: "One of the first words I learned when I came to this country was savlanut [patience]." It is the only Hebrew word spoken at the meeting, and the refugees laugh and nod in recognition. An understanding has been reached.

THE MEETING with the Sudanese is a rare break for Hedding from the project that's completely dominated her time lately, the Feast of the Tabernacles. In the embassy's computer room upstairs, she gives instructions to 10 women volunteers preparing for registration day, goes around to guide them on how to use the software, meanwhile making calls to try to smooth the arrival of foreign VIPs and delegations.

A smartly dressed, widely grinning woman comes into the room. "Charmaine? Hi! Carrie Burns from Champaign, Illinois." Hedding was a guest on Burns's Christian radio show some months ago, and Burns is here studying Hebrew, training at Yad Vashem to teach the Holocaust at American churches, and to volunteer for the Feast. Hedding gets up and gives her a hug.

Recalling the interview, Burns says to her, "You did such a good job. What you said just really engages believers. It shows that with all the bad news from Israel, there's good news too."

Later, I ask Burns what Hedding told her audience. "She talked about the refugees who came from Sudan through Egypt to Israel, and how the embassy is helping these Christian Sudanese, how it's helping the government of Israel care for them."

I ask what impression Hedding gave of the government's treatment of the Africans. "Positive," replies Burns. In this mission of mercy, she says, the Christian Embassy and the Israeli government are "a partnership made in heaven."

In truth, the only government bodies in Israel that have taken a positive attitude toward the refugees are the Tel Aviv and Beersheba municipalities; otherwise, it is Israeli civil rights organizations, synagogues, churches, charities, a few medical institutions and random volunteers who have kept the refugees afloat.

In view of her radio interview with Burns, I ask Hedding whether this is a sticky dilemma for her - whether her Christian Zionism, the embassy's role as an advocate for Israel, and the demands of the evangelical community compel her to sugar-coat the government's handling of African refugees.

She maintains there's no dilemma. "I do criticize the government, and pretty candidly. If people ask me, I will talk about it," Hedding says. "When Israel was starting the policy of 'hot return' [forcing apprehended refugees right back across the border to Egypt], I did a news conference with [activist] Eitan Schwartz and I spoke about the dangers in no uncertain terms. When people come to your country to ask for asylum, and you deny them entry without knowing whether they're at risk, you're placing human lives in danger." She noted that she began the day with a 7:30 a.m. meeting with civil rights attorneys attending the Supreme Court challenge of the "hot return" policy.