No, Jesus was not born in “modern-day Palestine.” He was born in Judea, which the Romans conquered in 63 B.C., and in 135 A.D. renamed, to efface the Jewish connection to the land, as “Syria Palaestina” or “Syrian Palestine,” which was then shortened to “Palestine.” Contrary to Ocasio-Cortez’ claim, the modern Israelis were not like the ancient Romans. The Romans came as conquerors to Judea; the Jews of modern Israel came not as conquerors of another’s land, but as the descendants of the original inhabitants of what had been called Judea, and the rightful inheritors of that land, as the League of Nations recognized when it created the Mandate for Palestine, intending it to become the Jewish state “from the river to the sea.”
And once again it must be emphasized: the modern Israelis live in the same area that Jews have been living in since at least 2500 B.C.; they are the descendants of its indigenous inhabitants, not foreign conquerors such as the Romans and so many others, including Muslim Turks and Arabs.
There are currently more than seven million Jewish Israelis, but not a single “Jewish Palestinian” either in Gaza or in Judea and Samaria (a/k/a the West Bank).
On X (formerly Twitter), independent journalist Richard Medhurst posted a rant with the headline “Remember this Christmas that Jesus is Palestinian,” while UN-accredited activist Mohamad Safa tweeted that Christmas is the celebration of “the birthday of a Palestinian man.”
Keep repeating it, all you haters of Israel: “Jesus was a Palestinian.” Go ahead and invite ridicule. You’ve earned it.
Former Dutch parliamentarian Arnoud van Doorn even went to the extreme of posting an antisemitic illustration of Jesus on the cross, wrapped in Palestinian symbols and surrounded by soldiers, with the caption “They killed him again. Merry Christmas.”…
The antisemitic trope of Jews as Christ-killers is now presented unembarrassedly by a former Dutch parliamentarian who — himself a bizarre convert to Islam — thought publishing this antisemitic squib would be the most appropriate way to celebrate this Christmas season.
No matter how many times the army of Israel-haters deny it, or fail to mention it, Jesus was born, lived, and died a Jew. He was not a “Palestinian” but a Judean; the toponym “Palestine” was deliberately created by the Romans in 135 AD to efface the place name “Judea.” And were Jesus among us today, he would no doubt be in Gaza, joining fellow Jews in fighting for the survival of the Jewish state, serving in the Golani Brigade, or Sayeret Matkal.