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Baby Jesus, a keffiyeh, and the missing Christmas message

Pope Francis, with a large bruise on his chin, arrives to hold an audience with donors of the St. Peter's Square Christmas tree and Nativity scene, at the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, December 7, 2024. (Photo: REUTERS/Remo Casilli)

The 2024 Vatican Nativity scene, designed by two Palestinian artists, infused politics, revisionist history, and replacement theology into a distortion of a Gospel display to which millions of Christians look as a symbol of peace on earth and goodwill to all people.

Central to the controversy is the depiction of baby Jesus lying on a keffiyeh, a garment with deep political connotations often associated with Palestinian identity and conflict with Israel. This choice coincides with the Pope's recent statement advocating an investigation into alleged genocide by Israel (refutable). This raises serious questions about the Vatican's intended Christmas message.

The keffiyeh, popularized by figures like Yasser Arafat, is a symbol for some of “resistance,” and for others, a sign of hostility toward Israel. Its appearance in the Vatican’s Nativity scene attempts to erase Jesus’s Jewish heritage, suggesting in its place a Biblically and historically inaccurate Palestinian identity. Increasingly symbolic of vitriol against Israel, the keffiyeh often accompanies violent protests that include the genocidal slogan “From the River to the Sea,” and it was a uniform of sorts for the hordes of bloodthirsty terrorists who invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

The Gospels of Matthew and Luke meticulously outline the Jewish lineage of Jesus, emphasizing his family's roots in the House of David. This historical context explains Joseph and Mary’s journey to Bethlehem for a Roman census, a narrative deeply embedded in Christmas story tradition. The Gospels share accounts of Jesus’s activity at the Temple, the holiest site in Judaism, and his interactions with family and community members—all identified as Jewish. 

Biblical accounts and the historical record reveal no notion of “Palestine” or Palestinians at the time of Jesus’ birth. The Bible (Hebrew Testament and New Testament) never uses the term “Palestine,” as the term was not assigned to the region as a geographical name until 100 years after Jesus’s crucifixion. (And the ancient Philistine peoples of the Mediterranean region must not be confused with modern Arab peoples calling themselves Palestinian.) 

Replacement theology is an erroneous doctrine that started around 300 AD. Its goal was to separate the Christian community from its Jewish roots and scriptures. In short, the doctrine claims that the church and Christians replace Israel and the Jews as recipients of all of God’s promises, covenants, and planned outcomes. But it does not replace Israel and the Jews for any curses.  The church essentially said that an immutable and just God who keeps his promises had changed His mind. Many mainline denominations still teach this heretical doctrine.

Replacement theology seems to morph, conforming to any current power structure. During the Holy Roman Empire and even through the early Reformation churches, replacement theology held its spell because the Church and the state were one. The theory’s dissemination ultimately poisoned all of Christendom in Europe (a significant, if not the greatest, factor that allowed for centuries of Jewish persecution, pogroms, and oppression). This poisoned heritage culminated in the 1930s and allowed the Nazis to take power and perpetrate the Holocaust. During the Nazi regime, the German Church was subjected to a new form of replacement theology that removed (forbade) the Hebrew texts from study and instituted a Hitler or Nazi Bible, which added two new commandments to serve the Reich. Not only was Jesus’s Jewishness removed, but he was also re-cast as an anti-Jew. The Reich removed iconic Christian art and sculptures from churches and replaced (or covered) them with swastika banners. The state church was renamed Reich Church to show the new alliance between the church doctrine and teachings and the state’s point of view. 

A new replacement theology emerged some 20 years ago from certain Arab Christians gaining a voice in the anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian chorus.  In the wake of Oct. 7, 2023, as the world’s ire turned even more stridently against Israel, Rev. Munther Issac of Bethlehem Bible College (an unfortunate name) propelled the “Jesus is Palestinian” narrative. With all the post-Oct. 7 false accusations of Israel committing genocide and harming civilians, Christmas 2023 in Bethlehem included Jesus in the Rubble in its annual Nativity scene. Therein the Baby Jesus wearing a print not unlike the Vatican’s manger blanket. The “Jesus is Palestinian” replacement theology narrative now seems to be certified by the Vatican in this year's Nativity scene.

Christians globally, Catholic and others, must be warned not to fall for this fallacy. 

Just as Nazi-era swastikas banners and patches adorned church buildings, Nazi members, and sympathizers, so too, the keffiyeh is seen as the symbol of those wanting to erase Israel, and by extension, the Jewish people. For many in the Jewish community and their supporters, the keffiyeh carries offensive connotations like those of the swastika in the 1930s.

The keffiyeh has become the 21st-century swastika, and the wearers know it. Whether the public knows this by now, it should. The Pope, if he wants to convey peace on earth and goodwill to all people, should know it too.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: On Dec. 11, the Vatican decided to remove the nativity scene.]

Amy Zewe is a Christian Media Analyst for CAMERA's Partnership of Christians & Jews.

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