Islamic activist Linda Sarsour has sparked massive backlash online after posting a series of tweets claiming that Jesus Christ was a “Palestinian of Nazareth.”
Sarsour, who became infamous for organizing the Women’s March and Black Lives Matter rallies, claimed that this is because Bethlehem, the city where the Bible says Jesus was born, is in the West Bank and he had “wooly hair.”
Jesus was Palestinian of Nazareth and is described in the Quran as being brown copper skinned with wooly hair.
— Linda Sarsour (@lsarsour) July 6, 2019
“Jesus was Palestinian of Nazareth and is described in the Quran as being brown copper skinned with wooly hair,” the controversial activist tweeted.
https://twitter.com/arielsobelle/status/1147681325765152769
Sarsour went on to tweet that people had been reporting her tweet, adding laughing emojis and asserted that she didn’t violate any rules.
Folks reported my tweet that Jesus was a Palestinian. 🤣 twitter was obviously like this doesn’t violate our standards. It’s also true. Jesus was born in Bethlehem which is in Palestine. Move on.
— Linda Sarsour (@lsarsour) July 6, 2019
When someone responded saying that they will pray for her, Sarsour doubled down and claimed that Bethlehem is in Palestine and that it is “currently militarily occupied by Israel and home to a predominately beautiful Palestinian Christian community. Yes, the birthplace of Jesus is under military occupation.”
Why so upset by the truth. Jesus was born in Bethlehem aka بيت لحم in Arabic. Bethlehem is in Palestine. It’s currently militarily occupied by Israel and home to a predominately beautiful Palestinian Christian community. Yes, the birthplace of Jesus is under military occupation. https://t.co/xiseLoylYL
— Linda Sarsour (@lsarsour) July 6, 2019
Sarsour responded to someone saying that Jesus was a “Palestinian Jew,” by saying “yes, he was!”
Yes he was! #Jesus https://t.co/EkqTQdzKdO
— Linda Sarsour (@lsarsour) July 6, 2019
Much of the backlash against her claims centered around the fact that Palestine did not exist during the time of Jesus.
Are you that stupid? Bethlehem was a Jewish city! It means “house of bread”. It’s the city where king David – the most famous king of the Jews were born! On the cross above Jesus’ head was the sign “INRI”- “Iesvs Nazarenvs Rex Ivdaeorvm”, which means in Latin->>> pic.twitter.com/5aPcaGUpuP
— Yair Netanyahu (@YairNetanyahu) July 7, 2019
Dear @lsarsour, a brief history refresher:
1. Jesus was born in Judea (ie, as in Judea and Samaria, or what you call 'West Bank').
2. He was born Jewish.
3. There was no Palestine then.
End of story. Now #MoveOn & #StopRecreatingThePast. pic.twitter.com/hjaZWmr5hU
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) July 7, 2019
Linda, the concept of Palestine didn't even exist until over a century after Jesus died, when the Romans took over Judea and renamed the land Syria Palaestina to spite the Jews. How exactly was Jesus Palestinian?
— JC (@jcinthelibrary) July 6, 2019
