Why Are Arab Christians So Anti-Israel? An Analysis of Theology, Identity, and Ideological Socialization

By Dr. Tim Orr

In the shadow of church domes and minarets, where liturgies echo alongside political slogans, a perplexing contradiction unfolds: many Arab Christians, whose heritage traces back to the earliest followers of Christ, stand staunchly opposed to the existence of the modern state of Israel. This opposition is not born solely of theology or ethics, but of something more profound—an inherited ideology woven into the fabric of Arab Christian identity. It emerges from classrooms, pulpits, family histories, and geopolitical narratives, forming a worldview that feels righteous and spiritual but is often more shaped by nationalism and fear than Scripture and covenant. Why do those who proclaim the Prince of Peace find themselves in uncritical alliance with voices of resistance, resentment, and even erasure? This question forms the heart of the following inquiry.

The Tragedy of Theological Misalignment

It is one of the most perplexing and tragic realities in the modern Middle East that many Arab Christians—descendants of the earliest followers of Jesus—stand in ideological opposition to the state of Israel, the very people and land at the center of biblical prophecy. Far from offering a uniquely Christian critique rooted in Scripture and covenant theology, many Arab Christians echo the rhetoric of Islamic nationalism and secular postcolonial ideology. Their opposition is not simply political; it is theological, emotional, and deeply socialized. From a young age, Arab Christians are immersed in educational systems, media environments, and religious discourses that frame Israel as a colonial aggressor. This worldview is reinforced through textbooks, sermons, communal rituals, and even Christian liturgies that emphasize Palestinian victimhood over biblical covenant. In such a setting, anti-Israel sentiment is not merely taught—it is lived, inherited, and normalized. This article argues that Arab Christian anti-Israel sentiment arises not merely from personal conviction or theological reflection but from a broader pattern of cultural formation that includes education, media indoctrination, communal pressure, and theological distortion. Understanding this dynamic is crucial if Christians are to offer a redemptive, biblically rooted response that neither capitulates to political partisanship nor surrenders the clarity of the gospel.

Historical Loss and Arab Nationalist Assimilation

For many Arab Christians, the foundational trauma that shapes their view of Israel is the 1948 Arab-Israeli War—known in Arabic as al-Nakba (“the catastrophe”). During this time, an estimated 700,000 Palestinians—among them tens of thousands of Christians—were displaced (Khalidi, 1997). Churches were damaged, schools shuttered, and entire Christian neighborhoods depopulated. This historical memory has become the cornerstone of a collective identity rooted in dispossession and exile. While these losses are real and deserve lament, the tragedy lies in how they have been interpreted—not through the lens of Christian hope or forgiveness, but through the ideology of Arab nationalism.

Arab nationalism offered an attractive alternative to imperial domination and Islamic rule. Figures like Michel Aflaq, a Christian and one of the founders of the Ba’ath Party, envisioned a pan-Arab identity that transcended religion. Many Arab Christians, eager to escape dhimmi status and gain social influence, embraced this ideology. Yet in doing so, they traded theological distinctiveness for political conformity. Nationalism demanded loyalty, and part of that loyalty meant opposing Zionism and the idea of a Jewish homeland. As a result, Arab Christians—especially in Palestine—began to see themselves not as a unique ecclesial community, but as part of a larger Arab struggle against the West, colonialism, and Israel.

This assimilation into nationalist ideology weakened the Church's prophetic witness. One striking example is George Habash, a Greek Orthodox Christian who founded the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). This Marxist organization explicitly rejected both Western capitalism and Zionism. Habash once declared, "Zionism is a cancer, and we must eradicate it," a statement reflecting how political radicalism had overtaken any semblance of biblical covenant or reconciliation. Rather than calling both sides to repentance and reconciliation, Arab Christians often found themselves parroting the same talking points as their Muslim neighbors, depicting Israel as a foreign invader, rather than acknowledging its covenantal roots. Rather than calling both sides to repentance and reconciliation, Arab Christians often found themselves parroting the same talking points as their Muslim neighbors, depicting Israel as a foreign invader, rather than acknowledging its covenantal roots. This shift continues to distort Arab Christian theology and identity today.

Supersessionism Repackaged as Liberation Theology

At the heart of Arab Christian anti-Zionism lies a potent theological error: supersessionism, the belief that the Church has replaced Israel as God’s covenant people. While this view was widespread in the early Church and deeply influenced by Greco-Roman anti-Judaism, it found new life in the 20th century through liberation theology, which reinterprets biblical narratives through the lens of political struggle.

Naim Ateek, founder of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, is one of the most influential voices in this movement. In his writings, Ateek frequently reimagines Jesus as a Palestinian martyr. He casts Israel in the role of crucifier: “In this Christmas, the child Jesus is in the burning stable of Bethlehem… a refugee, threatened, chased, and ultimately crucified by an Israeli government” (Ateek, 2001, p. 40). This language is not just inflammatory—it retools the gospel narrative into a political weapon against the Jewish people. The cross becomes a symbol of Palestinian suffering, and Israel becomes the new Rome.

This framework not only erases Israel’s theological role in salvation history (cf. Rom. 11:1–2), but also imports a binary of oppressed vs. oppressor that has little resemblance to biblical categories of justice, mercy, and covenant. The result is a theology shaped more by Marxist-influenced ideology than by Scripture. Supersessionism undermines key doctrines such as the irrevocability of God’s promises to Israel (Rom. 11:28–29), the unity of Old and New Covenant fulfillment (Matt. 5:17), and the eschatological hope that includes Jewish restoration (Zech. 12:10; Acts 3:21). As theologian R. Kendall Soulen (1998) rightly warns, supersessionism distorts “the entire Christian narrative” by severing the Church from its Jewish roots (p. 63). A gospel that severs itself from Israel is a gospel that loses its historical and theological coherence.

Furthermore, by casting Israel as the aggressor and Palestinians as the crucified, this theology fails to account for Palestinian agency or responsibility. It offers no room for self-examination, confessing sin, or a call to peace. It is a theology of protest, not reconciliation—and it does violence to the gospel it claims to proclaim.

The Curriculum of Contempt: How Anti-Israel Sentiment Is Taught in Schools

Arab Christian hostility to Israel does not arise in a vacuum. It is cultivated over time, especially through education. In the Palestinian territories and parts of the Arab world, school curricula systematically indoctrinate children into a worldview where Israel is not simply a political adversary but a moral evil. According to a 2021 report by IMPACT-se, an academic institute that monitors school textbooks, Palestinian Authority (PA) textbooks present Jews as treacherous, Israel as entirely illegitimate, and martyrdom as an honorable path (IMPACT-se, 2021).

Textbooks omit Israel from maps, refer to Israeli cities using only Arabic names, and portray Jewish presence as a violent interruption in Arab-Muslim history. Math problems ask students to calculate the number of martyrs yearly since 1948. Literature lessons celebrate intifada poems. Geography lessons exclude the name “Israel” entirely. This material is used in Muslim-majority schools and Christian institutions operated under the Palestinian Ministry of Education.

The implications are profound. Arab Christian children are being shaped in a narrative where Israel is always the aggressor and never the neighbor. Even more troubling is that these anti-Israel narratives are often reinforced in religious spaces. Churches that host youth events or Sunday schools sometimes adopt the same terminology used in state textbooks—speaking of “resistance,” “occupation,” and “liberation,” but not of reconciliation, forgiveness, or covenant.

This approach starkly contrasts with biblical educational values and traditional Christian catechesis. Scripture calls parents and communities to teach children to love their neighbors (Luke 10:27), pray for their enemies (Matt. 5:44), and seek peace and pursue it (Ps. 34:14). Christian catechisms throughout church history have emphasized virtues such as charity, humility, and reconciliation. The Heidelberg Catechism, for instance, instructs believers to promote their neighbor’s good wherever they can and to avoid even the desire for revenge.

An illustrative example comes from a Christian woman from Bethlehem who, in an interview with a Western NGO, recounted how her catechism class taught her that Israel was the enemy of God’s people—Palestinians. “We were told to pray for victory,” she said, “not for peace.” This formation is not neutral—it embeds political ideology into spiritual identity. It trains young Christians to see Israel not through Scripture, but through grievance.

Communal Pressure and the Psychology of Dhimmitude

In addition to educational formation, Arab Christians live under immense social pressure to conform to dominant Islamic narratives. Historically, Christians lived under the legal system of dhimmitude, a status that allowed for tolerated but inferior coexistence under Islamic law. As Bat Ye’or (1996) thoroughly documents, dhimmis paid special taxes (jizya), were restricted in public religious expression, and were constantly reminded of their subordinate status.

While the legal structure of dhimmitude no longer officially exists in most Arab states, its psychological residue remains. Arab Christians are still minorities in overwhelmingly Muslim societies. Expressions of theological support for Israel—or even balanced sympathy—can be perceived as betrayal. To stand with Israel is to risk social ostracization, loss of employment, or worse.

This pressure fosters a type of communal silence. Many Arab Christians who privately admire Israel’s democratic freedoms—particularly its protection of religious minorities—dare not say so openly. A 2013 Wall Street Journal article by Arab journalist Bassam Tawil quotes Christian leaders in Bethlehem and Gaza who admitted, off the record, that they feel safer under Israeli rule than under Hamas—but would never say so publicly for fear of reprisal.

In effect, Arab Christian identity in many contexts has been shaped not by theological conviction but by survivalist conformity. To be accepted in the Arab world often means aligning one’s rhetoric with Islamic political narratives, including anti-Zionism. This is not authentic theological engagement; it is capitulation to fear.

The Danger of a One-Sided Prophetic Voice

Arab Christian leaders often view themselves as prophetic voices for justice in the conflict. But prophecy without balance is not prophetic—it is political. The biblical prophets condemned Israel’s sin, but they also affirmed God’s irrevocable promises. Today’s Arab Christian theologians too often denounce Zionism while remaining silent on Hamas terrorism, Palestinian corruption, and Islamic antisemitism.

The Kairos Palestine document (2009), for instance, frames Israel as a systemic evil while failing to mention the persecution of Christians by Muslims or the theological significance of Jewish return to the land. It offers a Christology of solidarity without a theology of covenant. As a result, it calls for justice but offers no gospel.

By contrast, true biblical justice sees all people—Jew and Arab, Israeli and Palestinian—as created in God's image and accountable to Him. It recognizes Israel’s failings without denying its right to exist. It mourns Palestinian suffering without sanctifying resistance ideologies rooted in revenge. And it speaks the hard word of repentance to all parties. Consider the prophet Jonah, who was sent to preach repentance to Nineveh, a violent foreign power. Despite his personal hatred for the Assyrians, Jonah was forced to learn that God's mercy extended even to his enemies. Similarly, the prophet Amos condemned both Israel and the surrounding nations for their injustices, demonstrating that prophetic integrity requires moral clarity for all sides. These biblical models challenge the selective outrage seen in much Arab Christian rhetoric today and offer a more faithful pattern of prophetic engagement rooted in God's holiness and compassion.

A Path Forward: Reclaiming a Biblical Theology of Israel and Justice

Arab Christians are uniquely positioned to witness a gospel that transcends tribalism. But to do so, they must be willing to break from the ideologies of nationalism, postcolonialism, and Islamic conformity. They must return to Scripture—not to affirm Zionism uncritically, but to see Israel as Scripture sees it: beloved enemies, still part of God's redemptive plan (Rom. 11:28–29).

This means teaching a theology that affirms both justice and covenant. It means educating children not with narratives of martyrdom and conquest but with stories of reconciliation, truth-telling, and peacemaking. It means forming pastors and theologians who can affirm Palestinian dignity without denying Jewish chosenness. Above all, it means refusing to let fear—not even the fear of rejection—dictate theological conviction.

As theologian Gerald McDermott (2020) writes, “The rebirth of Israel is not a political accident—it is a theological moment.” Arab Christians can participate in that moment, not by denying their history, but by reclaiming their heritage as people of the book, peace, and promise.

References

Ateek, N. S. (2001). A Palestinian Christian cry for reconciliation. Orbis Books.

Bat Ye’or. (1996). The decline of Eastern Christianity under Islam: From jihad to dhimmitude. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.

IMPACT-se. (2021). Review of Palestinian Authority school textbooks 2020–21. Retrieved from https://www.impact-se.org

Kairos Palestine. (2009). A moment of truth: A word of faith, hope and love from the heart of Palestinian suffering. Retrieved from https://www.kairospalestine.ps

Khalidi, R. (1997). Palestinian identity: The construction of modern national consciousness. Columbia University Press.

McDermott, G. (2020). Israel matters: Why Christians must think differently about the people and the land. Brazos Press.

Soulen, R. K. (1998). The God of Israel and Christian theology. Fortress Press.

Tawil, B. (2013, December 24). Christians in Bethlehem: Persecuted by Muslims, not by Israel. Wall Street Journal.

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. (2016). Crossway.