by Hind Shraydeh

The war criminal “Israeli” government is attempting to sow the flames of sectarianism by cheaply presenting itself as the “protector of the homeland” in Arab countries, portraying itself as the savior from hardship and the faithful guardian of pluralism from the clutches of “fundamentalist terrorism.” It presents itself, with undisguised vileness, as a champion of the rights of minorities like the Druze, using them to achieve its own ends under the guise of democratization and rights, the same rights it has long violated and brought down in Gaza.

Israel also, with blatant stupidity, enhances the propaganda of its ‘Christian bias’, to clear its name with the colonial West and Trump’s Christian Zionist entourage. At the same time, they are working diligently and vilely to create a hybrid sectarian extension, claiming to be a Christian group, holding contradictory symbols: the cross of Christ, the symbol of our redemption, and the Israeli flag, the symbol of obscurantism, tyranny, and the occupation that violates every inch of our Palestine, spreading the message that these two opposites are the same. We cry out in the face of “Israel” and the handful of charlatans who have absolutely no connection to our Eastern Christianity. They are merely parasitic appendages, feeding off the support of the occupation. They represent no one but themselves.

. No matter how much Zionist propaganda attempts to promote itself as a whitewash amid its bloodshed, softening its image for acceptable marketing purposes with a rosy tone, we are fully aware of its true nature: a colonialist entity, a state implementing an apartheid system par excellence, manipulating the interpretation of verses from the Bible and politicizing them according to its own interests to steal the land and expel Palestinians, Muslims and Christians alike.

The Arab Palestinian Christian presence is organic to Palestine and has endured on the land for thousands of years.

The Arab Palestinian Christian presence is organic to Palestine and has endured on the land for thousands of years. It has contributed, continues to contribute, and will always remain a national voice.

As for the recent Israeli occupation targeting of the Holy Family Church in Gaza, followed by the apology and boasting about its mistakes, this is not the first bombing of its kind. It is nothing but “thinking we are fools,” as Dr. Reverend Munther Ishaq commented. This stupor is something we absolutely do not buy.

Our message is that we will remain a thorn in the side of the occupation. We will always speak with our Arab and national identity, which belongs wholeheartedly to our people, no matter how much the colonizer expresses sectarian and malicious sympathy for the bombing of a church, the killing of Palestinians—even if they were Christians—or the attack and destruction by settlers of a Palestinian village—even if its inhabitants were Christians.

Perhaps it would be more beneficial for Zionist Mike Huckabee, who promotes the term “Judea and Samaria” instead of the West Bank, to stop supplying American weapons to an army that specializes in bombing both churches and mosques, and which has killed 60,000 Gazans with Uncle-Sam ammunition in an ongoing genocide. Or, to buy goodwill, he should end the engineered famine on the spot, or stop arming the settlers who attacked the village of Taybeh with U.S.-made weapons, instead of offering manufactured solidarity and the charade of “opening a serious Israeli investigation,” buying time to commit further crimes.

We call on the ‘cultured’ Huckabee to hold the Israeli occupation accountable for all its crimes without exception. Is your Zionist Christianity up to that?

Hind Shraydeh is a Palestinian Christian journalist from Jerusalem