It’s barely believable! Many Western Christian organisations express support for the Palestinian ‘cause’, despite claims made by prominent Palestinian leaders that outrageously degrade Jesus, inciting hatred towards Jews. Some lack of awareness is due to the inscrutability of Arabic to us Westerners. However, thanks to various translations available via Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) and Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), for many years now I have been aware of persistent claims that Jesus was a Palestinian, often associated with the Christmas and Easter periods.

A glaring example, written by journalist Adel Abd Al-Rahman appeared in the official Palestinian Authority daily newspaper, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, on Christmas Eve 2013: “Today humanity is celebrating the birth of Jesus by conducting mass in churches all over the world in honour of the birth of the messenger of love and peace who was persecuted by the Jews from the first day he raised the banner of the New Testament. When it seemed to them that they had caught him, they crucified him and to this very day they persecute him through incessant attacks against the Arab Palestinian people. … his Palestinian national identity is undeniable, for he was a son of this land and he laid the foundation for the Canaanite identity.” Bizarre, to say the very least!

Weaponising Jesus

Marcus Itamar, of PMW, sometimes provides a compendium¹ worthy of our attention and prayer, including many translated quotations, some of which are cited here. On November 29th, 2012, the Deputy-Secretary of Fatah’s Central Committee, Jibril Rajoub, stated on the Palestinian Authority’s TV channel, “The greatest Palestinian in history since Jesus is Yasser Arafat”. The following day, on the same channel, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Muhammad Hussein, declared, “Jesus is a Palestinian par excellence.” This was quickly followed on December 16th by the historian Khalil Shoka claiming that “In the final analysis, Jesus is a Palestinian.” It is important to note that this is not benign ‘cultural appropriation’, but is used to bolster a virulent anti-Semitism. Mufti Hussein, speaking of suicide bombings against Israelis on October 6th, 2006, stated, “It is legitimate, of course, as long as it plays a role in the resistance.”² In January 2012, Hussein addressed a crowd during the anniversary of the founding of the Palestinian nationalist political party, during which he quoting the Islamic hadith, “The Hour will not come until you fight the Jews. The Jews will hide behind stones or trees. Then the stones or trees will call, ‘O Muslim, servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.’”³

Much more recently, there is clear evidence that such attitudes have not changed and that some strange kind of Islam-‘Christian’ solidarity is being promoted. For example, speaking at a conference held by the Islamic Jihad movement in the Gaza Strip in 2017, the Roman Catholic Monsignor Manuel Mosallam, of the Islamic-Christian Council, said that Jerusalem is the Palestinian people’s eternal homeland and capital: “The only solution is the resistance and civil disobedience…. Al Aqsa is part of our Islamic faith”.4

Other examples of attempts to encourage Islamic-‘Christian’ solidarity are:

• Palestinian Authority Government spokesman, Ibrahim Melhem, PA TV, Dec. 24, 2020: “The holiday of the birth of the Palestinian prophet Jesus, the son of Mary.”
• Fatah Central Committee member, Abbas Zaki, Facebook page, April 29, 2021: “Jesus was a Palestinian... All Christians believe that he was Palestinian.”
• Israeli-Arab MP Samy Abu Shahadeh, PA TV, Dec. 13, 2021: “The entire world knows that Jesus is Palestinian.”

Such propaganda is specifically directed at Jews. This latter factor isn’t immediately obvious until certain Arabic-Islamic concepts are unpacked, in particular those of ‘Shahid’ and ‘Fid’ai’.

Jesus – a martyr for the Palestinian cause?

The term ‘Shahid’ refers to anyone who dies for the sake of Islam, in the service of Allah and is automatically rewarded with a place in Paradise with 72 virgins, and the term ‘Fid’ai’ (plural ‘fedayin’) means ‘self-sacrificing fighter’. Both terms are applied by the Palestinian Authority to those who murder Jews. For example, Yahya Muhammad Skaf, who participated in the murder of 37 people, 12 of them children, was hailed as “the Fida’i who has been forgotten in the Zionist enemy’s prisons since March 11, 1978”.⁴ Then there is Ashraf Na’alwa, who murdered his two Israeli co-workers Kim Levengrond, mother of a 15-month-old, and Ziv Hajbi, father of three, who was described as a “Heroic Shahid” and “The legend. The heroic Fida’i.”⁵

Shamelessly, Jesus is frequently and similarly described. The daily newspaper, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida declared on Dec. 20th 2020, “Jesus was a messenger of Allah, and he was the first Palestinian Fida’i”, whereas Fatah Central Committee member, Tawfiq Tirawi, referred to “Jesus the Messiah, the first Palestinian and the first Shahid” on his Facebook page on Christmas Eve 2019, and on the same day in 2021, “The first Fida’i and the first Shahid, the messiah Jesus.”

Even some expatriate Palestinians do this. The former Fatah leader Muhammad Dahlan, who was the security chief for Gaza and was exposed in 1997 as diverting 40% of the taxes levied at the Karni Crossing from Israel to his personal bank account (about one million Israeli Shekels a month)⁶, and who now lives in exile in Abu Dhabi, posted on Facebook on Christmas Eve 2021, “Jesus… has an additional and extraordinary status in our Palestinian hearts, for he is the first Fida’i … and he is the first Shahid”.

Opening eyes to the truth

Whatever sympathies one might have with the Palestinian people, surely it is gravely mistaken to support persons or organisations who turn a blind eye to such blatant abuses. It is quite possible that many are completely ignorant of such corrosive propaganda. Perhaps this coming year we should assess how we can open peoples’ eyes to it. Throughout it all, truth matters and much discernment is needed. In contending for truth we should work to expose the lies. Isaiah 62:6 exhorts us, “I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; They shall never hold their peace day or night. You who make mention of the Lord, do not keep silent”.

We must above all continue to obey Psalm 122, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem”, however hard the task. Pray, too, for all upholding Biblical truth and promoting the Gospel – such as CMJ’s work in Christ Church and beyond, the witness of the Garden Tomb, for example. Pray also that Palestinian and Israeli eyes will be opened to see the truth that is in Jesus – the one and only Light of the World.

Let us follow with enthusiasm the example of the Apostle Paul who declared, “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved” (Rom 10:1).

Notes
1. E.g. (a) PA daily columnist spreads libel that Jews crucified Jesus | PMW Translations (palwatch.org) Jan 14 2022. (b) The PA says Jesus was Palestinian If they tell a lie enough times, does it become truth? | PMW Translations (palwatch.org) Dec.23 2021, both accessed 28 Dec 2022.
2. The Media Line, "Top Palestinian Muslim Cleric Okays Suicide Bombings", Yaniv Berman (17 Oct 2006)
3. Official Fatah Facebook page, July 11, 2018
4. Jerusalem’s Islamic-Christian Council calls for building Palestinian army – Middle East Monitor 26 Dec 2017
5. Official Fatah Facebook page, Dec 13, 2018
6. The Murder of Musa Arafat and the Battle for the Spoils of Gaza, Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs. 10 Oct 2005.
7. E.g. Supreme Moslem Council (1924), A Brief Guide to al-Haram al-Sharif, Jerusalem, Moslem Orphanage Printing Press