Back in 2012, the late Jewish “60 Minutes” correspondent Bob Simon reported from the occupied West Bank on the Palestinian Christian community, describing how the Israeli occupation and its corollary of land theft, violence, and displacement are driving the oldest Christian communities out of the Holy Land.
Israel is extremely sensitive to any documentation of its oppression of Arab Christians, given its reliance on smearing Palestinians as Muslim extremists aligned against the West. No wonder, then, that Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, called the head of CBS’s then-parent company, Viacom, to try to suppress the story.
More recently, when conservative podcaster Tucker Carlson hosted a Palestinian minister on his show to share his experience, which was naturally unflattering to Israel, Zionists took to X to lambast Carlson and the minister and put forth the risible notion that Israel is actually good to Christians. It should go without saying that American Zionists pretending they can speak with greater authority on Palestinian Christians’ experience than the actual Palestinian Christians is preposterous.
Sadly, solidarity with their religious brethren has been lacking among many Christian quarters in American society, who have prioritized the end-of-times narrative over the actual existence of Christians. While mainline Protestant denominations have become increasingly outspoken about the occupation, Evangelical churches remain steadfast in their support for Israel. When several Palestinian denominations recently issued a joint statement condemning Israel’s threat to the continued survival of Christians, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, a Christian Zionist, issued a statement throwing them under the bus.
Given the Zionist attempt to portray Israel as a defender of Christians — and therefore as part of a common Judeo-Christian front against the forces of “radical Islam” — it is useful to examine the record. Especially since Zionists have opportunistically made hay out of the mistreatment of Christians in Islamic countries, such as the Congressional hearings hosted by arch-Zionist fmr. Rep. Tom Lantos, who focused on the affirmatively terrible conditions Coptic Christians faced after the Arab Spring under the Muslim Brotherhood government. It is unimaginable that Lantos would have ever invited Palestinian Christians to share their experiences.
The fact is that Zionism is incompatible with the long-term survival of Christians in Palestine and Israel. Zionism is a Jewish nationalist movement, and opposition to Palestinians is contingent on their non-Jewishness, whether Muslim or Christian. Zionists who ethnically cleanse villages do not care whether it’s a Muslim or Christian community, but desire the land for Jews.
Palestinians have understood this from the beginning. That’s why the first manifestation of Palestinian nationalism was the Muslim Christian Associations that arose to resist Zionism. In the new film, “Palestine 36,” this united Christian and Muslim solidarity is reflected during the 1936 Arab Revolt. The solidarity has never been broken despite the best efforts of Zionists to drive wedges between the communities. The solidarity could, at this perilous moment for Palestinians, benefit from vocal support from America’s mobilized Christians.
Sadly, too many American Christians are supporting the dispossession of their own brethren.
