Critics are sounding the alarm on how Palestinian leaders and their allies in the west are pushing to re-interpret biblical history in the name of woke activism in the Middle East. At the heart of it all is the Palestinian Authority (PA), which is supported by leftists in Europe and other United Nations countries that together are seeking to cut Judeo-Christian ties to the Holy Land to favor Palestine's claim to the the sacred, historic land.
"The PA's erasure of Jewish history combined with the inventing of a Palestinian history is used by the PA to define Israelis as 'Zionist thieves,' 'usurpers,' 'foreigners,' 'invaders,' 'colonialists,' in short people with no connection to the land who therefore must be defeated and expelled," Palestinian Media Watch director Itamar Marcus told Fox News. The Israeli-based organization is focused on researcher Palestinian society.
Marcus accused senior PA officials of making several historically inaccurate statements. Such is the case of President Mahmoud Abbas, who in 2016 said in a televised speech on Palestinian TV that "Our narrative says that we were in this land since before Abraham. I am not saying it. The Bible says it. The Bible says, in these words, that the Palestinians existed before Abraham. So why don't you recognize my right?"
Similarly, the director of International Affairs for the City of David, Ze'ev Orenstein argued that senior Palestinian leaders often dismiss Judaism's holiest site called The Temple Mount as an "alleged Temple." He added that while there is "place in the world which holds more significance for more people than Jerusalem" than The Temple Mount, "oth the U.N. and Palestinian leadership are seeking to erase the Jewish and Christian heritage of Jerusalem."
Orenstein added that physical proof of the "millennia-old connection of Jews and Christians to Jerusalem" has been found through archaeological excavations in the City of David. Such discoveries include "millennia-old inscriptions affirming biblical events; ancient seals with the names - in Hebrew-of figures straight out of the pages of the Bible."
"A blow to the Christian faith"
But the "woke" Palestinian's efforts to erase Jewish history does have only political repercussions, but affects the Christian faith as well. Israel's Ecumenical Theological Research Fraternity director Rev. Dr. Petra Heldt, a leading Christian scholar, explained that "re-writing biblical history with an anti-Israel attempt ventures to set a potentially fatal blow to the Christian faith."
Heldt, who is also a professor at Jerusalem University College, expressed her concern over how today's Christian community is "on the brink of forgetting the Bible and the Christian tradition."
She added that erasing Israel and Jewish history from the Christian faith will "lure nominal Christians into the realm of the deceiver affiliated with agendas of anti-Semitism, secularism, or other religions."
Today, Israel and Palestine remain in a ceasefire following the conflict in May. Reuters reported that on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett played down any renewed peace negotiations with the Palestinians after Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met in the West Bank city of Ramallah. This was the first time senior level leaders of Israel and Palestine met after the U.S.-brokered peace negotiations fell apart in 2014.
