In his Christmas Day column in the Palestinian daily Al-Quds, Jordanian-Palestinian journalist and writer Hamada Fara'neh, who is a member of the PLO Palestinian National Council, wrote that Christianity belongs to the Palestinians and that Jesus was "the first Palestinian martyr." He stated that "those who conspired with the Roman colonialism" against Jesus (i.e., the Jews) continue to commit crimes against the Palestinians, thus creating a link between the ancient antisemitic accusation that the Jews killed Jesus and the contemporary Palestinian narrative that describes Jesus as a martyr who died as part of the Palestinian national struggle. Fara’neh expressed hope that Christmas will herald the "hoped-for day" on which the descendants of the Palestinian refugees will return to their land and their cities inside Israel: "Lydda, Ramla, Jaffa, Haifa, Acre, Safed and Beersheba."[1]
It should be noted that last year Fara’neh wrote a similar article titled "They Stole Christianity from Us," in which he called Jesus the first Palestinian fida’i (self-sacrificing fighter) and stated that the West stole Christianity from the Palestinians just as it stole their homeland and settled it with Jews. He wrote further that, just as Jesus was a victim of a conspiracy between "Roman colonialism" and Judah Iscariot, the Palestinians today are victims of the alliance between Israel and the West, led by the U.S.[2]
Christmas cartoon in Palestinian daily: Santa Claus refuses Israel’s demand to condemn Hamas (Al-Quds, East Jerusalem, December 25, 2024)
The following are translated excerpts from Fara’neh’s recent article:[3]
"Today the Christians mark the anniversary of the birth of the Lord Messiah [Jesus] in Bethlehem, on Palestinian soil... By every legal, geographical and human criterion, he was born on the blessed soil [of Palestine]. That is why the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, [all of them] on Palestinian soil, have become the three holiest churches for Christianity. This means that Christianity belongs to us [to the Palestinians]. It was born in our land and its gospel spread from here...
"The Christians are celebrating the birth of the first [Palestinian] martyr, who paid with his life and was crucified while believing [in the gospel] that was revealed to him before the people of corruption plotted against him and conspired with the foreign Roman colonialists [and then] tortured and crucified him… He went down [in history] as a martyr [who went to his death] with open eyes, and whose gospel and followers spread throughout the world… Those who conspired with the Roman colonialism against the first Palestinian martyr… continue to commit crimes against the original owners of the land: the Palestinian Arab people of the homeland, both Muslim and Christian…
"The racist colonialist expansion enterprise – the Israeli colony – murders anything that isn’t Jewish and destroys every Muslim and Christian site, whether it is a mosque or a church. They murder and annihilate the people and [even] the trees and the stones in an attempt to erase and eliminate the blatant [Islamic and Christian] characteristics [of the land], so that Palestine will become a homeland only for the foreign Jews who were brought [there from abroad]. This will never happen, no matter how much [they] develop and expand the methods of committing crimes against the Palestinians, for the [Palestinians] have [always] stood fast and paid the price for staying in their homeland, their only homeland…
"We commemorate the birth of the Lord Messiah [Jesus], the first Palestinian martyr, and perhaps his birthday heralds and promises the imminent arrival of the hoped-for day on which the Palestinian refugees will return to their land and their cities: Lydda, Ramla, Jaffa, Haifa, Acre, Safed and Beersheba. For [the Palestinians] paid a heavy price and continue to pay it since the Nakba of 1948…"
[1] Palestinian writers often draw a link between Christmas and the struggle against Israel. For example, on December 23, 2024, journalist Omar Hilmi Al-Ghoul wrote on his Facebook account that “the Zionists and their American masters continue to this very day to crucify the Lord Massiah [Jesus], the first Palestinian fida’i… (Facebook.com/OmarElghoulOfficial, December 23, 2024), and in 2019 he published another article in the same vein. See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 7825 - Palestinian Authority Daily On Christmas 2018: Jesus Was 'The First Martyr And Fidai,' 'The Loyal Son Of Palestine,' Symbol Of The Palestinian National Struggle Against The Distorters Of Judaism, Who Was Persecuted And Crucified By Them – January 2, 2019. Another example is a December 24, 2024 article by former Palestinian minister Issa Qaraqe’ in which he envisioned Jesus returning to save ”his people” from the “genocide” perpetrated by Israel and being arrested by Israeli soldiers who want to crucify him “a second time.” Al-Quds (East Jerusalem) December 24, 2024.
[2] See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 11050 - Palestinian-Jordanian Journalist: The West Stole Christianity From Us, Just As It Stole Palestine; Jesus Was The First Palestinian Fida'i – December 29, 2023.
[3] Al-Quds (East Jerusalem), December 25, 2024.
