Pro-Hamas Terror Radicals Target Symbols of Christianity

Above: AFDI bus ad.

Pro-Palestinian Radicals Target Symbols of Christianity

By: Breitbart News, December 11, 2023:

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – NOVEMBER 29: Pro-Palestine supporters gather for a rally at the Rockefeller tree lighting on November 29, 2023 in New York City. The rally comes as the initial four day truce between Israel and Hamas was extended by two days pausing the seven weeks of warfare …

Radical pro-Palestinian demonstrations appear to have developed a new tactic: they are targeting Christmas tree lightings across the country, and other Christian symbols, in addition to symbols of Israel and Jewish institutions.

The latest example was Friday’s protest in Los Angeles, where pro-Palestinian radicals marched from a fundraiser for President Joe Biden to an area where there are several synagogues. They sprayed anti-Israel graffiti on the walls opposite the synagogues, and also vandalized a local church.

Westwood United Methodist Church, after anti-Israel graffiti from Dec. 8 was cleaned up the following morning. One of the slogans read “IDF OUT”; another read “CEASEFIRE NOW.” December 9, 2023

Prior to that, pro-Palestinian activists disrupted the Christmas tree lighting at Rockefeller Center in New York City, clashing with police. Governor Gavin Newsom was forced to move California’s Christmas tree lighting indoors due to the threat of protests. And in Michigan, pro-Palestinian protesters tried to drown out a children’s choir at a Christmas tree lighting in Ypsilanti last month.

Update: Here is another example, from December 8, in Chicago:

BETHLEHEM CANCELED CHRISTMAS

Yesterday, we disrupted a Christmas singalong in Chicago to draw attention to the genocide in Palestine. 🇵🇸 pic.twitter.com/cRzA8IbHDB

— CODEPINK (@codepink) December 10, 2023

The question is why pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel activists have targeted Christmas, and Christian symbols, in addition to their pattern of targeting Jewish institutions (which has been condemned as antisemitic). There are Palestinian Christians, and some radicals insist that Jesus, too, was Palestinian (though he was a Jew who lived in Israel before the word “Palestine” was invented).

One answer is that pro-Palestinian protests have become increasingly Islamic. At Friday’s protest in Los Angeles, for example, Muslim participants held prayers during the demonstration outside the Biden fundraiser. Christians have faced persecution from Muslims in areas run by the Palestinian Authority, such as Bethlehem, and may have been marginalized within the movement.

Many evangelical Christians are seen as pro-Israel, so that may also make churches targets of hatred, alongside synagogues.

Another answer is that the activists are simply hijacking large public gatherings to draw attention to themselves, such as the Art Basel festival in Miami this weekend. Last week, climate change activists targeted the Metropolitan Opera in New York for the same reason.

But such protests tend to backfire. Indeed, if pro-Palestinian activists wanted to gain the sympathy of the majority of Americans for their cause, there is hardly a worse way to do it than targeting popular events such as Christmas tree lightings.

The answer may be that Christmas, and churches generally, are seen as symbols of what activists feel is a dominant culture. Pro-Palestinian radcial Rashid Khalidi described the described the Israeli communities targeted by Hamas terrorists October 7 as “suburban,” which was not true, but hints at the idea that they are somehow legitimate targets when case as symbols of capitalism, and complacency. Recall, too, that the Black Lives Matter movement targeted a church across the street from the White House in May 2020.

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