Pope Francis created an uproar when he was seen with a controversial nativity scene at the Vatican over the weekend.
The wooden display showed the baby Jesus lying on a Palestinian keffiyeh scarf.
The 87-year-old pontiff was seen on Saturday afternoon praying before the nativity display while sitting in a wheelchair.
The inauguration of the display, “Nativity of Bethlehem 2024,” was held in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican and was designed by two artists from Bethlehem, Johny Andonia and Faten Nastas Mitwasi. Andonia is an artist at Dar al Kalima University, and Mitwasi is known for being a “pioneer in Palestinian art and culture.”
The nativity is the representation of Jesus being born in Bethlehem, a city located in the West Bank, south of Jerusalem.
“The pope is exploiting Christmas to advance the ridiculous effort to rebrand Jesus as Palestinian rather than what he was — a Jew who fulfilled the Old Testament prophecy of a Messiah,” an X user said.
“Pope that never condemned October 7 massacre, today attended an exhibition showing a Palestinian Jesus (resting on a Palestinian keffiyeh). Someone should tell this ‘pope’ that Jesus was born, raised, and died as a Jew living in Judea,” another person replied on social media.
“Christian communities have been and are being ethnically cleansed under the banner of the keffiyeh. Depraved,” a social media user criticized.
Another person chimed in, “Even though the name Palestine didn’t even exist in the time of Jesus, and according to Christian canon, Jesus was very much a Jew. What’s with this upside down world?”
“That’s an emblem of modern Palestinians he’s wrapped in. What the Pope is doing is revising history,” another X reacted.
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Ramzi Khouri, a spokesman from the Palestine Liberation Organization, was reportedly in attendance at the event, at which he shared Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s “warm greetings” and “deep gratitude” for the pope’s unwavering support for the Palestinian cause.
The nativity scene was organized by the Higher Presidential Committee for Church Affairs in Palestine and the Palestinian Embassy to the Vatican.
