The politics of the nativity: When the birth of Jesus becomes a battlefield

Every December, a new controversy erupts over the national identity of the baby in the manger. While 2 billion Christians worldwide celebrate the miraculous birth of our Messiah, pro-Palestinian groups politicize Jesus’ birth to advance their cause. Susan Michael, USA president of the International Christian Embassy (ICEJ), rejects the annual attempts to recast Jesus as a modern-day Palestinian, saying, “It is not just anachronistic; it’s an erasure of the historical and theological truth that Jesus was a Jewish man born in the land of Israel known as Judea under the Roman Empire.”

On December 8, the Vatican sparked outrage by displaying a Nativity scene, donated by Palestinian artists, featuring baby Jesus lying on a keffiyeh. This black-and-white checkered scarf has symbolized Palestinian nationalism for decades—especially after Yasser Arafat sported the fabric as his daily headdress, and it became a widely recognized symbol of solidarity with Palestinians during the First and Second Intifadas. Since October 7, the keffiyeh has morphed into a more sinister emblem, representing much more than pro-Palestinian sentiment. It has become increasingly anti-Israel, anti-Jewish, and pro-Hamas.

Amy Zewe, media analyst for the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis, likens the keffiyeh of 2024 to the swastika of 1934. She states, “Just as Nazi-era swastika banners and patches adorned church buildings in the Nazi era, the keffiyeh is now seen as the symbol of those wanting to erase Israel, and by extension, the Jewish people.” The Nazis stripped the ancient swastika of its benign associations and claimed it as the new emblem of Aryan racial purity and German national revival. Similarly, protesters in Los Angeles shouting “From the River to the Sea, Palestine shall be free” have repurposed keffiyehs. They no longer serve as utilitarian headdresses protecting Bedouins from the desert sun but instead, symbolize a future Jew-free Middle East. In other words, the keffiyeh now symbolizes genocide of the Jewish people living in Israel.

At this point, neither the Jewish community nor Israel’s Christian supporters were surprised by the Vatican’s keffiyeh-draped crib. During Israel’s war with Hezbollah in September, Pope Francis denounced the IDF airstrikes as going “beyond morality.” In a recent book interview anticipating the Jubilee year, he discussed the alleged famine in Gaza and questioned whether “what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide.” The Holy See typically maintains neutrality in international conflicts, but this time, the pope has shown his hand regarding Israel and entertained a symbolic call for genocide of Jewish people.

After images of the opening ceremony for the Nativity of Bethlehem 2025 display shook the internet, officials quietly removed it from St. Peter’s Square without an official statement. Meanwhile, replacing Jesus’ swaddling clothes with keffiyehs has become a trend in churches from St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C. to All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, California. This new twist follows last year’s Nativity trend dubbed “Christ in the Rubble.”

In December 2023, mere months after Hamas’ murder and rape spree in southern Israel, Pastor Munther Isaac of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bethlehem urged Christians to alter their traditional symbols of peace to protest the war in Gaza. Outside of his own church, he placed a toy baby wrapped in the keffiyeh amid a rubble-filled manger. In his upcoming book, Christ in the Rubble: Faith, the Bible, and the Genocide in Gaza, Isaac calls Zionism a “genocidal project” far removed from Christian theology. The gist of his claim is that if Jesus were born in 2024, he would have been buried under the cinderblocks of Gaza’s destroyed buildings. Anti-Israel progressive churches in the West, like St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Washington D.C., copied the Christ in the Rubble idea.

A decade before the 2023 Israel-Hamas War, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas referred to Jesus as “the first Palestinian martyr.” Recasting Jesus’ Jewish heritage is meant to sever any historical connection Christians might feel toward the Israeli state. Of course, the claim ignores the lengthy introductions in the Gospels detailing Jesus’ extensive Judean family tree. Matthew’s genealogy traces Jesus’ direct connection to both King David and Father Abraham (Matthew 1:1). Instead, Palestinians make a geographic connection, pointing to Jesus’ birthplace in Bethlehem as proof that he would have been Palestinian if born today.

Jordanna McMillan, U.S. director of the Israel Allies Foundation, states, “At a time of year where ‘peace on earth’ and ‘goodwill to all men’ resound with the good news of remembering Jesus’ birth, Christians worldwide should wholeheartedly condemn these symbols of ‘resistance.’” The author of Hebrews would agree: “For it is clear that our Lord descended from Judah” (7:14 NIV). Even after the gospel message spread among the gentiles outside Israel, John of Patmos described Jesus as the “Lion of the Tribe of Judah” and “the Root of David” (Revelation 5:5).

Christians must reconsider adding accessories to their Nativity scenes that detract from the miracle of the incarnation. Dr. Linda W. Smith, the executive vice president of National Religious Broadcasters, states, “As Christians, we affirm that Jesus Christ came as the Savior to the entire world regardless of national, ethnic, or geographical origin. We reject all attempts to politicize this holy event or undermine its significance. The good news of Jesus Christ is not a political message, but the hope of all mankind.”

As a Christian who deeply empathizes with the Jewish people’s suffering this year and who frequently communicates with Jewish friends still reeling from revelations of rape, murdered babies, and captive parents, I have not added anything to my Nativity. However, as I gaze at the tiny olive wood characters, I hear “the voice in Ramah,” as the prophet Jeremiah described. Rachel, Jacob’s wife and a matriarch of the Jewish people, is weeping inconsolably for her children (Jeremiah 31:15). Rabbinic interpretation often views Rachel’s weeping not only as mourning for the destruction of her own children but also as an enduring symbol of the mourning of the Jewish nation throughout history. The Nativity, in my imagination, embodies true biblical Zionism: not a baby Jesus wrapped in a keffiyeh but one wet with the tears of Rachel.

The author and Christian leaders quoted in this article are all members of American Christian Leaders for Israel (ACLI) network, which is a project of the USA Branch of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem. On behalf of the tens of millions of American Christians we collectively represent, we, the members of ACLI, seek to provide a unified voice of truth to the American public in support of Israel and the Jewish people.