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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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‘With or Without Russia’s Help’: Iran Pledges to Block South Caucasus Route Opened Up By Peace Deal
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 8, 2025. Photo: Kevin Lamarque via Reuters Connect.
i24 News – Iran will block the establishment of a US-backed transit corridor in the South Caucasus region with or without Moscow’s help, a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader was quoted as saying on Saturday by the Iran International website, one day after the historic peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
“Mr. Trump thinks the Caucasus is a piece of real estate he can lease for 99 years,” Ali Akbar Velayati said of the so-called Zangezur corridor, the establishment of which is stipulated in the peace deal unveiled on Friday by US President Donald Trump. The White House said the transit route would facilitate greater exports of energy and other resources.
“This passage will not become a gateway for Trump’s mercenaries — it will become their graveyard,” the Khamenei advisor added.
Baku and Yerevan have been at loggerheads since the late 1980s when Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous Azerbaijani region mostly populated by ethnic Armenians, broke away from Azerbaijan with support from Armenia. Azerbaijan took back full control of the region in 2023, prompting or forcing almost all of the territory’s 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee to Armenia.
Yet that painful history was put to the side on Friday at the White House, as Trump oversaw a signing ceremony, flanked by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
The peace deal with Azerbaijan—a pro-Western ally of Israel—is expected to pull Armenia out of the Russian and Iranian sphere of influence and could transform the South Caucasus, an energy-producing region neighboring Russia, Europe, Turkey and Iran.
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UK Police Arrest 150 at Protest for Banned Palestine Action Group
People holding signs sit during a rally organised by Defend Our Juries, challenging the British government’s proscription of “Palestine Action” under anti-terrorism laws, in Parliament Square, in London, Britain, August 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Jaimi Joy
London’s Metropolitan Police said on Saturday it had arrested 150 people at a protest against Britain’s decision to ban the group Palestine Action, adding it was making further arrests.
Officers made arrests after crowds, waving placards expressing support for the group, gathered in Parliament Square, the force said on X.
Protesters, some wearing black and white Palestinian scarves, chanted “shame on you” and “hands off Gaza,” and held signs such as “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action,” video taken by Reuters at the scene showed.
In July, British lawmakers banned Palestine Action under anti-terrorism legislation after some of its members broke into a Royal Air Force base and damaged planes in protest against Britain’s support for Israel.
The ban makes it a crime to be a member of the group, carrying a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
The co-founder of Palestine Action, Huda Ammori, last week won a bid to bring a legal challenge against the ban.
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‘No Leniency’: Iran Announces Arrest of 20 ‘Zionist Agents’
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi addresses a special session of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, June 20, 2025. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
i24 News – Iranian authorities have in recent months arrested 20 people charged with being “Israeli Mossad operatives,” the judiciary said, adding that the Islamic regime will mete out the harshest punishments.
“The judiciary will show no leniency toward spies and agents of the Zionist regime, and with firm rulings, will make an example of them all,” spokesperson Asghar Jahangiri told Iranian media. However, it is understood that an unspecified number of detainees were released, apparently after the charges against them could not be substantiated.
The Islamic Republic was left reeling by a devastating 12-day war with Israel earlier in the summer that left a significant proportion of its military arsenal in ruins and dealt a serious setback to its uranium enrichment program. The fallout included an uptick in executions of Iranians convicted of spying for Israel, with at least eight death sentences carried out in recent months. Hit with international sanctions, the country is in dire economic straights, with frequent energy outages and skyrocketing unemployment.
In recent weeks Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi affirmed that Tehran cannot give up on its nuclear enrichment program even as it was severely damaged during the war.
“It is stopped because, yes, damages are serious and severe. But obviously we cannot give up of enrichment because it is an achievement of our own scientists. And now, more than that, it is a question of national pride,” the official told Fox News.