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Media Falsely Help Turn Ancient Jewish Jesus Into a Modern-Day Palestinian
People stand in Manger Square in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Dec. 17, 2019. Photo: Reuters / Raneen Sawafta.
Every Christmas season, the mainstream media publishes several news articles and opinion pieces that seek to reinvent history by claiming that Jesus was Palestinian (or, at the very least, born in Palestine), and that the present-day experiences of Palestinians in the Holy Land are akin to the experiences of the Holy Family at the time of Jesus’ birth.
In effect, these pieces divorce the story of Jesus from its ancient Jewish context, and re-settle it within a modern political milieu.
With the war between Israel and Hamas still raging through the Christmas season this year, the peddlers of the “Jesus was a Palestinian” narrative have gone into overdrive, inserting it into mainstream media coverage while also blasting it around on social media.
In the mainstream media, the “Palestinian Jesus” story focused heavily on a nativity scene set up by the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem, which depicts baby Jesus draped in a keffiyeh and laying atop a pile of rubble.
In numerous reports on this creative blend of traditional religious iconography and modern-day politics, the mainstream media gave the Church’s head, Reverend Dr. Munther Isaac, ample space to rejig the ancient figure of Jesus for a contemporary audience.
In The Guardian and the Washington Post, Reverend Isaac is quoted as saying that “If Jesus was born today, he’d be born under the rubble of Gaza,” essentially removing Jesus’ Jewish identity and making him a member of present-day Palestinian society.
In the Associated Press, Reverend Isaac is similarly quoted as saying that “We see Jesus in every child that’s killed [in Gaza].”
This sentiment was also expounded upon in an NPR program where one guest stated that “If you look for Jesus today, he is in Gaza.”
At Bethlehem’s Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church, Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac set up a crèche with “Palestinian” baby Jesus wrapped in a keffiyeh and lying in a pile of rubble.
As a supporter of the Kairos Palestine, @MuntherIsaac is an antisemite who espouses replacement… pic.twitter.com/sah26sAAhm
— Elder of Ziyon (@elderofziyon) December 21, 2023
Instead of implicitly connecting Jesus to contemporary Palestinian society, the Irish Examiner went so far as to claim that “Jesus was a Jewish Palestinian refugee,” while a guest on CNN’s Christmas Day programming referred to Jesus as a “Palestinian Jew.”
You don’t need a degree in ancient history to understand why referring to Jesus as “Palestinian Jew” is a misnomer.
Considering the word “Palestina” wasn’t invented by the Romans until about 2CE — 200 years after Jesus was born — we can say with confidence that he was not a Jewish “Palestinian” as @GarethOCal claims in @irishexaminer.https://t.co/NxG0smHFwQ pic.twitter.com/kT5dr2lPCo
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) December 11, 2023
Along with Jesus’ newly found Palestinian identity, some media outlets also drew comparisons between Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians and the treatment of the Holy Family by Herod and the Romans.
On NPR, one guest drew a parallel between the Roman occupation of Judea and Israel’s current control over the West Bank. He blatantly disregarded the fact that Bethlehem falls under the authority of the Palestinian Authority, and that the Romans were foreign occupiers, while Israel is an indigenous state.
Similarly, both NPR and the Religion News Service ran absurd comparisons between the descent of Jesus’ family to Egypt in order to escape Herod’s bloodlust, and Israel’s ordering Palestinians in northern Gaza to move south for their own safety as the IDF works to rout Hamas from the north.
If mainstream media organizations are willing to serve as platforms for the re-invention of Jesus, it is no surprise that anti-Israel news organizations also did so.
In a report on the muted Christmas festivities in the Holy Land this year, Al Jazeera referred to Jesus as being born in Palestine with no mention of his Jewish ancestry.
For its part, Iran-sponsored Press TV did reference Jesus’ Jewish background, even calling him a “Jewish rabbi,” but then dove headfirst into a discussion of whether, as a Palestinian, present-day Jesus would only be a member of Hamas’ civil administration or whether he would have joined the military [i.e. terrorist] wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
‘Jesus of Palestine’
In this Christmas edition of the show, we will be asking where Jesus would stand as the Palestinian resistance factions continue to push back against Israel’s barbaric occupation forces.https://t.co/uEWGdBp0jmhttps://t.co/uEWGdBp0jm
— Press TV (@PressTV) December 23, 2023
On social media, the “Jesus was Palestinian” narrative also spread like wildfire, with many being much more blatant in their erasure of Jesus’ Jewish identity.
On Instagram, US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) posted a story which claimed that Jesus “was born in modern-day Palestine”; compared Israel to the Romans; and absurdly asserted that “this high Christian holiday is about honoring the precious sanctity of a family that, if the story were to unfold today, would be Jewish Palestinians.”
That would certainly be something to note as there are currently no “Jewish Palestinians.”
On X (formerly Twitter), independent journalist Richard Medhurst posted a rant with the headline “Remember this Christmas that Jesus is Palestinian,” while UN-accredited activist Mohamad Safa tweeted that Christmas is the celebration of “the birthday of a Palestinian man.”
Former Dutch parliamentarian Arnoud van Doorn even went to the extreme of posting an antisemitic illustration of Jesus on the cross, wrapped in Palestinian symbols and surrounded by soldiers, with the caption “They killed him again. Merry Christmas.”
They killed him again.
Merry christmas. #Gaza pic.twitter.com/CpR9oJpGwg
— Arnoud van Doorn (@ArnoudvDoorn) December 24, 2023
It is not uncommon for people to read their personal experiences into Biblical stories and texts, drawing inspiration and comfort in times of need.
However, the replacement of Jesus’ Jewish background with a modern-day Palestinian identity goes beyond textual interpretation, serving as a means of discrediting both the Jewish state as well as erasing the indigenous connection between contemporary Jews and the Holy Land.
The post Media Falsely Help Turn Ancient Jewish Jesus Into a Modern-Day Palestinian first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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UN Security Council Meets on Iran as Russia, China Push for a Ceasefire
Members of the Security Council cast a vote during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the 3rd anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at UN headquarters in New York, US, Feb. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/David Dee Delgado
The U.N. Security Council met on Sunday to discuss US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites as Russia, China and Pakistan proposed the 15-member body adopt a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East.
It was not immediately clear when it could be put to a vote. The three countries circulated the draft text, said diplomats, and asked members to share their comments by Monday evening. A resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, France, Britain, Russia or China to pass.
The US is likely to oppose the draft resolution, seen by Reuters, which also condemns attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites and facilities. The text does not name the United States or Israel.
“The bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States marks a perilous turn in a region that is already reeling,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Sunday. “We now risk descending into a rathole of retaliation after retaliation.”
“We must act – immediately and decisively – to halt the fighting and return to serious, sustained negotiations on the Iran nuclear program,” Guterres said.
The world awaited Iran’s response on Sunday after President Donald Trump said the US had “obliterated” Tehran’s key nuclear sites, joining Israel in the biggest Western military action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution.
U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council that while craters were visible at Iran’s enrichment site buried into a mountain at Fordow, “no one – including the IAEA – is in a position to assess the underground damage.”
Grossi said entrances to tunnels used for the storage of enriched material appear to have been hit at Iran’s sprawling Isfahan nuclear complex, while the fuel enrichment plant at Natanz has been struck again.
“Iran has informed the IAEA there has been no increase in off-site radiation levels at all three sites,” said Grossi, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Iran requested the U.N. Security Council meeting, calling on the 15-member body “to address this blatant and unlawful act of aggression, to condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”
Israel‘s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said in a statement on Sunday that the U.S. and Israel “do not deserve any condemnation, but rather an expression of appreciation and gratitude for making the world a safer place.”
Danon told reporters before the council meeting that it was still early when it came to assessing the impact of the U.S. strikes. When asked if Israel was pursuing regime change in Iran, Danon said: “That’s for the Iranian people to decide, not for us.”
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Israel Rejects Critical EU Report Ahead of Ministers’ Meeting
FILE PHOTO: Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, June 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
Israel has rejected a European Union report saying it may be breaching human rights obligations in Gaza and the West Bank as a “moral and methodological failure,” according to a document seen by Reuters on Sunday.
The note, sent to EU officials ahead of a foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday, said the report by the bloc’s diplomatic service failed to consider Israel’s challenges and was based on inaccurate information.
“The Foreign Ministry of the State of Israel rejects the document … and finds it to be a complete moral and methodological failure,” the note said, adding that it should be dismissed entirely.
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Pope Leo Urges International Diplomacy to Prevent ‘Irreparable Abyss’
FILE PHOTO: Pope Leo XIV holds a Jubilee audience on the occasion of the Jubilee of Sport, at St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican June 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi/File Photo
Pope Leo on Sunday said the international community must strive to avoid war that risks opening an “irreparable abyss,” and that diplomacy should take the place of conflict.
US forces struck Iran’s three main nuclear sites overnight, joining an Israeli assault in a major new escalation of conflict in the Middle East as Tehran vowed to defend itself.
“Every member of the international community has a moral responsibility: to stop the tragedy of war before it becomes an irreparable abyss,” Pope Leo said during his weekly prayer with pilgrims.
“No armed victory can compensate for the pain of mothers, the fear of children, the stolen future. Let diplomacy silence the weapons, let nations chart their future with peace efforts, not with violence and bloody conflicts,” he added.
“In this dramatic scenario, which includes Israel and Palestine, the daily suffering of the population, especially in Gaza and other territories, risks being forgotten, where the need for adequate humanitarian support is becoming increasingly urgent,” Pope Leo said.
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