Fact-checking the ‘Jesus is Palestinian’ billboard

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), were 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 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 A.D. 135 – 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 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:

• “The first Palestinian”
• “The first Palestinian Martyr (Shahid)”
• “The first Palestinian fida’i (self-sacrificing fighter)”
• “A Palestinian messenger”
• “A Palestinian par excellence”
• “The great grandfather of the Palestinian people”
• A prophet of Islam (not Christianity)

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 Hanukkah). But let them not rewrite history for their own polemical purposes.

It is as insulting as it inaccurate, and I say this as both a Jew and a follower of Yeshua.