JOKE OF ALL TIME ... JESUS WAS PALESTINIAN

The ‘Palestinian’ Jesus and the new deicide

The same impulse that transforms the most iconic Jew in history into a “Palestinian” also seeks to sever Jews from their ancestral homeland. 

 

By Jeff Ballabon 

 

JNS

Jul 13, 2025 

 

 

Toronto Star portrays Jesus as Palestinian

 

The ubiquitous propaganda that Jesus was “Palestinian” is simultaneously laughably absurd and deadly serious. It is repeated by influencers, activists, even elected officials and clergy—without irony and with substantial passion and intent. And it is no innocent misreading of ancient history. It is a deliberate inversion, weaponized to justify violence and erase a people—Jesus’ people, the Jews.

Let us start with the facts. Jesus was a Jew. He was born to Jewish parents, lived in Judea, worshipped in the Jewish Temple and was crucified by the Roman Empire under its occupation of the Jewish homeland.

Not only was Jesus not a “Palestinian,” the term “Palestine” did not even exist during his lifetime. It was invented by the Romans nearly a century after his death—when, in 135 CE, they renamed Judea as “Palaestina” after crushing the Jewish Bar Kochba revolt. The Roman goal was to humiliate the rebellious Jews by erasing the name of their homeland and replacing it with that of the Jews’ ancient enemies, the Philistines.

Arabs would not arrive in Judea/Palaestina until 600 years after Jesus’ life, during the 7th-century Islamic conquests. And “Palestinian” would not be used to describe non-Jewish residents of the region until 2000 years after Jesus, most of those residents having arrived from across the Middle East and North Africa during the preceding decades, looking for work from the nascent Jewish revival in the land.

So, no—Jesus was not a Palestinian. Unless, of course, “Palestinian” is simply a Roman slur for “Jew.” In that case, Jesus was a Palestinian—and so are today’s Jews: the indigenous people of the Land of Israel.

But that’s not what the modern narrative means. It is a campaign echoed in international bodies like UNESCO, designating ancient Jewish sites—such as the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron and the Temple Mount in Jerusalem—as “Muslim heritage sites.”

It is reinforced by media outlets and Middle East Studies departments that erase millennia of Jewish history by referring to these locations by their Arabic names or framing Jewish presence as an “encroachment” or “occupation.” The same impulse that transforms the most iconic Jew in history into a “Palestinian” also seeks to sever Jews from their ancestral homeland, rewrite scripture and archaeology and retroactively de-Judaize Judaism’s holiest places. 

Today, calling Jesus a “Palestinian” isn’t an act of historical solidarity. It is the foundation for a modern political dogma of transposition. In this new narrative, Israel is not just a country—it is the avatar of cosmic evil. Jews are not just citizens—they are the guilty embodiment of oppression.

And Palestinians are not just a population—they are a sacred symbol, a redemptive Christ-figure onto whom all suffering, innocence and virtue are projected. This is the new deicide. And “Free Palestine” is the new auto-da-fé.

It is not a literal charge of killing God; it is the subversion of all moral categories. Good is evil. Evil is good. The victim is the aggressor. The terrorist is the martyr. The Jews, restored in their ancient homeland in the most remarkable act of indigenous revival in human history, are cast as colonial usurpers. And a barbaric genocidal death cult that openly glorifies mass murder, violent rape, and beheadings is canonized as the victim.

And so, in the aftermath of the most barbaric and savage attack on Jews since the Holocaust, ghoulishly and gleefully broadcast by the “Palestinians” on social media, Jewish students are terrorized on college campuses. Synagogues are vandalized. Kosher restaurants are smashed. Mobs around the world chant “Free Palestine,” Globalize the Intifada,” “From the River to the Sea,” and “Death to Jews” all while insisting it is the Jews who are committing the genocide.

This the most ancient hatred in new packaging. A blood libel wrapped in hashtags. A pseudo-theological antisemitism for a post-religious world.

The “Jesus was a Palestinian” lie is not about Jesus at all. It is about justifying Jewish blood in the streets. It is absolution for antisemitism, an authorization for violence, and a call to erase not just the Jews’ past, but our future.

For centuries, Jews were murdered in the name of the religion of love; now Jews are scapegoated and crucified in the name of human rights.  No, Jesus was not “Palestinian,” but every “Palestinian” is now Jesus.