How do you say ‘Merry Christmas in Arabic? Protests Around the World Claim Jesus Was Palestinian
Pro-Palestinian protesters around the world chose Christmas as a day to declare that Jesus was a Palestinian, an anachronistic and false narrative first adopted by terrorists and President of the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Arafat, and even tacitly promoted most recently by Pope Francis.
Anti-Israel demonstrators gathered outside New York City’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral during Christmas celebrations, staging a protest against Israel.
Video documentation shared by the demonstrators showed dozens of protesters positioned along the sidewalk as churchgoers exited the cathedral. The demonstrators displayed Palestinian flags and carried placards declaring “Jesus was Palestinian,” featuring an inverted red triangle, a Hamas symbol.
The protesters incorporated symbolic displays into their demonstration, including placing a baby doll wrapped in a keffiyeh on the sidewalk. During the protest, one speaker, holding a doll covered in a red-stained sheet, addressed the gathering, stating, “Today, if Jesus were born in Bethlehem, he would be born under occupation and quite possibly he would be born under the rubble.”
This past week, the Antisemitism Research Center (ARC) from the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) tracked numerous incidents centered around this false notion, including:
Anti-Israel protesters in Bristol, England, staged a procession through the center of the city, featuring a float depicting a “2024 Palestinian Nativity Scene” under the banner of “Jesus was a Palestinian?”
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British adventurer Bear Grylls was criticized for referring to Mary, Jesus’ mother, as a “terrified Palestinian girl” (he later amended the language to “terrified girl living in first-century Palestine”).
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Earlier this month, Pope Francis attended a nativity scene crafted in Bethlehem, Israel, depicting the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem featured Baby Jesus lying on a Keffiyeh, a traditional Arab head covering for men that PLO leader Yasser Arafat appropriated as a symbol of Palestinian terrorism.
In a Christmas Day column in the Palestinian daily Al-Quds, Jordanian-Palestinian journalist and writer Hamada Fara’neh — a member of the PLO Palestinian National Council — claimed that Christianity belonged to the Palestinians and Jesus was the “first Palestinian martyr.”
In a Christmas Day column in the Palestinian daily Al-Quds, Jordanian-Palestinian journalist and writer Hamada Fara’neh, a member of the PLO Palestinian National Council, took the claim even further, writing that Christianity belonged to the Palestinians and Jesus was the “first Palestinian martyr.”
In the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison, demonstrators unfurled a “Jesus is Palestinian” banner overlooking the Christmas tree in the Rotunda.
CAM responded to the claim:
“A quick historical note,” CAM tweeted. “‘Maryam’ (Mary) was a Jewish woman from Judea, under Roman rule. The region wasn’t called ‘Palestine’ until 100 years later when the Judeans (Jews) were exiled and Emperor Hadrian renamed it Syria Palaestina after the Bar Kokhba Revolt to try to sever the Jewish connection to the land. A lot of people over the millennia since have believed his propaganda.”
“While Mary’s family fled to Egypt to escape King Herod’s persecution, calling her a ‘Palestinian refugee’ not only imposes modern terminology on ancient history, but completely eradicates her Jewish identity. It’s historical nonsense, with an agenda/”
“If you want to honour her story, tell it properly,” CAM concluded.
The false narrative depicting Jesus as a Palestinian is a mainstay of Palestinian propaganda. While Islam reveres Jesus as a non-divine prophet of Mohammad, the “Palestinian” movement has rewritten history, portraying Jesus as a Palestinian. It is believed that the credo was an invention of Yasser Arafat’s adviser Hanan Ashrawi, a Christian, who said in an interview with the Washington Jewish Week on February 22, 2001, that “Jesus was a Palestinian.”
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 in 2019, Dr. Mohammad Shtayyeh, the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, referred to Jesus as “a Palestinian guerrilla fighter.”
The narrative was incorporated into Christian theology, depicting Jesus as a secular Social Justice Warrior fighting the “Occupation”. “Liberation Theology” is a twist on classical Christian belief, attempting to base Palestinian resistance to Israel as well as Palestinian national aspirations in the Christian Gospel. It includes an intense valorization of Palestinian ethnic and cultural identity as guarantors of a more accurate grasp of the gospel because they are the true inhabitants of the land of Jesus and the Bible. Liberation Theology defines Jesus as a Palestinian living under Israeli occupation. It defines Christianity as a human rights movement.
Pal-Awda, an anti-Israel activist network, organized the demonstration. St. Patrick’s Cathedral, a prominent Christian landmark rising above Fifth Avenue in midtown Manhattan, had previously experienced similar protests during Easter. The article notes that pro-Palestinian activists had organized comparable demonstrations in the same area during the previous year’s Christmas season, also asserting Jesus’s Palestinian identity.
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