Jesus’ Family and Modern Bethlehem

Jesus’ Family and Modern Bethlehem

The blog +972 shared the news earlier today that the Israeli embassy in Ireland had posted a derogatory status update about Palestinians, in connection with Jesus and Mary, on their Facebook page:

A thought for Christmasโ€ฆIf Jesus and mother Mary were alive today, they would, as Jews without security, probably end up being lynched in Bethlehem by hostile Palestinians.

Just a thoughtโ€ฆโ€ฆ.

This started off a meme, as such things tend to in Israel. Hereโ€™s an example (by Itamar Shaltiel):

The Hebrew says:

Mary: Weโ€™re lucky weโ€™re not Jews who live in Bethlehem, eh?

Jesus: It could have been worse.

Mary: How?

Jesus: We could be Palestinians in Hebron!

This reminded me of a number of earlier images that connect the nativity story with the situation in modern Bethlehem:

Jim West also mentioned the Facebook comment.


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