Was Jesus a Palestinian?

No. He might have been called a Nazarene, Galilean or a Jew, but there was no geographical place called “Palestine” in the time of Jesus. 

So why did Ilhan Omar retweet Omar Sulaiman’s tweet that “Jesus was a Palestinian.” And why did Sulaiman tweet it in the first place? 

Probably because this idea has been part of contemporary Palestinian political discourse for some time. Check out Amazon for books and T-Shirts. Mitri Raheb advances the same argument in his books. The point, of course, is to strengthen the Palestinian claim to a long historic association with what is now Israel and the West Bank. Such claims in the Palestinian press go back even further, associating contemporary Palestinians with the ancient Philistines who were contemporaries of the earliest tribes of Israel. 

The problem with such arguments is their futility. They will not persuade Israelis to give up the concept of Israel as an (ethnic) Jewish state. Modern Jews, without exception, are part of a thousands of year old history of associating themselves with the land of Israel. It is constantly reiterated in worship and prayer to become an indelible aspect of their identity. Moreover in a post-holocaust world where anti-semitism is present and on the rise Israel is that tangible guarantee of a sustained Jewish people. These far outweigh, when it comes to it, any historical, genealogical, or genetic facts concerning actual associations with the various places that Jews have lived.

But Jewish arguments against a Palestinian identity with the land are equally wrongheaded. You can’t really say, “We lived in Europe for 1850 years but our identity is with this land while you lived here in the land for 1850 years but can’t claim you identify with it - go back to your king in Jordan.” Which is exactly what Jewish militias did in 1948 when they expelled Arabs from different parts of Israel. Of course Palestinians identify with the land, they lived on it, and still do. 

Nor does it help when someone like Fred Menecham of the Simon Wiesenthal Center responds, “Jesus was Jewish, actually.” Because he is comparing an ethnic identity with a geographical designator. And frankly doing so in a way that is intellectually offensive. Bringing in Jesus on the Israeli/Jewish side of a land dispute, when those few Talmudic references to Jesus accuse him of sorcery and idolatry seems ingenuous. It is true that Jesus was Jewish, but since the Jews never claimed him how does that actually address the problem of who has a right to live on the land?

Probably the best thing for Jews and Muslims, and I would say Christians as well, is to leave Jesus out of this. Christians, who claim to reverence Jesus as the Son of God, are near committing blaspheme when they use his name to advance a political point. God will not be used that way. Muslims, who claim to honor Jesus as the “sinless prophet,” should know better than to dishonor him by dragging him into a tweet-storm based on a politically opportune mistruth. And Jews, who at best ignored him and his teaching in their own religious life should leave him to those who believe he was more than a misguided religious teacher from the past. 

So to my friends, Muslim, Jewish, and Christian so deeply entwined in the complex politics of contemporary Israel and Palestine I have a suggestion: leave Jesus out of it. Some of us care more for Him than to have Him dragged through your muddy mutual loathing and swamp of political posturing. If you want to honor one Christians call the Prince of Peace you might cease involving his name in your wars.