As Hamid Dabashi has noted: "Generations of European depiction of Christ as a blonde-haired, blue-eyed white man have made it difficult for European and North American Christians today to imagine him for what he was: a Jewish Palestinian refugee child who grew up to become a towering revolutionary figure."

The writer Terry Eagleton notes Jesus "was homeless, vagrant, without property, celibate, a scourge of the rich and powerful, a champion of the dispossessed, … averse to material goods."

Eagleton goes on to say that "Jesus warns his followers that if they speak out for justice and friendship as he did, then they, too, will be done away with by the state. There are plenty of latter-day Zealots who have learnt this lesson the hard way."

Jesus was, as Reza Aslan puts it a "politically conscious Jewish revolutionary who, two thousand years ago, walked across the Galilean countryside, gathering followers for a messianic movement with the goal of establishing the Kingdom of God but whose mission failed when, after a provocative entry into Jerusalem and a brazen attack on the Temple, he was arrested and executed by Rome for the crime of sedition."

It’s important to remember that Jesus is a figure of immense importance to Jews, Christians and Muslims.  He is the messiah in the Bible and a prophet in the Qurʾān. In the Torah he is seen, however as a false prophet, or as the Rev Stephen Sizer has recently put it, a "charlatan".

In the Qurʾān, Jesus (or Isa in Arabic), is referred to in about 71 verses.

Today the descendants and disciples of Jesus in Palestine – whether Jewish, Christian, or Muslim are engaged in a life-or-death struggle to cast off the genocidal ideology of Zionism. The Zionists, for their part, have shown a particular desire to destroy all of the infrastucture that sustains Palestinian society: hospitals, schools, Universities and places of worship and prayer - especially those run by Muslims and Christians. It’s this, in addition to the deliberate targeting of journalists, doctors, aid workers, and other civilians – as well as babies and children -  that marks this out as a genocide of truly biblical proportions.

The question at Christmas this year for all those (Jew, Christian or Muslim) who believe in Jesus as a prophet – as well as for the unbelievers - is would Jesus have been a leader of the Palestinian resistance?  

Christians and Christianity are under attack in Gaza and Palestine more generally.   

Zionist ideology is not just anti-Muslim, it is anti-Christian too. What is the common factor that links Muslims and Christians in Palestine? They are Palestinian. So, it’s no surprise that the Zionists are making sure to destroy churches as well as Mosques.

On October 19, "Israel" bombed the Church of Saint Porphyrius, Gaza’s oldest, killing at least 18 people. The Church is said to be the third oldest Christian church in the world, with the current building having been constructed by the Crusaders in the 1150s or 1160s; a church was built on the site as early as AD 425.

Two days earlier, an explosion at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital – an Anglican institution located a few blocks away – killed and injured hundreds, according to Palestinian health authorities.

The evidence is beginning to mount that the attacks on specifically Christian targets are themselves a specific genocide contained within the larger genocide aimed at Muslims and indeed all Palestinians.

On December 16, the Zionists reportedly directly targeted a Christian convent.  "An Israeli army sniper assassinated two Christian women (Nahed and her daughter Samar) inside the parish of the Holy Family in Gaza on Saturday," said the Latin Patriarchate's media office. One of the women fell while trying to rescue the other. Seven others were injured while attempting to help.

"Gunfire was directed at them inside the walls of the monastery, and there was no resistance in the area," it added.

An Israeli artillery vehicle also "targeted the monastery of the Sisters of Mother Teresa in Gaza City, which shelters more than 54 disabled individuals, within the church walls".

The Zionist attack also destroyed the fuel tank, the power generator, and the solar panels, in addition to extensive damage that rendered the place unsuitable for habitation or providing care for people with disabilities.

On January 26, 2023, a mob of Israeli settlers attacked an Armenian bar in the Christian quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem [Al-Quds], shouting "Death to Arabs … Death to Christians."

At the beginning of October, a video emerged of ultra-orthodox settlers in Al-Quds spitting on Christian pilgrims. Armed and violent settlers are also in the process of attempting to liquidate the Armenian quarter in Al-Quds and with it the wider Christian presence which has been there continuously since the Fourth Century.

Only 800 to 1,000 Christians are believed to still live in Gaza, constituting the oldest Christian community in the world, dating back to the first century.

It’s no wonder that the church in Palestine cancelled Christmas.