r/JewsOfConscience • u/Educational_Board888 Non-Jewish Ally • 15d ago

News Vatican removes nativity display featuring baby Jesus lying on keffiyeh

https://www.thejc.com/news/world/vatican-removes-nativity-display-featuring-baby-jesus-lying-on-keffiyeh-fvrdcbbf

The wooden statue was criticised by Jewish groups for reinforcing the trope that Jesus was a Palestinian.

The backlash came almost immediately from religious entities and individuals worldwide.

On Monday, B’nai B’rith International described feeling “disturbed by the Vatican display of a Palestinian-made nativity scene featuring Jesus on a keffiyeh and the pope’s appearance with it.” The group said the display “isn’t just politicisation, but revisionism. It presents (only) Palestinians as innocent victims—and Jesus as a Palestinian, not a Jew.”

In response to the display’s removal, David Parsons, senior vice president and spokesman for the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, noted that “we are relieved at reports that the Vatican has decided to remove the provocative nativity display with an infant Jesus resting on a black-and-white keffiyeh, which is an unmistakable symbol of Palestinian nationalism.”

He said “This crèche not only denigrated Jewish heritage, it also undermined core tenets of the Christian faith. Indeed, millions of Christians worldwide were instantly incensed by this exhibit ahead of the Christmas season. The Vatican did the right thing in taking it down.”

Parsons described the display as “theological malpractice for the Holy See to allow this display to remain. For if Jesus was a Palestinian Arab, then he would not have qualified to be Christ, the promised messiah and savior of the world.”

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u/[deleted] 15d ago

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u/GarryMcMahon Non-Jewish Ally 15d ago

The Jews

What the fuck?

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u/[deleted] 15d ago

Yeah.. it’s pretty disappointing seeing things like this getting upvoted here. Regardless of whether this person is Jewish or not, this feels gross and their comment history is pretty ugly. 

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u/motherofcorgidors Jewish Anti-Zionist 15d ago

If you see any comments like this that break our rules, please report them so the mod team can take care of it. Though we try our best to monitor posts ourselves, we don’t always see everything, and reports from our users alerting us to something we may have missed really helps!