Many anti-Israel advocates are using the Christmas holiday to push the false “Jesus was a Palestinian” narrative, pointing out the number of Israeli obstacles Mary and Joseph would encounter today between Nazareth and Bethlehem—the biblical journey the couple took for the birth of Jesus.
Hillel Neuer, director of the NGO U.N. Watch, slammed those accusations.
“If Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem today, they’d be lynched by your Hamas and PLO friends for being Jewish,” he wrote on X.
If Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem today, they’d be lynched by your Hamas and PLO friends for being Jewish. https://t.co/38YSboOJWA
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) December 24, 2024
Scholars and historians have concluded that Jesus Christ was a Jew from Judea who lived under Roman rule. The Roman Empire did not rename the land “Syria Palaestina” until around the time of the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 C.E., over a century after Jesus’ death.
The controversy surrounding the “Jesus was a Palestinian” narrative came to a head earlier this month when the Vatican displayed a nativity scene featuring baby Jesus atop a black-and-white keffiyeh, a symbol often linked to Palestinian nationalism. They have since removed the display.
According to 2022 estimates, only some 33,000 local Christians remain in the three towns of the Bethlehem area. In Bethlehem itself, only one in five residents is Christian, down from 80% before it was placed under Palestinian Authority control in 1995.
