On Jan. 20, Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel and a noted Christian Zionist, commented in a post on X: “Christians are followers of Christ and a Zionist simply accepts that the Jewish people have a right to live in their ancient, indigenous, and Biblical homeland.”

He was reacting to a statement, published on Jan. 17, by the religious leaders collectively known as the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in the Holy Land—Catholic, Orthodox, Eastern, Anglican and Lutheran—criticizing those who “advance damaging ideologies, such as Christian Zionism, mislead the public, sow confusion, and harm the unity of our flock.” They, in turn, were reacting to the news of a meeting on Jan. 9 between Mr. Huckabee and a top colonel in the Israeli army, Ihab Shlayan, who brought with him some Christian clergy.

Mr. Shlayan, a Christian Palestinian Arab citizen of Israel, continues the work of others within the Israeli establishment who argue that it would be in the best interests of Christians in Israel to discard their Palestinian Arab identity, taking on an Israeli “Aramean” identity. They also promote the integration of Christians into the Israeli Army, believing that this will guarantee Christians equal rights. Mr. Shlayan and his predecessors have found support among Christian Zionists, primarily U.S. Protestant evangelicals like Mr. Huckabee. These polemics are not new, and the Jerusalem heads of churches had already published a strong condemnation of Christian Zionism in August 2006.

Why do most Christians in the Holy Land see Christian Zionist ideology as incompatible with Christian faith? Christian Zionists believe that the land of Palestine/Israel belongs exclusively to the Jewish people, referring to biblical texts in which God promises and gives the land to the biblical people of Israel. They define the Palestinian people who live in Palestine/Israel as “non-Jews” who must submit to Jewish rule and privilege, accepting discrimination and occupation. Many of them believe that the struggle for Jewish domination in Palestine/Israel is part of an end-times scenario that will bring about the return of a triumphant Christ. Furthermore, many Christian Zionists believe that the Jews, reconstituted in their biblical “homeland,” will come to faith in Jesus. 

Using biblical texts and religious language formulated millennia ago to justify the dispossession of the Palestinian people of their lives, liberty, property and homeland by the Israeli state and its institutions today is problematic for many reasons. I propose here a few points for reflection:

1. The Old Testament teaches that the land belongs to God. God says to the people of Israel, “The land is mine; with me you are but aliens and tenants” (Lev 25:23). Possession of the land by the biblical people of Israel depends on their faithfulness to their covenant with God. The biblical text makes clear that contravening the covenant will lead to the loss of the land. And in the biblical narrative, because they are not faithful, they are led into exile: “Indeed, Jerusalem and Judah so angered the Lord that he expelled them from his presence” (2 Kings 24:20).

2. In the Old Testament, God, faithful to the promise of life, brings the exiles back to the land. Christian Zionists cite texts about this return in order to support the modern state of Israel as a fulfillment of these texts. However, their use of these texts is questionable for two reasons. First, they ignore the fact that the texts that speak of a return to the land refer historically to events in the sixth century B.C., when King Cyrus of the Persians permitted the Babylonian exiles to return to Jerusalem and rebuild it. Second, in citing these texts, they ignore what Pope Benedict XVI, in his book Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration, refers to as “the gradual universalization of the land on the basis of a theology of hope.” Benedict adds, “The land of the king of peace is not a nation state—it stretches from ‘sea to sea’” (Zech 9:10). 

3. In the Gospel, Jesus speaks very little about the bordered land of Israel. And he teaches that the promise of land does not depend on conquest: “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth [land]” (Mt 5:5). Pope Benedict XVI, again in his book Jesus of Nazareth, commented on this Beatitude: “Conquerors come and go, but the ones who remain are the simple, the humble, who cultivate the land and continue sowing and harvesting in the midst of sorrows and joys. The humble, the simple, outlast the violent, even from a purely historical point of view.”

4. When Jesus rises from the dead, a new order is established in which borders that separate peoples from each other no longer divide them. The Good News of the resurrection spreads from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth, bringing down dividing walls. The people of God is now composed of people from all nations: “For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall of the hostility between us. He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace” (Eph 2:14-15).

5. From a Christian perspective, wherever men and women gather to create community in fidelity to Christ is the land of promise, the land of holiness. The biblical lands continue to be venerated because they are a reminder of the events in the history of salvation—culminating, for Christians, in the coming of Jesus Christ. Christians visit the land of Palestine/Israel, remembering the roots of our faith, refueling ourselves for continued service, and recommitting to build a realm of equality, justice and peace throughout the world. 

6. Christian Palestinians, the descendants of the first Christians, live in this land of Palestine/Israel (with Muslim Palestinians and Jewish Israelis), participating in the building of the kingdom of God where Jesus once walked. They are a leaven, preaching equality, justice and peace in the midst of conflict. Christian Zionists who support Israeli conquest threaten the Church of Jerusalem, the mother of all churches, by supporting Jewish exclusivism and privilege. Attempts to align local Christians with Christian Zionism uproot Christians from the Palestinian society of which they are an integral part and in which they have an important role to play.

7. Christian Zionist discourse often repeats Islamophobic tropes that demonize Muslims and ridicule Islam. This teaching of contempt echoes a teaching of contempt about Jews and Judaism. Christians must commit to purifying their discourse of all teachings of contempt, reaching out to work with all those, believers and nonbelievers, who are committed to the struggle for equality, justice and peace.

8. Christian Zionists are often motivated by an awareness of and a sensitivity to how Jews have suffered as minorities, particularly in lands where Christians constituted majorities. This suffering reached devastating proportions during the Shoah. But making amends for this suffering cannot be at the expense of Palestinians, who had nothing to do with the suffering. Attempts to alleviate Jewish suffering by supporting Zionism ignored the Palestinians in the past and are complicit in the ongoing suffering of the Palestinians in the present. 

9. The Catholic Church teaches that Christians can respect the sense of attachment to the land of the Jewish people “without however making their own any particular religious interpretation of this relationship,” according to a statement released in 1985 by the pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews (“Notes on the Correct Way to Present Jews and Judaism in Preaching and Catechesis in the Roman Catholic Church”). The statement continues, “The existence of the state of Israel and its political options should be envisaged not in a perspective which is in itself religious, but in their reference to the common principles of international law.” 

We can conclude that respecting Jewish attachment to the land must not contradict the fundamental right of Palestinians to live in the land of their ancestors, enjoy full self-determination and thrive there.

David Neuhaus is a Jesuit priest who teaches Scripture in Israel and Palestine. Born in South Africa during the apartheid era, he has lived most of his life in Israel and is an Israeli citizen.