The complete fabrication asserting Jesus was a Palestinian foments antisemitism.
When the Vatican’s newest Christmas manger opened in December 2024, Pope Francis was on hand to celebrate the exhibit — and so was a spokesman for the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO).
PLO representative Ramzi Khouri conveyed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ “warm greetings” and extended his “deep gratitude for the Pope’s unwavering support for the Palestinian cause…”
The PLO’s presence was fitting, as this Vatican manger, located in the Vatican’s massive Paul VI Audience Hall, carries a distinctly political message with an infant Jesus laying on a keffiyeh, a traditional scarf that is associated with Palestinian political activism today. Pope Francis understood the political significance, announcing at the opening that Bethlehem is being attacked (it’s not), and “Enough wars, enough violence.” It was a not-so-subtle dig at Israel, which the pontiff has urged to cease its self-defensive war against Hamas.
This Vatican exhibit was created by students at Dar al-Kalima University, an art school in Bethlehem that was created and is run by Rev. Mitri Raheb, a Lutheran pastor and outspoken anti-Israel activist. Rev. Raheb helped write the infamous Kairos Palestine document which has been adopted by a number of churches across the world and which portrays Israeli-Arab relations in Manichean terms, with Israel being the “enemy” of all that is good. Raheb’s Kairos Palestine screed declares “the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land is a sin against God and humanity” and that the Jewish state is supposedly “an evil that must be resisted.” He belongs to groups with links to terrorism and which support violence, boycotts, and demonisation of the Jewish state.
Rewriting history that Jesus wasn’t a Jewish resident of the Jewish country of Judea but rather a Palestinian man who was persecuted by Jews is gaining ground around the world, including in the Vatican.
The Vatican Palestinian-themed manger was a major success for a movement that is trying to rewrite history and recast Jesus not as a Jewish resident of the Jewish country of Judea — which both Christian and other sources indisputably describe him to be - but as a Palestinian man who was persecuted by Jews. Yet it can be resisted: after a week of protests by Jewish organisations worldwide, the Vatican quietly shelved this outrageous display. Yet the damage was already done: millions of people around the world had already seen Pope Francis give his blessing to the Jesus-as-a-Palestinian manger. This wildly ahistorical nonsense is gaining ground around the world, including in the Vatican.
Jesus was born a Jew in Judea
- Pope Francis, Jesus were not Palestinian
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First, a dose of reality. Jesus was a Jew who lived in Judea, a distinct Jewish country. Judea had been the ancient homeland of the Jews ever since the 10th Century BCE, when King David established Jerusalem as Judea’s capital. The name Judea comes from Judah — Yehuda in Hebrew — one of Jacob’s 12 sons who first settled the area that makes up modern-day Israel as a Jewish nation. In fact, the very word “Jew” also derives from Judah’s name, and is intertwined with the history of the Jewish land of Judea.
In the First Century CE — the era in which Jesus lived — Judea was embroiled in civil strife. It was a partially independent part of the Roman Empire and was ruled by a local puppet king installed by the Romans, and also by a procurator who was directly appointed by Rome. Christians will be well aware of the procurator Pontius Pilate, who was installed as procurator in 25 CE and who ordered Jesus — as well as thousands of other Jews — to be murdered. (Within a few decades, in 70 CE, the Roman authorities would destroy the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem and absorb Judea into the Roman Empire.)
The Christian Bible describes Jesus living a Jewish lifestyle, celebrating Jewish holidays, and visiting the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. While Jesus’ teachings dramatically left Judaism behind and in no way represent Jewish thought or practice, the fact that he was born a Jew was never in doubt.
As Samuel Ungerleider, a professor of religious studies at Brown University, has observed: “Of course, Jesus was a Jew. He was born of a Jewish mother, in Galilee, a Jewish part of the world. All of his friends, associates, colleagues, disciples, all of them were Jews. He regularly worshipped in…synagogues…. He lived, was born, lived, died, taught as a Jew.”
His nationality was Judean. In fact, the name Palestine was never applied to the land of Judea until the Roman Emperor Hadrian crushed a major Jewish revolt led by Shimon ben Kosibar, known as Bar Kochba, in 135 CE. Hadrian renamed Judea “Syria Paelaestina:” “Syria” because the province was considered part of southern Syria, and “Paelaestina” as a reference to the ancient Plishtim people of the Bible — a Greek group who settled along the coast of present-day Israel — who were known as a fearsome enemy of the Jews.
