Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reported on a video of Fatah Central Committee member Abbas Zaki who in an interview last month made the following claim:

“Jesus was a Palestinian (sic.). He was a son of Nazareth, he was born in Bethlehem, and he was resurrected in Jerusalem,” Zaki said. “All the Christians believe that he was Palestinian, and that he was tortured by the Jews.”

Zaki holds the position of Fatah Commissioner for Arab and China Relations.

In order to create a thousand-year-long Palestinian history, the PA falsely links Palestinians to one of the most significant figures of all time, claiming that Jesus, a Jew from the nation of Judea, was actually a Palestinian,” PMW explained.

Yasser Arafat’s adviser Hanan Ashrawi, a Christian, is generally credited with creating the talking point of Jesus’ Palestinian identity when she said in an interview to the Washington Jewish Week on February 22, 2001, that “Jesus was a Palestinian.”

This became the official PLO platform as evidenced by their frequent reference to Jesus as “the first Palestinian martyr” and whose annual Christmas statement reads, “Every Christmas, Palestine celebrates the birth of one of its own: Jesus.”