Eretz Israel is our unforgettable historic homeland...The Jews who will it shall achieve their State...And whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind. (Theodor Herzl, DerJudenstaat, 1896)

We offer peace and amity to all the neighbouring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The State of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to the peaceful progress and development of the Middle East.
(From Proclamation of the State of Israel, 5 Iyar 5708; 14 May 1948)

With a liberal democratic political system operating under the rule of law, a flourishing market economy producing technological innovation to the benefit of the wider world, and a population as educated and cultured as anywhere in Europe or North America, Israel is a normal Western country with a right to be treated as such in the community of nations.... For the global jihad, Israel may be the first objective. But it will not be the last. (Friends of Israel Initiative)

Wednesday 8 December 2010

Open Season’s Greetings – Taking the Jew out of Jesus and other Tricks of the Israel-Delegitimising Trade

The commercial prelude to Christmas is in full swing, and as usual there’s a brisk trade in cards. I’ve been looking at some of the cards on offer from pro-Palestinian organisations and NGOs, and in those cases the images chosen are for maximum political impact. Obviously, for some of these bodies, the Yuletide season means Open Season on Israel – or I should say an intensified, star-of-Bethlehem-tinged open season (since open season for them is throughout the year).

The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign offers a ten-card set depicting the madonna in Palestinian colours, holding her infant; I think she’s intended to convey the impression that she and her son – no introductions are required – were Palestinian rather than Jewish. The same PSC also offers a ten-card set depicting the Three Wise Men unable to get into Bethlehem owing to Israel’s “Wall”.

In fact, that wall – or rather, security barrier, erected to protect Israeli citizens from terror attacks, looms large on cards this Christmas (some scenes are recycled from previous years). (See "Hijacked by Hatred": British NGOs Use Christmas for anti-Israel Attacks www.ngo-monitor.org/article.php?id=2202)  Here is its depiction on a card offered by Australians for Palestine, and here’s the inside message, below:


The Amos Trust has a similar card on offer, depicting a Father Christmas or Santa Claus striding beside that wall, but it also has this card, of a swaddled babe – who is he meant to portray if not the “Christ child”? – and beneath him are the words “Made in Palestine”.

The Nazis, I’ve heard tell, attempted to reinvent Jesus as an Aryan – the son of a Roman soldier. These days, he’s more likely to be reinvented as a “Palestinian”. Sometimes, this is done in a snide fashion, stopping short of actually de-judaising him. For instance, one of the captions at Rod Cox’s ever-travelling UK-wide exhibition of Israel-demonising children’s drawings from Gaza noted – at least when I saw it – that Palestine was the birthplace of Jesus; placed at the approximate eye-level of an average eight-year-old, it was apparently calculated to influence impressionable young minds.

The fiction that Jesus – the Jew, of Judea – was a Palestinian (despite the fact that Palestine was a term imposed on his country after his lifetime by Romans anxious to obliterate its Jewishness by naming it after the land of the Philistines ) is peddled by some elements within the churches, is implied in some of the literature of leftwing anti-Israel groups, and is seen in this quite shocking poem by a Christian pro-Palestinian activist in the United States (emphasis hers; I’m not linking to her blog because I’ve no desire to increase its traffic):


Christ was a Palestinian
And unto us
a new era is born
The Phoenix
rising from the flames
of "Israel"
In seeing the Israeli made myths
and violence now
as the information age explodes
We Know
We know that what was remembered then
was for power- not for truth
We know that Israel usurped land and rights – and even the story itself
Now and then
We know that Israeli crimes
are all the more wrong as they claim
to be for God
We know
Now and then
We know that the only known political fact
is simply that the prophet and saviour
Christ
was a Palestinian...
And we know that he deployed
Parables to free the people
from tyranny
of every type
Parables
to compel humankind to be both human
and kind
Parables
not guns
A dialog
not guns
Life
not death
We know that Christ is resurrection...
and we know that Palestine was then – and will be again
somehow
We know
and this faith
shall light our way
no matter what
This faith
will transcend the hate mongering
and sorrow and suffering...
This faith
will heal
the many wounds
made by "Israel"
and the many mistakes
made by all people
trying to find peace
in a troubled world
This faith will rebuild Palestine
one day
This faith will free the people
one by one
to transcend the many tyrannies
of our time
For Christ really was, is and always will be
a Palestinian....

As Israel’s deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon wrote recently (27 November) in the Jerusalem Post, the Palestinians are not only denying the Jews’ historic rights to those holy sites the Western Wall and Rachel’s Tomb, they deny the Jewishness of Jesus:
“The myth that Jesus was a Palestinian is told to anyone who arrives on a pilgrimage to Bethlehem or other Christian holy sites under the Palestinian Authority.
However, the facts once again don’t add up. The Jewish province of Judea was destroyed by Roman Emperor Hadrian in 135 C.E. when the Romans quashed the Bar Kochba-led Jewish revolt. To sever the Jewish connection with the Land of Israel, the Roman emperor changed its name to Syria Palaestina, eventually becoming known in English as Palestine.
According to Christian scholars, Jesus was crucified somewhere between 26 and 36, a full hundred years before the term Palestine had even been coined.
The world at that time did not have a single mosque and Islam and the Arab conquest of this land was still six centuries away.
I don’t know what if anything schoolchildren are taught these days about history and religion, but it’s clear many are woefully if not wilfully ignorant.'
"Christianity was started by a young Palestinian named Jesus" is just one of one of hundreds of distortions, misrepresentations and falsehoods found about Judaism and Jewish history by a recent comprehensive study of the 28 most widely used social studies textbooks in the United States. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/127797

Even the BBC’s College of Journalism website gets the facts only half right: “Jesus and his immediate circle of twelve disciples were all Jewish men who lived in Palestine [hey, Al Beeb, make that Judea!] about two thousand years ago.” Did I say “even?” Silly me. When she was still reporting from the Middle East for Al Beeb, the horrendous Orla Guerin made a particularly loathsome broadcast from Bethlehem one Christmas, I recall.

As that inestimable site Palestine Media Watch has demonstrated, well before the first intifada the Palestinian Authority was busily re-writing history to undermine and thus delegitimize the historic Jewish claim to the land and to Jesus. Here are some examples from its files: 

“Nazareth: The city where the Jews murdered the first Palestinian of its [Nazareth's] sons.” Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Fatah), 24 Jan. 2000;
Yasser Abu Ciedo, Palestinian artist: "Our struggle today against the other [Israel] is an eternal one. It started 2000 years ago and continues until today. I demonstrate this through the figure of Jesus, who came to the world with a message of justice and the other side did what they did to him. Here [he shows a painting] I demonstrate the following idea: the Israeli soldiers are wearing army uniforms while Jesus has nothing except for the truth. This is the Palestinian from the beginning of the struggle until its end - if it will ever end..."  Palestinian TV (Fatah), 21 July 2000;
“The Palestinian Galilee village [in Israel] of Kfar Kana takes pride in the fact that here the Palestinian Messiah [Jesus] succeeded in turning water into wine.”  Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Fatah), 14 Dec. 2004;
“The Shahids (Martyrs) will cry, ‘We shook the palm trees alongside Lady Earth and the lady of the people, the Virgin Mary, and with her son the first Palestinian Shahid (died for Allah).” Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Fatah), 17 Jan. 2005;
“They [Christians] read in the holy book [the Bible] the name of 'Palestine' and the real [Palestinian] names of our villages and cities… We must not forget the Messiah [Jesus] is Palestinian, the son of Mary the Palestinian.” Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Fatah), 18 Nov. 2005 [Palestine Media Watch  Comment: The PA assumes that few Palestinians read the Hebrew and Christian Bibles. For were Palestinians to read the Bible they would learn that Jesus was a Jew, there was no “Palestine,” and the Hebrew names used by Israel today, including the name “Land of Israel,” are the names found in the Bible];
"It was quite natural that the Palestinians rose to save their sanctuaries [in Nazareth in Galilee]… since lord Messiah [Jesus] and his mother [Mary] are both Galileans and Palestinians." Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Fatah), 9 March 2006; “Christianity was born in our Arab countries and the Messiah [Jesus] is a Syrian Palestinian, born in Nazareth.” Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Fatah), 28 Oct. 2006;
“Palestinians are used to death like this. The suffering of the first Palestinian – the Messiah – started with the Last Supper.” Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Fatah), 30 April 2008;
"We must not forget that the Messiah [Jesus], peace be upon him, is Palestinian, the son of Mary the Palestinian, who is sanctified by hundreds of millions of believers in this world." Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Fatah), 18 Nov. 2008;
Palestinian Mufti Muhammad Hussein: "We're talking about an ongoing chain [of prophets of Islam], from Adam to Muhammad, representing the call for monotheism and the mission of Islam… The prophets were all of the same religion [Islam]… [e.g.] Jesus was born in this land in Bethlehem… He also lived in Nazereth, moved to Jerusalem, so he was a Palestinian … We respect Jesus, we believe in him [as a prophet of Islam], just as we believe in the prophet Muhammad." Palestinian TV (Fatah), 21 April 2009);
"The Pope's visit is an opportunity for the Palestinian leadership to present its cause… so that His Honor [the Pope] will assume his religious and political responsibility towards the people of the Holy Land, the Arab Palestinian people, the people of the Messiah [Jesus]." Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Fatah), 9 May 2009;
Palestinian Authority Mufti Muhammad Hussein: "Jesus was born in this land; he took his first steps in this land and spread his teachings [of Islam] in this land. He and his mother [Mary], we may say, were Palestinians par excellence." Palestinian TV (Fatah), 12 May 2009;
Dr Tayseer Al-Tamimi, PA Chief Justice of Religious Court, and Chairman of Supreme Council of Islamic Law: "Jesus is the only Palestinian prophet." Palestinian TV (Fatah), 9 June 2009;
Mustafa Barghouti ,: "We always remember that Jesus was the first Palestinian who was tortured in this land". Palestinian TV (Fatah), Christmas Eve, 2009;
Fatah Communications and Education Authority statement in honor of International Women's Day from the official Fatah website, 8 March 2010 : "If we are proud of the holiness of our land, then we are proud and pride ourselves that the first and most important holy woman among the nations and peoples is from the holy land: The Virgin Mary - the woman of love and peace - is of the nation of Palestine, whose roots are grounded in the depths of history. Our movement takes note of its pride in all the women Shahidas (Martyrs), prisoners, Palestinian fighters, who have become a model of sacrifice and a school that teaches the meaning of giving and of sacrifice." (http://www.palvoice.com/index.php?id=23043)
All this is the legacy of Arafat’s ploy in the mid-1990s to choose the Church of the Nativity to declare that "This is the birthplace of our Lord the Messiah, the Palestinian" and to thereby portray, as they did in a Nativity pageant, the Palestinians as Jesus rejected and crucified and IDF paratroopers as the Roman Legion, the Israeli government as merciless, expansionist Imperial Rome, and rightwing settlers and their supporters as the Jews who declined to accept the divinity of Jesus' message. What lent Arafat credibility in his avowals of inclusiveness for Bethlehem’s Christians – 80 per cent of the town’s population in 1948 – was his marriage to a Christian and his frequent statements that he would fly the Palestinian flag "from the churches and from the mosques," mentioning the churches first. The second intifada or Al Aqsa uprising –pointedly named for a mosque – marked the turning point, along with with a rising global tide of Islamisation.

As Dr Hanan Chehata, public relations director at Middle East Monitor (MEMO), has observed, “in the last few decades there has been a perceptible exodus of Christians from the Holy Land.... Whereas a few decades ago the number of Christians in Bethlehem, the city in which Jesus was born, was estimated to be around 70%, now they constitute well below a third of the total population.” (Some estimates say only 15 per cent.) What she does not admit is that the principal reason for their accelerated decline in numbers is flight not from Israel but from Islam; their immigration to the United States and other venues overseas is due to their sense of marginalisation as Islamification proceeds apace and their fear for their future as Islamic fundamentalists lay claim to all of the Holy Land as exclusively Islamic territory. http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/.../347-the-plight-and-flight-of-palestinian-%20christians

War on Want offered this card (pictured) last year, and I wonder how many of the BDS-advocating churches will be singing alternate words to well-known carols this Christmas, such as this one, which made its debut in London in 2008 with the avid support of certain NGOs:

Once in Royal David’s City,
Stood a big apartheid wall,
People entering and leaving,
Had to pass a checkpoint hall,
Bethlehem was strangulated,
And her children segregated.

Though this city is a symbol
To the world of peace and love,
Concrete walls have closed around her,
Settlements expand above.
And apartheid Israel stands
All around on stolen lands.
David’s people once instructed
All the world in righteousness;
Prophets spoke of truth and justice;
Israel’s leaders now oppress.
All who look at Bethlehem
Must speak out the truth to them.

Or this:


On the twelfth day of Christmas, Israel sent to me
Twelve assassinations,
Eleven homes demolished,
Ten wells obstructed,
Nine sniper towers,
Eight gunships firing,
Seven checkpoints blocking,
Six tanks a-rolling,
Five settlement rings.
Four falling bombs,
Three trench guns,
Two trampled doves,
And an uprooted olive tree.


Or how about this choice example of the demoniser’s art?

The olive and the army
When they are both full-grown,
Every olive tree on the West Bank
The IDF cuts down.
O the rampaging of settlers
And the rolling of the tanks;
The grinding of the bulldozers
As the olives fall in ranks.
The olive bears a berry
As green as any grass;
When the owners go to pick the fruit
They’re not allowed to pass.
O the rampaging of settlers
And the rolling of the tanks;
The grinding of the bulldozers
As the olives fall in ranks.
This oppression bears a berry
As red as any blood,
As the owners see their livelihoods
All trampled in the mud.
O the rampaging of settlers
And the rolling of the tanks;
The grinding of the bulldozers
As the olives fall in ranks.
If you want to buy the olives,
You’ll find it very hard.
For those that make it to checkpoints
Still the way outside is barred.
O the rampaging of settlers
And the rolling of the tanks;
The grinding of the bulldozers
As the olives fall in ranks.
The olive and the army,
When they are both full-grown,
Every olive tree on the West Bank
The IDF cuts down.

20 comments:

  1. I had a chuckle at the card from "down under"

    It's reads...." A joyless Christmas in Palestine"

    The country they claim is Palestine, which we all are aware is a non-existent country, wouldn't be celebrating Christmas anyway


    ...................it's a MUSLIM country !!!

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  2. At this weekends BDS jaunt in Brisbane they plan to sing

    Seacret Smells!

    Seacret Smells:

    We just have to say

    Its made from mud

    from Palestinian land

    which Israel stole away

    To the tune of Jingle Bells

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  3. There are lots out there - here's one of at least two by a Pamela Olson, dating to 2004:
    Away in a refugee camp,
    no kitchens or beds,
    Palestinian children
    lay down their sweet heads.
    The stars in the sky
    look down where they lay
    And shine on their homelands
    so fa-ar away.
    Our towns lie in ruins
    across Isra'el.
    Israelis who live there
    pretend they can't tell.
    Our hills and our beaches
    so long occupied;
    Kids trapped in concrete camps
    are fit to be tied.
    We love thee, O Palestine,
    our homes and our hearts.
    We dream of the day when
    our lives can restart.
    In camps we have no rights,
    From Israel we're barred.
    We wait for the world to see
    How we've been scarred.
    And if you haven't already seen it from last year, see the youtube video of carol singer John Sullivan, as he went to the Israel-demonising carol service at St James's, Bloomsbury, interviewed by Jonathan Sacerdoti impromptu-fashion:
    Protest at the Palestine Solidarity Campaign ...
    4 min - 2 Dec 2009 - Uploaded by uatvukwe
    youtube.com

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  4. http://www.hurryupharry.org/2009/12/10/israel-bashing-behind-closed-doors/

    http://www.hurryupharry.org/2009/12/02/carols-with-caryl-and-more/

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  5. how many PSC people are believers anyway - they may not even believe in Jesus except as a stick at Xmas to beat Israel with.

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  6. It isn't enough for them to steal history, is it? They must steal everything else. Someone should ask the grand mufti if Islam is true, then why must Muslims be constantly stealing other's scriptures and history?

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  7. Firstly, many thanks to Elder of Ziyon blog for posting this. http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2010/12/jesus-was-first-palestinian-shahid.html

    Secondly, on all fronts, people who are dreaming of Yeshua (Jesus) being a "Palestinian" are wrong. From a historical and biblical factual standpoint, the dreamers are proven wrong.

    If Yeshua was not a Hebrew of the tribe of Judah, then He is not the Mashiach of the world sent by God, which was to come from Israel, and we would all still be dead in our sins. But of course, that is not the case, He is God who came down to us in the Person of Yeshua, and was raised back to life on the third day, after His cruxifiction and burial. The Pesach Lamb of God is a picture and pattern found in the Torah (When Israel was instructed by God to apply the blood of the lamb over their doorposts), and this picture and pattern, like everything else found in the Tanach, points us to God's Messiah.

    The bible documents in clear details the genealogy of Yeshua too. The first chapter of Matthew (Mattisyahu) and the third chapter of Luke give us full genealogy of the Messiah Yeshua (Jesus).

    Recommended reading for Yeshua's genealogy is also found at a good friend's website. http://www.matsati.com/genealogy.html

    Also, someone made a flow chart. http://www.flmilw.org/genealogy1.html

    People who are telling lies about Yeshua's ethnicity will have to answer to God for their lies. Hatred for Israel is not of the Ruach HaKodesh (Spirit of the Holy One), but comes from the devil in my honest opinion.

    Lots of people claim to be Christian, but as Scriptures say in Matthew chapter 7:12-23...

    "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.

    Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

    Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

    Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."

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  8. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  9. I made an uncaught typo that changed the meaning of this response (above) so I removed it and am reposting it, corrected:
    Thanks for your insights - and I'm very flattered at the esteemed Elder's highlighting this blog.
    There's clearly an accelerated push on - on all fronts - to delegitimise Israel.
    While preparing the blog I googled "Jesus a Palestinian" and was amazed to find a number of yahoo.answers and similar-type posts in which people had actually asked whether he was a Jew or a Palestinian! I suppose this is indicative of a general ignorance re religion or lack of religious education nowadays. While the answers supplied (by other posters) were mainly correct, some were by Muslims, and they asserted that he was Palestinian.
    I also suspect that were it not for this as a convenient way of kicking da joos and Israel, that many PSC members and their ilk would not care tuppence about Jesus or religiosity.

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  10. As a former RE teacher this sort of stuff has me spitting fire.
    I was used to explaining that Jesus was a Jew and not a Christian(!!) but never had to clarify that he was not an Arab.

    A bright spot in all this. The pop songtress Annie Lennox has recently published a CD of
    Carols including the traditional English Carol 'God rest you merry, Gentlemen'. This contains the words 'In Bethlehem, in Israel'. Some versions have 'In Jewry'. You can hear Annie Lennox singing this here: http://www.annielennox.com/

    So you see, we used to know these things.

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  11. Thanks, Ian - I had to check that link out to make sure, since Annie Lennox is not a fan of Israel, more a pro-Palestinian activist.

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  12. This is the typical Islamic way of dealing with pre-Islamic cultures: to erase them from history altogether. Its a form of moral and cultural genocide. Its not perpetrated on human beings but that doesn't make it any less offensive. All those good biblical Jews were Palestinian Muslims all along; they just weren't aware of it then.

    And Israel is expected to make peace with a people who lie, deny and plunder its history and faith for their own purposes? Dream on!

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  13. Indeed, Norman - it's the old erect-a-mosque-over-the-infidel-holy-site trick ...

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  14. ESPECE DE GROSSE SALOPE ON VA TE NIQUER TA MERE

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  15. Lads and lasses, I think we can consider the above message a "dissenting opinion" ...

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  16. Annie Lennox isn't any kind of a Christian, as far as I know, but by her own admission these carols are part of her heritage. At least, she hasn't altered them. Perhaps the cognitive dissonance will hit her sooner or later.

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  17. A Xmas present to Israel from some of the UK anti-Israel politicians and NGOs (letter to Guardian, 13 Dec 2010):
    We are joining the chorus of voices against government proposals (contained in the police reform and social responsibility bill) to give the director of public prosecutions a power of veto over arrest warrants for war crimes suspects who are visiting the UK. These warrants are issued very rarely by extremely senior district judges in Westminster, and only in response to submissions from victims accompanied by substantial evidence against the suspect. Giving a power of veto to the DPP would risk: political interference by ministers in the arrest of war crimes suspects; delaying proceedings, allowing suspects to escape justice; and would constitute a gross interference with the rights of the victim and the responsibilities of the judiciary.
    Ministers and diplomats are already protected by immunity when carrying out their public duties, but this change in the law would risk creating a culture of impunity in the minds of those politicians and military leaders who already treat international law with cavalier disregard. We call on parliamentarians in both houses and of all parties to support international law and reject these proposals.
    Richard Burden MP
    Jeremy Corbyn MP
    Alex Cunningham MP
    Mark Durkan MP
    Jonathan Edwards MP
    Clive Efford MP
    Paul Flynn MP
    Mike Hancock MP
    Cathy Jamieson MP
    Gerald Kaufman MP
    Ian Lavery MP
    Andy Love MP
    Caroline Lucas MP
    Kerry McCarthy MP
    John Mcdonnell MP
    George Mudie MP
    Ian Murray MP
    Sandra Osborne MP
    Yasmin Qureshi MP
    Joan Ruddock MP
    Bob Russell MP
    Baroness Jenny Tonge
    Mike Wood MP
    Billy Hayes, CWU
    Paul Kenny, GMB
    Chris Kitchen, NUM
    Kevin Courtney, NUT
    Hugh Lanning, PCS
    Bob Crow, RMT
    Betty Hunter, Palestine Solidarity Campaign
    John Austin
    Victoria Brittain
    Caryl Churchill
    Jocelyn Hurndall
    Dan Judelson
    Bruce Kent
    Ken Loach
    Kika Markham
    Prof Karma Nabulsi
    David Polden
    Prof Hilary Rose
    Prof Steven Rose
    Alexei Sayle
    Clare Short
    Keith Sonnet
    Ahdaf Soueif
    Dr Benjamin Zephaniah
    Revd Canon Garth Hewitt, Amos TrustAbe Hayeem, Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine
    Len Aldis, Britain-Vietnam Friendship Society
    Chris Doyle, CAABU
    Estella Schmid, Campaign Against Criminalising Communities (CAMPACC)
    Kate Hudson, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND)
    Ismail Patel, Friends of Al Aqsa
    Brenda Heard, Friends of Lebanon, London
    Liz Davies, Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers
    Mary Nazzal-Batayneh, Human Rights Legal Aid Fund
    Pat Price-Tomes, ICAHD UK
    International Solidarity Movement (ISM) London
    George Farebrother, Institute for Law Accountability and Peace
    Diana Neslen, Jews for Justice for Palestinians
    Martin Linton, Labour Friends of Palestine & the Middle East
    John McHugo, Liberal Democrat Friends of Palestine
    Daud Abdullah, Middle East Monitor (Memo)
    Pat Gaffney, Pax Christi
    Frank Barat, Russell Tribunal UK
    Dr Alan Mackinnon, chair, Scottish CND
    Hugh Humphries, Scottish Friends of Palestine
    Michael Marten, Scottish Palestinian ForumLindsey German, Stop the War, Tahrir Swift, Women Solidarity for Independent and Unified Iraq
    John Hilary, War on Want
    Sarah Lasenby, NOW Network of Oxford Women for Justice and Peace
    Marguerite Finn, Norwich Branch Of Women's International League Of Peace And Freedom (Wilpf)
    Nigel Day, Oxford Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND)

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  18. Jesus was a Palestinian- "no one denies that" says PA TV
    [by]Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik
    One of the ways the Palestinian Authority attempts to create a Palestinian history is to deny the Judean/Jewish nationality of Jesus, and misrepresent him as a "Palestinian." Palestinian Media Watch has documented this ongoing Palestinian Authority historical revision. Recently on PA TV, the author Samih Ghanadreh from Nazareth was interviewed about his book "Christianity and Its Connection to Islam."
    The following is the transcript of the discussion describing Jesus as a Palestinian:
    Religious program on PA TV: This is our religion
    Author: "The Shahid (Martyr) President Yasser Arafat used to say: 'Jesus was the first Palestinian Shahid (Martyr).' I heard him say that sentence many times."
    PA TV Host: "He [Jesus] was a Palestinian; no one denies that."
    Author: "He [Jesus] was the first Palestinian Shahid (Martyr). He (Arafat) attributed this Martyrdom to Palestine, as well." Click To View
    [PA TV (Fatah), Dec. 3, 2010]
    Fatah proud of "Palestinian" Virgin Mary
    Earlier this year the Fatah Communications and Education Authority issued as statement on the official Fatah website claiming the Virgin Mary was "of the nation of Palestine":
    "If we are proud of the holiness of our land, then we are proud and pride ourselves that the first and most important holy woman among the nations and peoples is from the holy land: The Virgin Mary - the woman of love and peace - is of the nation of Palestine..." [palvoice.com/index.php?id=23043]
    Jesus and Mary were Palestinians par excellence
    The Palestinian Authority religious leader, the Mufti Muhammad Hussein:
    "Jesus was born in this land; he took his first steps in this land and spread his teachings [of Islam] in this land. He and his mother [Mary], we may say, were Palestinians par excellence." Click to view
    [PA TV (Fatah), May 12, 2009]
    See more examples of the PA's misrepresentation of Jesus as a "Palestinian" who preached Islam, on the PMW website.

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  19. Here's yet another rewriting of history for the Palestinians' purposes - it's been taken up with gusto on the websites of the usual suspects:
    Jesus was Palestinian and why it matters - JehanzebJesus was Palestinian and why it matters - Jehanzeb Dar. www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=345198

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