BBC Chastised for Describing Jesus as Dark Skinned Palestinian

BBC Chastised for Describing Jesus as Dark Skinned Palestinian

Lying speech is an abomination to Hashem, But those who act faithfully please Him. Proverbs 12:22

The revisionist narrative making the absurd contention that Jesus was a Palestinian, is becoming even more prevalent and is being weaponized against both Israel and christianity.

BBC: Jesus as a Palestinian Man of Color

The United Kingdom branch of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA) called out the BBC radio program Heart and Soul broadcast on December 18th titled Black Jesus. 

“The identity and color of Jesus – and why it matters – has taken on a new significance in this year of protest and change,” the presenter,  Robert Beckford, described as “one of the UK’s prominent black theologians”, stated. “Seeing Jesus as a darker-skinned Palestinian rather than blonde European is both historically accurate and theologically important, but it’s not a new idea.”

“Despite the fact it’s more realistic as a first-century Palestinian Jew that Jesus was dark-skinned, somehow the white Jesus has become the most popular and accepted image,” Beckford stated early in the broadcast, adding later, “The color of Jesus matters, both literally and symbolically. A first-century Palestinian Jew had color…”

The claim is Wrong in ever Respect

It should be noted that Beckford’s statement displays a total lack of familiarity with actual “Palestinians”, more accurately described as Israeli Arabs, who are descended from immigrants from the Arabian peninsula and are not people of color. 

Beckford went on to describe Israel, in fact, the entire region, in inappropriate political and geographic terms in the context of Jesus’s flight to Egypt.

“…in reality, Jesus was a refugee whose family had to flee North Africa due to persecution. He was one of the oppressed by the colonizers of his day.”

The statement is incredibly anachronistic as there has never existed a political entity called Palestine and at the time Jesus lived, Bethlehem where he was born and Nazareth where he lived were parts of Israel. As such, both of Jesus’ earthly parents were Jewish.

This perception of Jesus is certainly not an accurate depiction of history or even a religious statement. It is, in fact, a reiteration of a false narrative adopted by the Palestinian Authority.  It is believed that the credo was an invention of Yasser Arafat’s adviser Hanan Ashrawi, a Christian, who said in an interview to the Washington Jewish Week on February 22, 2001, that “Jesus was a Palestinian.”

Official PLO Platform

This became the official PLO platform as evidenced by their frequent reference to Jesus as “the first Palestinian martyr” and whose annual Christmas statement reads, “Every Christmas, Palestine celebrates the birth of one of its own: Jesus.”

At a Christmas ceremony last year, Dr. Mohammad Shtayyeh, the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, referred to Jesus as “a Palestinian guerrilla fighter”.

Left-Wing Democrat Revisionists

This narrative was adopted by left-wing activist Linda Sarsour and several times in the New York Times. 

This egregious perversion of history and religion is becoming mainstream in the Democratic party.Last year, Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Muslim, retweeted the NYT op-ed. Raphael Warnock, senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church and a Democratic candidate for the US Senate, referred to Jesus in one of his sermons as “a Palestinian prophet.”

James Sinkinson, president of Facts and Logic About the Middle East (FLAME), wrote an article, referring to the narrative as “the Big Lie.” Sinkinson noted three reasons for perpetuating the Big Lie:

1. Establish a Palestinian people when there was none.
2. Place Palestinian Arabs in the Holy Land long before Arabs actually arrived there.
3. Characterize Jews as religious adherents, not a people.