Truth is the foundation of justice.
This notion will not astound anyone raised in a democratic society protected by the rule of law. Disputes between parties, as between states, can only be fairly adjudicated with at least a minimal mutual agreement regarding the facts. Absent truth, there are no facts, only prevarication or propaganda. Absent truth, there can be no justice.
It therefore offends conscience and even respectful discourse when Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas pleads for justice from the western world, as he did last month, by claiming that Jesus was a Palestinian.
“We celebrate the birth of Jesus, a Palestinian messenger of love, justice and peace, which has guided millions from the moment that his message came out from a small grotto in Bethlehem over 2,000 years ago. His message resonates among all of those who are seeking justice and among our people who have been the guardians of the holy sites for generations. It resonates in our prayers for our people in Gaza,” Abbas said in his annual Christmas holiday message. (My emphasis.)
Nor was Abbas the only PA official to propagate this message. Rather, he was part of an orchestrated campaign claiming Palestinian lineage for Jesus. A cadre of key PA officials, including the supreme sharia (Islamic law) judge and adviser to Abbas on religious and Islamic affairs, the governor of Ramallah, and the chief PA security spokesperson all repeated the same misinformation.
Indeed, piling one falsehood upon another into a tower of lies, the PA saturated the West Bank with All "I Want for Christmas is Justice” as their propaganda message.
Alongside their zeal to strip the Jewish People of any historic claim to the Land of Israel, the Palestinian leaders are also prepared to strip the Christians of any historic or faith-based claim to Jesus. The PA mutilates the words and messages of the Christian Bible into unrecognizable form.
According to the Gospels, Jesus lived in Judea. He was a Judean. He was ridiculed by the Romans who crucified him as “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Judeans”.
The name “Palestine” was the creation of the Roman Emperor Hadrian in 135 CE, some 100 years after Jesus lived. To punish the Judeans after the failed Bar Kochba revolt, Hadrian replaced the name “Provincia Judea” with “Provincia Palaestina.” In his venomous desire to destroy all traces of Judean nationalism, Hadrian even changed the name of Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina. Judeans were killed, dispersed or sent away as slaves.
Abbas’ claim that his people “have been the guardians of the holy sites for generations” is equally hollow. Father Gabriel Nadaf, the spiritual leader of the Aramean Christian community based in Jerusalem, tells a more a truthful tale about how Palestinian leaders have, or rather have not, safeguarded Christian holy sites.
Writing in the Israeli journal Meida last month, urging the world to “stand alongside Israel,” Father Nadaf stated: “Bethlehem, the birthplace of Christ, had a clear Christian majority. Since 1995, when Israel handed the city to the Palestinian Authority, Christians have been leaving in droves. Today, Christians are only 15 per cent of the population. Some say it’s even less. Elsewhere in Palestinian-run areas, Christians are also leaving, and in Hamas-run Gaza, the situation is even worse.”
The truth is that most Middle East Muslim regimes are inhospitable to their Christian minorities. Father Nadaf again tells the tale: “The Middle East is effectively being cleansed of Christians. In the beginning of the 20th century, Christians constituted some 20 per cent of the population in the region. Today, it’s four per cent and falling.”
Our sages teach that truth and justice must be bound together to establish a structure of peace. It is discouraging that the leaders of the PA seem to take an opposite view. It seems that the truth is whatever they say it is. The consequences for justice, let alone peace, are grave indeed.