Report: Palestinian Propaganda Portrays Jesus as ‘Islamic Martyr’
Not satisfied merely with laying false claim on the legacy of Jesus, Palestinian propaganda is now portraying Christ as an Islamic terrorist, a recent report published by a media watchdog shows.
The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO)-Fatah controlled media outlets are depicting Jesus as an “Islamic Martyr,” the research conducted by the Israel-based watchdog group, Palestinian Media Watch, disclosed.
Palestinian Politicians, clerics and media outlets have began using Arabic epithets like Fida’i and Shahid for Jesus — formerly reserved for suicide bombers and slain jihadi fighters, the comprehensive media analysis conducted by the watchdog revealed.
In their Christmas messages, senior PLO-linked officials called Jesus the ‘first self-sacrificing fighter’ and ‘first [Islamic] Martyr,” the report said.
“After turning Jesus into a Palestinian, the PA [PLO-run Palestinian Authority] wanted to honor him the only way they know how: They declared him fighter (i.e., a terrorist) and an Islamic Martyr – the people who Palestinians see as the “most honorable”,” the Palestinian Media Watch report published on Friday noted.
The Palestinian Media Watch detailed of the latest Palestinian attempt to defile the legacy of Jesus for their jihad propaganda:
The PA uses many euphemisms and terms to refer to terrorists, and they are applying two of them to Jesus. The first is Fida’i, literally “self-sacrificing fighter.” For example, terrorist Ashraf Na’alwa, who brought a rifle to work, tied up a young mother of a 15-month-old, and then murdered her and another coworker, was called by Fatah: “The heroic Fida’i.” Fatah official Rawhi Fattouh applied this status to Jesus: “Jesus the first Palestinian Fida’i.”The second term is Shahid – Islamic “Martyr” – the word the PA uses for every terrorist killed during his/her attack, including suicide bombers. Senior Fatah leader Tawfiq Tirawi applied both terms to Jesus: “The first Fida’i and the first Martyr, the messiah Jesus.”Ironically, the PA and Fatah do not intend to insult Jesus’ memory or Christian tradition by turning Jesus into a terrorist. Palestinian leaders actually believe that terrorists, murderers of Israelis, and Islamic “Martyrs”, are the “most honorable.” PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas praises them regularly and puts them on the highest pedestal: “We view the Martyrs and prisoners (i.e., terrorists) as stars in the sky of the Palestinian people and they have priority in everything.” [Official PA TV, July 24, 2018]So by calling Jesus a Palestinian terrorist the PA/Fatah actually intend to honor him.
Palestinian activists and terrorist groups have long pursued the strategy of misappropriating Jesus for their antisemitic propaganda. Linda Sarsour, who is among the leading Muslim activists peddling this falsehood in the U.S., uses this narrative to build an alliance between the extremist BLM movement and her anti-Israel campaign. “Jesus was Palestinian of Nazareth and is described in the Quran as being brown copper skinned with wooly hair,” Sarsour tweeted in 2019.
The activists, like Sarsour, who peddle the ‘Jesus-was-a-Palestinian’ narrative also appear to have a great admiration for Palestinian terrorists. As the New York Post noted, Sarsour “has also heaped praise on Rasmea Odeh, a convicted Palestinian terrorist who helped blow up a Jerusalem supermarket in 1970, killing two people.”
While the Palestinian terrorist groups misappropriate the name of Christ, Palestinian Christians have been persecuted, threatened, and forced to flee. “When the Ottoman era ended in 1922, Christians were 11 percent of the population of Palestine—about 70,000 people. According to the 2017 census by the Palestinian Authority (PA), they now number 47,000—barely 1 percent,” the U.S. magazine Christianity Today noted in its August 2020 issue.
During Hamas’s 14-year reign of terror, the Christian population in Gaza dropped by more than 75 percent; from 4,200 in 2007 to the current figure of nearly 1,000. The remaining Christian minority in Gaza faces repeated terrorist attacks on its members and institutions.
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