Could Pope Francis be peddling the long debunked claim that Jesus was a Palestinian? 

The question was raised after His Holiness was pictured, on Saturday, celebrating the unveiling of a nativity scene that appears to present Jesus as a Palestinian. 

The display, which was gifted to the Vatican by Palestinian officials associated with the Palestinian Liberation Organization, features a wooden sculpture of baby Jesus lying atop a keffiyeh, a traditional Palestinian headdress. 

During the inauguration of the display, which is not the main nativity scene presented in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis urged his followers to “remember the brothers and sisters, who, right there [in Bethlehem] and in other parts of the world, are suffering from the tragedy of war.” He continued by condemning the arms industry — “that thrives on war and death” — before calling out “enough with wars, enough of violence!”

An executive committee member of the PLO, Ramzi Khouri, who attended the private ceremony, offered “warm greetings” to the pope from the Palestinian Authority’s president, Mahmoud Abbas, who has previously called Jesus a “Palestinian messenger.” Mr. Khouri later expressed, in a press release, his “deep gratitude for the pope’s unwavering support for the Palestinian cause and his tireless efforts to end the war on Gaza and promote justice.” 

The Holy Father’s warm embrace of the display called into question his stance on the long-running trope that Jesus — one of the world’s most famous Jews — was a Palestinian. The claim, which has long been rebuffed by historians, is often evoked by anti-Israel activists in an effort to erase Jewish indigeneity to the land of Israel. 

Israeli author and fellow at the Tel Aviv Institute, Hen Mazzig, who boasts nearly a quarter of a million followers on X, shared a picture of the scene, raising the query: “Does the pope think Jesus wasn’t a Jew either? Did he even read the Bible?” 

The exhibit was further denounced by the American Jewish Committee, which wrote, in a post on X, that they were “disappointed and troubled that a meaningful religious tradition has been politicized in this way.” 

This latest incident marks yet another controversy for the pope who, just a few months ago, called for an investigation into whether Israel is committing genocide amid its ongoing defensive war in Gaza. The suggestion was viewed as a marked shift in His Holiness’s willingness to take sides in international conflict, a move that the Catholic Church has historically avoided. 

Talk of Jesus’s supposed Palestinian heritage has bubbeled to surface in recent weeks after Netflix released the trailer for its upcoming biblical film about the mother of Jesus Christ, titled “Mary.” Anti-Israel protesters vowed to boycott the film over the network’s selection of an Israeli actress to play the part of the iconic matriarch, who they argue was Palestinian. The criticism had historians rolling their eyes, given that Mary, according to all historical records, was an observant Jew.