Advocacy groups marked the week of Christmas in New York City with a Times Square billboard stating that “Jesus is Palestinian,” coupled with a coordinated media campaign.
Two billboards displayed in Times Square were paid for by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. One states: “Jesus is Palestinian, Merry Christmas.” A second featured a Quranic verse describing the birth of Jesus.
ADC national executive director Adeb Ayoub took credit for the billboards “from all of us at the ADC family,” later claiming that “Christians and Christianity are under attack in the birthplace of Jesus.”
The ADC wrote on Instagram that the billboards were “an act of cultural resilience” and shared an infographic from the Qatari-based news agency Al Jazeera alleging “201 incidents of violence against Christians” in Jerusalem.
Similar messaging appeared elsewhere in the city. Video circulated online, seeming to show demonstrators outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan on Christmas Day holding signs and chanting “Jesus was Palestinian” as people went to mass.
Greta Thunberg, a climate activist who has been a harsh critic of the Jewish state, said in a statement with the nonprofit Slow Factory and a grassroots group Humanti Project on Dec. 25 that “Jesus was a Palestinian under occupation.” (Thunberg has 16.5 million followers on Instagram, where the post was shared. The other three have about a combined 3.6 million.)
Thunberg led the flotilla campaigns with other anti-Israel activists this summer and fall that attempted to enter Gaza with a paltry amount of humanitarian supplies.
“For the Christians of the world, the son of God you worship was born in Palestine Bethlehem, today under violent occupation,” the post said. “If that child was born today, chances would be he would be imprisoned in Israeli military jail.”
