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New York Magazine’s Vulture ‘Jokes’ That Jesus Was a Palestinian

A story in Vulture, the entertainment and culture outlet of New York Magazine, takes a long look at what it calls “Nepo Babies” — the children of famous people. It includes the following sentence: The…

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A story in Vulture, the entertainment and culture outlet of New York Magazine, takes a long look at what it calls “Nepo Babies” — the children of famous people. It includes the following sentence:

The Hadid sisters are a tricky case: As with that other famous Palestinian, Jesus Christ, the benefits of the filial relationship clearly flowed both ways.”

Clearly, as HonestReporting has previously explained, Jesus was most definitely not a Palestinian. Rather, he was born in Judea, a client kingdom of the Roman Empire, and identified as a Jew.

Related Reading: Jesus Was a Jew, Not a Palestinian

We contacted the author of Vulture’s article to explain this and to request a correction. His response?

I appreciate the request, but this was a joke. We are aware Jesus was actually Jewish.”

Granted, the article was undoubtedly light-hearted. However, while it may very well be that Vulture was kidding around, satire is meant to ridicule and expose other people’s stupidity or vices.

Where Jews are concerned, however, there are far too many people out there who will believe anything, thus rendering satire ineffectual and potentially dangerous. As we approach Christmas, it’s once again that time of year when Jesus’s identity becomes politicized in an attempt by some Palestinian activists and antisemites to claim him for themselves.

Here are just a few examples from the past several days as seen on Twitter:

Why should we care? Why should Vulture care when it prints what its writer claims to be a “joke”?

Facts matter. History matters. If Jesus was not a Jew, but a Palestinian, then that serves a political end, as it calls into question the legitimacy of the Jewish connection to the Holy Land while suggesting that the Palestinians have ancient roots there.

Far from being an innocent claim or in this case a joke, the assertion that Jesus was Palestinian serves to invalidate Jewish history. This is particularly useful to political activists and politicians who seek to undermine the Jewish people’s connection to the land of Israel.

Take Action Now

We don’t believe that Vulture’s writer should be taking such a casual and indifferent attitude to this issue and we believe that Vulture should be more careful before printing an inciteful falsehood.

Please send your (polite) emails to New York Magazine and request a correction: [email protected]

Liked this article? Follow HonestReporting on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to see even more posts and videos debunking news bias and smears, as well as other content explaining what’s really going on in Israel and the region.

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