Every December, right on cue with the blinking reindeer and inflatable Santas gasping for air on suburban lawns, a certain seasonal tradition returns. No, not the fruitcake that refuses to die. I’m talking about that annual proclamation that Jesus was basically a Palestinian freedom fighter in sandals.
Apparently this is now a holiday classic.
For the uninitiated, the idea goes like this. People who want to score ideological points suddenly discover that the most famous Jew in history was actually not Jewish at all. Never mind that every line of the New Testament won’t shut up about his Jewish identity. Never mind that his disciples were Jewish, his audience was Jewish, his entire life was steeped in Judaism. Nope. Overnight he becomes the first century’s answer to modern political branding.
There is only one slight problem. The whole “Jesus was Palestinian” claim is about as historically accurate as calling Aristotle a European Union citizen. The people living in that region at the time didn’t call it Palestine. The name was slapped on later by Rome, the original colonial empire with no chill, after crushing a Jewish revolt. That was decades after Jesus was gone. Saying Jesus was Palestinian is like insisting King David was Jordanian because somebody drew a border on a map three thousand years later.
But historical accuracy is so last season. The facts don’t matter. The narrative does.
And the narrative is simple. Erase the Jewishness of Jesus. Erase the Jewish connection to the land. Replace it with a clean, ready made storyline that fits neatly on social media graphics with dramatic fonts. Suddenly Jesus is reborn as the prototype of the modern Palestinian struggle, complete with keffiyeh themed nativity scenes. Because nothing says deep theological insight like turning the manger into a political cartoon.
If this were only silly it would be mildly annoying, like people who insist hummus is a personality. But there is a far uglier layer underneath. For close to two millennia, Jews were branded collectively guilty for the death of Jesus. That accusation fueled massacres, expulsions and every flavor of antisemitism in the Christian world. That idea officially died only a handful of decades ago.
Now the narrative returns in a shiny new package. Jesus is once again the innocent holy victim. And who plays the villains this time. Take a wild guess. The shift from theological antisemitism to political antisemitism is so seamless you’d think it came with a user manual.
And make no mistake, the comparison is spreading. Entire corners of the far right Christian world in the US have discovered that rebranding Jesus as Palestinian provides a convenient moral club to swing at Jews. History repeats itself. First as tragedy, then as very poorly written internet commentary.
Look, you can believe whatever you want about modern politics. You can critique Israel, support Palestinians, oppose war, demand justice, all that. But taking a Jewish man who lived and died as part of a Jewish community under Roman occupation, and rewriting him as the symbolic patron saint of your current political cause, isn’t solidarity. It’s historical identity theft.
So happy holidays, whatever you celebrate. Jesus was Jewish. Entirely, deeply, fully Jewish. If you claim he was something else, you’re either confused, misled or just looking to troll Jews for sport.
Find a hobby. Preferably one with footnotes.
And happy new year while we’re at it.
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