Letter to Pope Francis and Catholic Clergy: Jesus was not Palestinian

The Hamas massacre from Oct. 7th 2023 and subsequent war, have been catastrophic for the State of Israel and people of Gaza.  It has also led to the worst outbreak of violent Jew-Hatred around the world, since the time of the Shoah. There has been marginalization, harassment and violence against Diaspora Jewry. It is with sadness that I write in the wake of the arson attack that severely damaged a Melbourne synagogue, recent “Jew hunts” in Europe and riots at Canadian universities with people calling for the “Final Solution” in Montreal.

The classical antisemitism instruction manual has been opened widely, complete with its updated strategies for delegitimization, demonization, dehumanization of both the Jewish State and Diaspora Jewry.

Antisemitic rhetoric has historically targeted local and “International Jewry” (e.g Protocols of the Elders of Zion). Now, under the guise of Anti-Zionism, they attack the sole Jewish State, which contains 50% of world Jewry, as well as its “international” supporters (80% of Diaspora Jews). Zionism is the movement for restoration of Jewish self-determination in our ancestral homeland, Israel, where we are indigenous and  have lived continuously for 3000 years, despite being subjected to genocides and ethnic cleansing. Zionism can be considered the quintessentially successful anti-colonial movement. This does not preclude the presence of indigenous minorities, like the 20% of Palestinian Arabs and Druse in Israel. Many countries have more than one indigenous population.

As one commentator stated: antisemitism is not about hating individual Jews for perceived malevolent actions. It is about hating an entire group of people, “The Jews”,  who stand in the way of universal redemption. By being accused of killing Christ and refusing to convert, Jews became an impediment to Christian salvation and redemption. By being deemed racially and ethnically impure, we stood in the path of European blood and soil restoration. By being Capitalists and Particularists, we stood in the way of universal Marxism. Now we are repugnant Zionists,  a demonizing inversion, crafted in the Soviet Union.   By allegedly being a White European, Settler Colonial, Apartheid State that intentionally starves whole populations and deliberately commits genocide, we have become the apex evil entity that blocks the path to global secular Human Rights, and World salvation. Intention is everything,  and is the defining hallmark of genocide. Imputing the worst motives and libels to Israel, condemns all Zionist Jews as evil oppressors and leaves them vulnerable to the attacks we are currently experiencing, from gullible haters seeking revenge and “social justice”.

Tragically, innocent civilians are killed in all wars. In Judaism, a life lost is a future world lost. We lament the deaths of innocent civilians in Israel and Gaza. We deplore the carnage and displacement. However, we lay the blame on Hamas who started this war with a brutal massacre and massive missile attacks at civilian populations.  They choose to use their civilians as Human Shields and Human Sacrifices. Israel is fighting a war against an avowedly genocidal enemy, and their Islamist allies in Iran, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen and  Syria. These groups openly call for the destruction of the world’s only Jewish State –“River to the Sea” and promote violence against Diaspora Jewry through “Global Intifada”.

Israel, like every nation in the world,  has an obligation to defend its citizens and prevent the future massacres, promised by Hamas and its Allies, which they vowed to repeat “over and over again”. This war is fought within the rules the Geneva Conventions and  Just Wars  and has resulted in the lowest recorded civilian: combatant ratio in history.  This fact belies the libel that Israel is fighting with genocidal intent.

How are the State of Israel’s shipments of polio vaccines, tons of food aid and facilitating medical care for Gazans, during this war, consistent with genocidal intent? Why did Gaza’s population and GDP grow fourfold under Israeli rule until they ceased ruling over Gaza in 2005? Does this sound like intentional genocide? Israel does not control the mosques or schools in the West Bank and Gaza, despite their teaching genocidal Jew-Hatred. Israel is not committing “cultural genocide”.    World Leaders, the UN  and “Experts”, sully themselves by massaging Raphael Lemkin’s original definition of genocide to fit this  demonizing allegation against Israel.

What else except contempt, should anyone of good conscience think and feel about Settler Colonialists who support Apartheid and intentionally murder women and children, committing  Genocide?   This level of public demonization is no different than past eras replete with blood libels. We were accused of killing Christian babies to use their blood for our ritual Matzoh.   We learned during the  Shoah that sometimes the whole world is indeed wrong about a subject. We also learned how demonization of an entire people by social leaders, results in dehumanization,  which  is a short step to violence, murder and genocide.  This formula was clearly evident during the Shoah and other genocides in Bosnia and Rwanda.

During the past 14 months we have rarely heard condemnation of the illegal and immoral attacks on Israeli civilians by Hamas and its Islamist Allies, from the UN or public leaders.  We hardly even hear mention of the perpetrators’ names: Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis and the Islamic Republic of Iran. The world has inverted them into victims and their attempts at genocide into resistance.  We barely hear about the hostages, mutilated, raped, starved, tortured and  languishing in Gazan tunnels.  You have been an outlier in meeting with Hostage families and speaking out against these crimes.  We thank you for this support.

Amidst the daily hyperbolic condemnations of Israel,  we rarely hear rebukes against the atrocities in the Russian/Ukrainian war, Human Rights abuses in Iran, or about the true Genocide in Darfur, ethnic cleansing of Kurds by Turkey in northern Syria, or Rohingya in Myanmar,  or the long standing oppression by China of Uyghurs and Tibetans. Why is there little mention of these deliberate genocides and Human Rights violations from International organizations or reporting in the media? Where are the campus protestors? Where are the calls to Boycott, Divest or Sanction these countries including China?

A hallmark of Jew-Hatred is the application of double standards. Why is Israel being held to a standard like no other country, delegitimized and demonized? . By inverting these crimes, and speaking of the “Gaza Warsaw ghetto” and “Palestinian Holocaust”, European commentators have absolved themselves, claiming that their historical actions during the Shoah  are no different than the Jews living in Israel.

We are grateful for the enormous steps taken by the Catholic Church to mend relations with the Jewish People, including dispelling the accusation of Deicide.  We are thankful for  Nostra Aetate from Vatican II and the sincere efforts from  previous Popes and Church leaders, who  extended hands of fraternal love and respect  to World Jewry.  The positive effect of these efforts was reported in a US survey in 2023 with the majority of Catholics thinking favourably about Jews.

Therefore, it was with enormous shock and pain that I read about your decision this year, to lay Baby Jesus in a  keffiyeh, in the Vatican Crèche,  as a statement against the evil of war. The keffiyeh has become a symbol of “the Axis of Resistance” and is worn by  Pro Hamas protestors around the world when they threaten Jews and chant for destruction of Israel . Keffiyehs were worn by  Hamas when they commenced their  massacre and during all their terror attacks against civilians.  Ayatollah Khamenei wears a keffiyeh which is not traditional Iranian garb,  when he speaks of wiping the Zionist entity off the map and denies the Holocaust. That is why the keffiyeh triggers most Jews, not unlike how the Swastika scared Jews during the Third Reich. It has become a symbol of anti-Zionist Jew -Hatred. Peace is always made between at least two or more antagonists. Why  do we not see a Star of David or menorah in the Crèche to reflect the other victim of this war, and critical partner necessary for a peaceful resolution of this tragic conflict.

Laying Baby Jesus on a keffiyeh causes deeper distress. It is historically inaccurate and part of the delegitimizing narrative promoted by Palestinians, that the Jewish people have no connection to Jerusalem or the Land of Israel.  Jesus was a Jew who lived in Galilee and Judea. He was not a Palestinian. The name Palestine was only coined 135 years after his death by the Romans, after they murdered and ethnically cleansed Jews from  biblical lands.  The name Palestine was only reinstated administratively during the British Mandate , following World War 1. Transforming  Baby Jesus into a Palestinian and  likening him to the innocent children killed in Gaza,  resurrects the charge of Deicide.

Unfortunately, leaders of the world’s Muslim population have chosen to depict the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a theological battle between Jews and Muslims. They have used passages from the Koran to turn this into a holy war. By making this conflict a Jihad, all Muslims now have an obligation to fight the Zionists (and their Jewish supporters) wherever they live. We are seeing the tragic consequences of this theology. Pew polls indicate that > 90% of Muslims in Arab and Muslim majority countries hate Jews. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and Mein Kampf are best sellers in Arab countries,  where ancient Jewish populations which preceded Islam by more than 1000 years, have been almost entirely ethnically cleansed.

By making Baby Jesus a Palestinian, and depicting this complex conflict as an oversimplified struggle  between evil genocidal Zionist oppressors and righteous Palestinian victims, the Vatican is reigniting theological Jew-Hatred. This can undo 60 years of hard work dispelling historical Christian antisemitic libels and undermine ongoing efforts to build good Catholic -Jewish relations.

Unlike during the Shoah, I feel more confident today, than my father’s family in Poland would have been, during the surge of world-wide Jew-Hatred at that time.  Jews had nowhere to go then and were wiped out  in Poland, where they lived, and in most of Europe. Similarly, Israelis have nowhere to go now if genocide prevails and they are ‘decolonized” from their country.  At least during these dark times  we have a  sovereign state with the military means to protect ourselves from genocidal enemies.

Therefore, in the spirit of Christmas, I hope that you will pursue Truth, Peace and Reconciliation and remove this Palestinian symbol from the Vatican Crèche.  Keeping it will only perpetuate division and inflame hatred and do nothing to bring peace to the Holy Land.  Now, more than ever, we look to our Catholic and Christian brothers and sisters, to stand up and support us in our struggle against Jew-Hatred in Israel and the Diaspora, and counter the spread of destructive lies and libels.