Advent is a unique time of celebration for many Christians. It is about the anticipation of the birth of Jesus, a Palestinian baby boy born in Bethlehem. Christians reflect on hope, joy, love, and peace, while waiting to celebrate this Palestinian baby’s birth.
Yet, many Christians ignore the reality of Palestinians Christians while supporting Israeli occupation, apartheid, and genocide. Christian Zionism spans from passive support for the concept of Israel based on church teachings to outright genocidal apologists defending and promoting Israel’s war crimes. But what is Christian Zionism?
Christian Zionism is a belief held by some Christians that to bring the second coming of Jesus Christ, Jews from across the world must all gather in the holy land of Israel and then convert to Christianity. This is also called millennialism. There are also many Christians who support Israel who don’t believe this biblical prophecy, or at least who don’t say so publicly.
Tarek Tahan, For Palestinian Christians, Our Plight Is Too Often Ignored and Justified by Christian Zionists
In Tahan’s article, Fadi Handal, a Palestinian Christian living in Toronto, said: “I feel like we’re often tokenized, which is the part that gets to me mos…Actually, maybe ‘tokenized’ is not the right word. I would say ‘weaponized.’”
Christians often claim Palestinians are being forced out of Palestine because of discrimination from their Muslim neighbours.
Xavier Abu-Eid, a Palestinian Christian living in Ramallah, “explains that his community’s existence is largely ignored because, ‘It is not convenient for [Christian Zionists]. Our existence quickly kills [the] narrative’ that this is being done for Christians…We are also bad news for Islamophobes because we make people see this not as a religious conflict, but as a national liberation struggle from a setter-colonial enterprise that never cared whether we were Christians or Muslims.”
Tarek Tahan, For Palestinian Christians, Our Plight Is Too Often Ignored and Justified by Christian Zionists
Another Palestinian Christian living in Toronto, Augie Habesch, shared a similar sentiment: “We [Christians and Muslims] are on the same team, fighting the same struggle.” That is the struggle against occupation and settler-colonialism. In Canada, Christian Zionism is traced back to the 1870s and 1880s. Henry Wentworth Monk raised funds in Canada and England to buy land in Palestine for European Jews. It would become ingrained in the fabric of the settler colonial state of Canada. In November 1915, Solicitor General and future Prime Minister Arthur Meighan said: “I think I can speak for those of the Christian faith when I express the wish that God speed the day when the land of your forefathers shall be yours again. This task I hope will be performed by that champion of liberty the world over — the British Empire.” (more...)
We’re celebrating Advent by exposing Christian Zionism in Canada
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