{"id":15575,"date":"2026-10-01T13:57:54","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T17:57:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=15575"},"modified":"2026-10-01T13:57:54","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T17:57:54","slug":"evangelical-leader-slams-palestinian-officials-claim-that-bible-is-a-palestinian-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/10\/evangelical-leader-slams-palestinian-officials-claim-that-bible-is-a-palestinian-book.html","title":{"rendered":"Evangelical Leader Slams Palestinian Official\u2019s Claim That Bible is a \u2018Palestinian Book\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_15587\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15587\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15587\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2026\/09\/Bible-Palestine_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-15587\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Adobe Stock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Pastor John Hagee is pushing back against a Palestinian diplomat\u2019s claim that the Bible is a \u201cPalestinian book,\u201d saying the statement distorts Jewish history at the heart of Scripture.<\/p>\n<p>Husam Zomlot, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Kingdom, made the remarks during a 2026 appearance at the University of Bradford with former Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf. The event focused broadly on Palestinian identity, diplomacy and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.<\/p>\n<p>During the discussion, Zomlot recalled telling the late Queen Elizabeth II, \u201cJesus is our gift to you.\u201d He then said, \u201cThe Bible is a Palestinian book,\u201d and argued that Palestinians are \u201cthe original Christians.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Those comments drew a sharp response from Hagee, founder and chairman of Christians United for Israel, who disputed Zomlot\u2019s characterization.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Palestinians aren\u2019t the \u2018people of the Book,\u2019\u201d Hagee told F<em>ox News Digital<\/em>. \u201cWhen the \u2018Book\u2019 was written, the term Palestinian had not yet been coined.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hagee also accused Zomlot of attempting to appropriate Jewish religious history, calling the argument \u201ccontemptible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The dispute centers on the modern use of \u201cPalestinian\u201d to describe Jesus and the world in which He lived.<\/p>\n<p>The New Testament identifies Jesus as Jewish and places His life within first-century Judea and Galilee. He attended Jewish festivals, taught in synagogues and frequently quoted the Hebrew scriptures. But the region\u2019s terminology changed over time, making modern national labels for ancient people historically contentious.<\/p>\n<p>Hagee argued that calling Jesus Palestinian because Bethlehem today lies in the Palestinian-controlled West Bank imposes a modern political identity on an ancient setting.<\/p>\n<p>His criticism was echoed by Ze\u2019ev Orenstein, director of international affairs for the City of David Foundation in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJesus lived in a place called Judea, and Jews come from Judea,\u201d Orenstein told Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n<p>Zomlot\u2019s remarks reflect a different view of the Palestinian connection to the land and its Christian heritage. Palestinian Christians have deep historical roots in the region, and Christian communities remain in places central to the biblical story, including Bethlehem and Jerusalem. Zomlot framed that heritage as part of a broader Palestinian identity.<\/p>\n<p>But Hagee and other critics say the key distinction is between recognizing the region\u2019s Palestinian Christian heritage and applying a modern Palestinian national identity to Jesus or the biblical authors.<\/p>\n<p>For Christians, the controversy also shows how biblical history intersects with a politically and religiously contested region \u2014 and why claims about Jesus\u2019 identity can quickly become about more than ancient history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pastor John Hagee is pushing back against a Palestinian diplomat\u2019s claim that the Bible is a \u201cPalestinian book,\u201d saying the statement distorts Jewish history at the heart of Scripture. Husam Zomlot, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Kingdom, made the remarks during a 2026 appearance at the University of Bradford with former Scottish First Minister&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":15587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Evangelical Leader Slams Palestinian Official\u2019s Claim That Bible is a \u2018Palestinian Book\u2019<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Evangelical leader John Hagee pushes back after a Palestinian official calls the Bible a \u201cPalestinian book\u201d and makes claims about Jesus.\" \/>\n<meta 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