(ConservativeHub.com) – Boston University Aurelio Professor of Scripture emerita Paula Fredriksen opposed those who were likening Jesus to a “Palestinian Jew.” In an op-ed published in the Washington Post, she slammed this messaging, arguing that it was “historically false” and that it was a political message relating to the war in Gaza during this Holy Week.
Fox New reported that over the 2023 holiday season, some left-leaning figures, including “Squad” members, received backlash from critics for drawing a comparison between Jesus and a “Palestinian Jew” who lived in an “occupied” country. Fredriksen accused them of “mischaracteriz[ing] reality.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., had also made such comments and was called out by name in Fredriksen’s article. Ocasio-Cortez said at Christmas that that Jesus Christ was born in what was “modern-day Palestine” under a government that was massacring the innocents. This was a reference to the Jews who existed under Roman control over two millennia ago. She added that Jesus belonged to the population that had been discriminated against and killed just to protect the power of an “unjust leader.”
However, Fredriksen pushed back against this information in her op-ed, arguing that Bethlehem, Christ’s birthplace, had been under Palestinian rule for decades. She said that the area had been under the Palestinian Authority since 1995 and that the once majority Christian population in the area, around 86 percent, had dropped in 2016 to under 12 percent.
She continued by saying that Gaza was “extremely hostile” to Christians who were often persecuted and driven out of the region. She added that the name of “Palestine” didn’t come into being until after Christ died. According to her, it not only stokes hate, but also serves as “cultural and political appropriation” to cast Jesus as Palestinian.
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