Few things get the far-left into more of a tizzy than cultural appropriation. After all, we just had a multi-week controversy over Deadspin trying to destroy a child because he painted his face and wore a headdress at an NFL game.
Those rules go out the window when it comes to Christianity, though. That’s perfectly illustrated by the latest pro-Hamas trend of claiming Jesus Christ was “Palestinian.”
If you are confused by that claim, you have good reason to be. The name “Palestine” was given to what was then called Judea around a hundred years after Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. It was not a name of endearment for those who lived there, either. The Romans chose the name “Syria Palaestina” to punish the region for committing insurrection. The entire point was to disconnect Judea from its Jewish heritage and stamp out further resistance.
Are you starting to see the irony yet? While modern “Palestinians” and their pro-Hamas supporters claim they are the original inhabitants of the region, they do so under a name given by foreign invaders to erase the original inhabitants of the region. It is not in dispute whether ancient Israel existed as a Jewish state, and the modern “Palestinian” narrative collapses in the face of even the slightest bit of historical knowledge.
Of course, the response will be that people like Mohamad Safa mean Jesus was “Palestinian” ancestorially despite the name being made up after his time on earth. That is also a nonsensical, ahistorical claim. Almost all modern “Palestinians” are of Arab descent, ancestrally linked to Muslim conquerors who arrived during and after the seventh century. Guess what they did to what was once Judea and Samaria? They colonized it, representing another incredible bout of irony given the modern claim that it is the Palestinians who are victims of colonization.
Regardless, Jesus was a Jew from Judea. He was not “Palestinian” in any sense, much less the current one, and he was certainly not Muslim, another claim that has made the rounds amid Israel’s latest war against Hamas. To suggest that is deeply insulting and gross appropriation, and we all know what the response would be if the shoe was on the other foot. Unfortunately, Christianity gets none of the same societal protections as other religions and cultural distinctions, though.
