Jesus Was NOT a “Palestinian”

The following was posted on Facebook and was shared with me. With the current cultural situation, I thought this would be excellent to share with my readers.

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M.A. Rothman

Facebook 7/6/25 

There’s a lot of stupid people out there—we all know that—and while it’s damn near impossible to debunk everything, one thing I keep seeing pop up lately is this ridiculous claim that 𝐉𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐬 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐏𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐚𝐧.

People saying, “Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Palestine. It was Palestine then, and it’s still Palestine now.”

Not sure where these folks are getting that nonsense from—𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘵’𝘴 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘬 𝘪𝘵 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯.

It was 𝐍𝐎𝐓 called Palestine at the time of Jesus’ birth. He was born in Roman-occupied 𝐉𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐚. The name “Palestine” didn’t even exist during his lifetime.

That’s what you call 𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠—slapping a modern term or identity onto a historical figure who lived long before that identity was even a thing.

The term “Palestine” didn’t come around until the 1900s. The province of Syria-Palestina didn’t show up until 135 AD, after the Bar Kokhba revolt—𝐚 𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐲 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐉𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐬. And the Arab national identity of “Palestinian”? That didn’t take shape until the 20th century, especially around 1948—and really took hold in 1964 with Yasser Arafat, who was known as the father of the Palestinian movement.

The irony with that is that Yasser Arafat was Egyptian. Anyway, I digress.

So why are we calling Jesus Palestinian when that 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐧’𝐭 𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝟐,𝟎𝟎𝟎 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬?

It’s pure historical distortion. But hey, pro-Palestinians love rewriting history when it fits their narrative.

And don’t worry, we’ve also got the brainiacs chiming in like, “Being Palestinian doesn’t mean you follow a specific religion!”

𝐖𝐨𝐰, 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐬 𝐄𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐢𝐧. No one thought “Palestinian” was a religion. We get it—it’s a national identity. The point is: 𝐢𝐭 𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐧’𝐭 𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐉𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐬’ 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞, so trying to slap it onto him now is just lazy revisionism.

It’s like calling people in California “Mexican” today because the land used to be part of Mexico. That’s not how this works. We call people what they are based on the time and place they were born.

Jesus was born in 𝐁𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐥𝐞𝐡𝐞𝐦, in Roman-occupied 𝐉𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐚—not Palestine.

If you and I die tomorrow, and 2,000 years later someone invents a new nation, they can’t retroactively claim us as part of it. That’s not how time or facts work.

So if you’re dead set on giving Jesus a national identity, here it is: 𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐉𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐧.

Why people feel the need to muddy this up with nonsense is beyond me. But I guess when your narrative is paper-thin, rewriting history starts to sound like a good idea.

𝐈 𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐮𝐩.