Posted on 01/04/2026 7:47:58 PM PST by lasereye
Many local New Yorkers and visiting tourists were rightly upset to see a massive billboard in Times Square proclaiming that, “Jesus is Palestinian. Merry Christmas.”
Making matters even worse was another billboard containing a citation from the Quran (Surah Al-Imran 3:45), with Allah announcing the good news of the birth of Jesus the Messiah.
The ads, which were sponsored by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), was said to be acts of “cultural resilience.”
In reality, they promoted falsehood and stirred conflict at a time that is still sacred to hundreds of millions of Christians worldwide.
As for allegedly demonstrating unity in the belief systems of Christianity and Islam, the billboards did the opposite, since the Jesus of the Quran is not the Jesus of the Bible.
To the contrary, the Jesus of Islam is a very different Jesus.
He is not the Son of God, he did not die for our sins, he did not rise from the dead, and he is absolutely not to be worshiped as God. As for his teaching and his character and his work, almost none of it is recounted in the Quran.
To say, “Muslims believe in Jesus,” would be similar to someone saying, “I believe in Muhammad. But I don’t believe he was a prophet and I don’t believe the Quran is God’s Word.”
Comparatively speaking, the Jesus of the Quran is even more gutted than that. (For Muslims reading this article, I encourage you to read the Gospels for yourself – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John – so that you can discover the real Jesus.)
As for Jesus being Palestinian, this anachronistic claim has been circulating in one form or another for decades. But since it has resurfaced so loudly and prominently again, it’s time to set the record straight once more.
In short, Jesus was a Galilean Jew, not a Palestinian (let alone a Palestinian Muslim). He celebrated Passover, not Ramadan, and he was called “Rabbi” not “Imam.” His followers were named Yaakov and Yochanan and Yehudah, not Muhammad and Abdullah and Khalid. And he himself had one of the most common Jewish names of the day: Yeshua.
As for the name “Palestine,” it was not used in any widespread way to describe the land of Israel until 135 AD – in other words, more than 100 years after Yeshua’s death and resurrection. And it was renamed Palestine by the Romans to mock the Jewish people, thereby calling their ancient (and sacred) homeland the land of the Philistines.
Jesus was born in Bethlehem, a Jewish city in the heart of Judea. It was not then part of “Palestine” and no one on the planet was called “Palestinian.” These are simple, indisputable, historical facts.
The Jewish Messiah was born to a Jewish mother in a Jewish city in Judea.
As for Islam, it was not to come on the scene for more than 600 years.
But it is not only anachronistic to label Jesus a Palestinian.
It is also misleading.
That’s because the word “Palestinian” today speaks of non-Israelites, of non-Jews. It speaks of a people who claim that the land of Israel belongs to them, not to the Jewish people.
And it speaks primarily of Muslims.
That’s what comes to mind when someone says, “Jesus was (or is) a Palestinian.” And that’s why Palestinian activists have tried to recast Jesus in their own image.
Leading up to Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem in 2018, Fatah officials called Jesus “the first Palestinian.”
Five years earlier, in 2013, the PLO declared, “Every Christmas, Palestine celebrates the birth of one of its own, Jesus Christ.”
Back in 2005, the PA stated that, “We must not forget that Messiah [Jesus] is a Palestinian, the son of Mary the Palestinian.”
And Fatah even declared Jesus to be “the first Palestinian martyr (shahid)” in 2015.
As summed up by Itamar Marcus in 2020, according to the Palestinian Authority, Jesus was:
And accordingly:
Christmas is a Palestinian national holiday Anything but declaring that Jesus, who is revered in Islam as a prophet (but, to repeat, not as the crucified and risen Son of God), was a first-century Jewish rabbi.
Instead, Jesus is recast as a Palestinian freedom fighter, born of a Palestinian mother, at war with the evil Jews, and (through Islamic eyes) a prophet of Islam.
God forbid that he is recognized as Rabbi Yeshua, the Messiah of Israel.
The truth is that he was a first-century, Middle Eastern Jew. And he would have been recognized for his distinctive Jewish garb, including the fringes at the corners of his garments (see Numbers 15:37-41; and compare Matthew 9:20; 14:36 in the RSV; NRSV; ESV; NASB; NLT; TLV).
That doesn’t mean that Jesus is indifferent to the challenges faced by the Palestinians. Or that he doesn’t identify with Palestinian Christians. Or that American Christians who support Israel should be anti-Palestinian.
Not at all.
True friends of Israel – especially true Christian friends of Israel – should want justice and fairness for both the Israelis and the Palestinians. As for Jesus, he is both the Messiah of Israel and the Savior of the world, giving his life for Jew and Gentile alike.
But let’s call out this hijacking of Jesus’ identity for what it is: misleading, false, and inflammatory.
Followers of Jesus can welcome Muslim friends wishing them a Merry Christmas (just as Christians wish their Jewish friends a Happy Chanukkah). But let them not rewrite history for their own polemical purposes.
It is as insulting as it is inaccurate, and I say this as both a Jew and a follower of Yeshua.
How many times does a lie have to be repeated before it is considered truth?
Who starts this 🐴💩?
Genetically, many of the people who now live in the Gaza Strip used to be Jews hundreds of years ago. It is complicated in that way.
The Fakestinian terrorist mass- murderer Abbas and his PLO/PA/Fatah terror gang have driven out 90 percent (!( of the Christians from Bethlehem since they took over the town.
It is just like the Islamonazis did in Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria (all different percentages but all common MO)
Actually, North Africa was heavily Christian too before the midland invaded and seized control. History! And just watch -/ the very same anti- Christian attacks are the Islamic invasion program in central Africa today.
Live and let live. Peace. These are definitely NOT what the Islamicists are all about.
There are some peaceful Moslems. But alas, there are also all these killers … it’s a terrible problem.
Somehow it gets missed that we are taking about the ANCIENT OF DAYS.
Skin color, ethnic heritage, or the burial shroud covering his face means jack shit.
We are talking about the CREATOR.
Uh..... no.
1st Thess. 2:15
Palestine was coined by emperor Hadrian around 135 AD after putting down a Jewish revolt and renaming Judea as the Roman province of Palestine. Palestine is derived from philistine, a traditional enemy of the Jews and the ancient home of Goliath.
Would you care to try again?
Palestinians and Jews share deep, common ancestry from the ancient inhabitants of the Levant, particularly the Canaanites, with genetic studies showing both groups retain significant genetic continuity with these Bronze Age populations, though their unique histories (diaspora for Jews, staying in the region for Palestinians) led to different genetic mixes over time, according to multiple scientific studies.
The Palestinians are Arabs.
No Canaanite blood to be found.
So sorry.
That’s right — Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Palestinians. It’s right there in the Bible.
A few years ago I engaged a Freeper who presented some “Christian Identity” stuff that claimed that Jesus, a Gallilean, was a gentile.
This is the same kind of garbage.
It has occurred to me that the Creed we sing in every Orthodox Liturgy and other prayers is denied by Muslims pretty much point by point. No — Muslims do not get to define Jesus in any way.
Jesus was whatever is momentarily convenient to the left for Him to have been.
Homeless, an illegal alien, born out of wedlock, gay, trans, Palestinian, etc etc.
That’s the correct answer.
Multiple peer-reviewed genetic studies confirm that Palestinians, including those in Gaza, share significant ancestry with ancient Levantine populations such as the Canaanites and Israelites, much like modern Jewish populations.
: A notable study found that more than 70% of Jewish men and 82% of “Palestinian” Muslim men share the same paternal ancestors who lived in the region within the last few thousand years.
Following the Roman wars (70–135 CE), the remaining rural Jewish and Samaritan populations gradually converted to Christianity under Byzantine rule. After the 7th-century Arab conquest, these local Christian and Jewish inhabitants slowly converted to Islam, often driven by fiscal incentives, social advantages, or intermarriage with the small ruling elite. The “Arab” identity of Palestinians is primarily linguistic and cultural; genetically, they show relatively low Arabian Peninsula admixture (often less than 10%) compared to their local Levantine roots.
The Arabs were colonizers and the people they conquered lost their previous identities. You can see this happening real time in Pakistan now
Most “Arabs” are genetically NOT Arab, but Syriac, Mesopotamian, Assyrian, Berber, Egyptian, Sudanese, Nubian etc.
Look at Assad, his looks are closer to southern Mediterranean than to a Nejdi Arab.
In Pakistan, genetically they are the same as the Hindus and Buddhists, but they THINK they are descendents of Arabs and are expunging Sanskrit words from Urdu to Arabize that language
.
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