Page 38 - Good News Broward January 2014

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Susan Michael
Good News
Palestinian Authority Presi-
dent Mahmoud Abbas issued a
Christmas message in Bethle-
hem last month in which he
called Jesus “a Palestinian mes-
senger.” As a Muslim, Abbas
used the term “messenger”
which is in keeping with Islam’s
view of Jesus as a prophet. But,
to describe him as “Palestinian”
is a very cunning twist of facts in
an attempt to rewrite history
and deny the Jews’ historical
connection to the land of Israel.
In this distorted scenario,
Jesus is not the Jewish Messiah
but is a Palestinian revolutionary
who lived under occupation and
died a martyr for Allah when he
was murdered by the Jews.
As ridiculous as it may
sound, this imagery has not just
been used by Palestinian politi-
cal leaders like Yasser Arafat and
Abbas, but has also been used by
Palestinian church leaders such
as Naim Ateek, a Palestinian An-
glican and former canon of St.
George’s Cathedral in Jerusalem.
He called Jesus a “Palestinian liv-
ing under occupation,” implying
that the Jews occupied Palestin-
ian land at the time of Jesus just
as they do again today.
Ateek also has sought to re-
define God so he was no longer
the God of Israel but a God who
favored the Palestinian Arabs
and had written off Israel. To do
this, Ateek has to disregard
whole portions of scripture, so
he rejected the validity of any
scripture that disagreed with his
de-Zionized view of God, cham-
pioning what is known as Pales-
tinian Liberation Theology.
While Naim Ateek has
found a number of fellow Angli-
cans and mainline Protestant
leaders appreciative of his anti-
Israel message, any sympathetic
Evangelicals had to distance
themselves due to his disregard
for the Bible. But, a second gen-
eration of more temperate advo-
cates is having an impact and,
today, one can hear voices in the
Christian world referring to
Jesus as a “Palestinian Jew” or a
“Palestinian Rabbi.”
Was Jesus a Palestinian?
Jesus was born in Bethlehem,
which today is located in territory
where amajority of inhabitants are
Palestinian Arab Muslims. But in
the time of Jesus, the vast majority
of inhabitants of Bethlehem and
the Holy Land were Jewish. Pales-
tinian sympathizers must rewrite
history in order to deny this.
They ignore the fact that Jesus’
mother was Jewish, and that his par-
ents raised him religiously Jewish, or
else, hecouldnothave taught insyna-
goguesandparticipatedindiscussions
in the Temple. In background, race,
culture, language and religion, Jesus
was Jewish.
Who are the Palestinians?
Today, the term Palestinian
refers to a population of people
with a vast majority being Arab
Muslims and a small percentage
of them being Arab Christians.
At the time of Jesus, the land was
a majority Jewish, with a small
percentage of Greeks, Romans
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The Palestinian Jesus