A noted biblical scholar is blasting left-leaning politicians for floating the idea that Jesus Christ was a Palestinian — calling the notion “inflammatory” and saying liberals have “mischaracterized reality.”
“This Easter, let’s not try to pretend Jesus was a ‘Palestinian Jew,’” Boston University scholar Paula Fredriksen wrote in an op-ed piece published by the Washington Post last week.
“Calling Jesus a ‘Palestinian’ or even a ‘Palestinian Jew’ is all about modern politics,” Fredriksen wrote. “Besides being historically false, the claim is inflammatory. For two millennia Jews have been blamed for Jesus’ execution by the Romans. Casting him as a Palestinian just stokes the fires of hate.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claimed that Jesus was Palestinian. Getty Images“It is murder an act of cultural and political appropriation — and a clever rhetorical move,” she added. “It rips Jesus out of his Jewish context.”
Several liberals on Capitol Hill, including several “Squad” members, drew heat over Christmas by claiming that Jesus lived in an “occupied” country, drawing a parallel with present-day Palestinians who find themselves in conflict with Israel.
“In the story of Christmas, Christ was born in modern-day Palestine under the threat of a government engaged in a massacre of innocents,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said in a Christmas Day post. “He was part of a targeted population being indiscriminately killed to protect an unjust leader’s power.
“Thousands of years later, right-wing forces are violently occupying Bethlehem as similar stories unfold for today’s Palestinians, so much so that the Christian community in Bethlehem has canceled this year’s Christmas Eve celebrations out of both [fear for their] safety and respect,” she wrote.
Others, including a Catholic priest, Father Edward Beck, made a similar case on CNN on Christmas Day.
“What I’m so struck by is that the story of Christmas is about a Palestinian Jew — how often do you find those words put together?” Beck told the network. “A Palestinian Jew born into a time when his country was occupied, right?
Jesus was born Jewish in Bethlehem. Adam Ján Figeľ – stock.adobe.com“They can’t find a place for her to even give birth, his mother. They’re homeless. They eventually have to flee as refugees into Egypt, no less. I mean, you can’t make up the parallels to our current world situation right now,” he said.
Israeli forces launched a military strike in the Gaza Strip following a sneak attack on the Jewish State by radical Hamas militants on Oct. 7.
The Palestinian-occupied Gaza has since been a war zone.
But Fredriksen, an author and Aurelio professor of scripture emerita at the Boston school, said the pair must have missed a few history classes.
Aurelio Professor of Scripture emerita at Boston University Paula Fredriksen rapped politicians for claiming Jesus was a “Palestinian Jew.” Boston University“Bethlehem has been administered by the Palestinian Authority since 1995,” she wrote in her op-ed. “Once a significant majority there, the Christian population plunged from 86 percent in 1950 to less than 12 percent in 2016.
“What does this mean? It means that Jesus was not ‘Palestinian,’ nor was he a ‘Palestinian Jew,'” she wrote. “This is so for a simple reason: There was no political entity called ‘Palestine in his lifetime.
“If Jesus was born in Bethlehem he was born in Judaea as a Jew. He certainly died as one under Rome’s heavy hand.”
Fredriksen said the term “Palestine” came from Roma — a full century after Christ’s death, making the liberal claims “historically false.
“There have already been too many casualties since Oct. 7,” she added. “Let’s not allow history to be one of them.”
