The storming of propaganda about Israel and Zionism with their undercurrent of Jew-hatred falls into several areas. There is Arab-Islamist rejectionism of recognizing any Jewish national identity. This has expanded to the erasing of Jewish history as regards the relationship of Jews to their national homeland over the past 3,000 years.
The continuum of the presence of the Jews in this land, even under foreign domination, repression, and, as during a period of Ottoman rule an outright ban on immigrating to the country, is generally almost unknown. Somehow, the meme that Zionism began in the 19th century among European Jews has reached a level of an undeniable catechism.
There is the Marxist orientation of defining Zionism as a form of colonialism which, since the 1960s, has become identified as “settler-colonialism.” Also beginning at that time was the enlistment of black American revolutionary ideology that linked Jews with “white supremacy.” Through the recent intersectionality apparatus, it has been highlighted in Ta-Nehisi Coates’s recent “Jim Crow” indictment of Israel in his travelogue, The Message.
Another is Christian anti-Zionism. Herzl confronted it when meeting Pope Pius X on Jan. 26, 1904. He was told the return of Jews to Jerusalem could not be sanctioned. “The Jews have not recognized our Lord,” said the pope, “therefore we cannot recognize the Jewish people.”
The Catholic Church’s pressure on certain countries in 1947, as happened back in 1920-22, not allowing Zionism any diplomatic or political achievements in international forums was a considerable obstruction. In more recent years, there was the Kairos Document and Christ at the Checkpoint attempts.
Recognizing the importance of groups like Christians United for Israel (CUFI), among many others, anti-Zionists are focusing more on disconnecting the links that have been created with Evangelicals. IfNotNow has a poster displayed asking “Who is the U.S. war lobby?” and identifies “Christian Zionism (i.e., CUFI)” quite prominently.
A new anti-Zionist recruit is conservative political commentator Candace Owens, a Catholic who was convinced by social-media platforms to adopt her new beliefs. During the British Mandate period, the chaplain to the Palestine Police was Eugene Hoade, an Irish Franciscan who spouted antisemitism in his sermons, his views, one researcher wrote, “profoundly informed by the theological Judaeophobia pervasive in contemporary Catholic thinking.”
Obviously, it’s time some very basic truths need to be resurrected for these anti-Zionist Christians.
According to Matthew 2:1-12, coming from the East, Three Wise Men visited Jerusalem, bearing gifts. They asked, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we … have come to pay him homage.” Herod, hearing of this, took counsel and was informed that the Messiah would be born “In Bethlehem of Judea … in the land of Judah.”
They then set out for Bethlehem in Judea and found him. Warned in a dream not to return to Herod, wisely, they left to return to their own country but by another path leaving Herod uninformed.
While wise not to reveal to Herod the location, they were even wiser to know that the child was Jewish; he was born in Judea and that area was the land of Judah, a son of Jacob. While not specified, I am fairly certain that they knew the country was not Palestine and as such, that the child was not an Arab Palestinian (even if, earlier this month, the current pope gazed upon a Nativity display of a manger scene that had the representative doll resting on a keffiyeh).
Pope Francis attended the unveiling of the exhibition at the Paul VI Hall on Dec. 7. It was designed by artists Johny Andonia and Faten Nastas Mitwasi from Bethlehem’s Dar al-Kalima University.
“The keffiyeh was added at the last minute during the installation phase,” said Faten Nastas Mitwasi, one of the two artists, students at Dar al-Kalima University in Bethlehem overseeing the project, along with Johny Andonia.
In a Dec. 12 interview with the Religious News Service, she said that while it was not their initial intention to turn the display into a political statement, they welcomed the final addition of the keffiyeh as a symbol of national identity. She added, “This is a gift from the Palestinian people. So, it’s holding and carrying the Palestinian identity.”
Minister for Diaspora Affair Amichai Chikli quickly wrote to the pope that the decision to portray the scene as such was “a deliberate adoption of the Palestinian narrative.” Within days, the keffiyeh was removed.
A few years ago, in response to the propaganda campaign comparing Jesus, Mary and Joseph with present-day Arabs being held up a roadblock put up by the Israel Defense Forces, there was need of a concerted effort to point out that roadblocks are due to Arab terror operations and not to Jews seeking to be cruel. Moreover, as Matthew 2:19 records, Mary and Joseph, following Herod’s death, returned from a short exile from Egypt and the country to which they came back is recorded, at 2:20-21, as “Israel.” Again, no “Palestine.”
Anyone who searches the Christian Bible will find dozens and dozens of references to Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. And a Jewish Temple, too, which was also an object of PLO chief Yasser Arafat’s erasure efforts. “Palestine” and “West Bank” are not to be found, nor, as the case is, in the Quran. Not even Jerusalem. However, at Sura 5:21 the Children of Israel are charged to live in the Holy Land (al-Ard al-Muqaddas).
The verse refers to the words spoken by Moses to the descendants of Isaac: “Remember Moses said … O my people! Enter The Holy Land which God hath written for you, and turn not back.”
Imam Abu al-Qasim Mahmud al-Zamakshari, in his 11th-century commentary al-Kashaf, explained that the borders of “the Holy Land” are from Mount Hermon and part the Golan, whereas others say it extends from the territory of the Philistines (Gaza) until Damascus.
It would be wise to inject more objective, fact-based, ecumenical and genuine knowledge into the regional equation, which would achieve much for religiously motivated supporters—and opponents—of Zionism.