An anti-Israel article,
which appeared last week in a British newspaper, the Independent, claimed Christmas was a celebration of the "birth pains of a Palestinian refugee in Bethlehem" (Mary), before launching into an attack on Israel's
checkpoints in the West Bank.
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According to the article, written by British columnist Johann Hari, during Christmas "a third of humanity will gather to celebrate the birth pains of a Palestinian refugee in Bethlehem - but two millennia later, another mother in another glorified stable in this rubble-strewn, locked-down town is trying not to howl."
It added: "Fadia Jemal is a gap-toothed 27-year-old with a weary, watery smile. 'What would happen if the Virgin Mary came to Bethlehem today? She would endure what I have endured,' she says."
'21st century Marys being terrorized'
The article alleges that Jemal lost her baby due to a "road… blocked by Israeli soldiers, who said nobody was allowed to pass until morning."
Quoting Jemal, the article added: "When I see the (Israeli) soldiers I keep thinking - what did my baby do to Israel?"
Hari described Palestinian women as "21st century Marys" who were being "terrorized."
Various commentators have said that elements in Europe hostile to Israel have begun to portray Jesus as a Palestinian, and ancient Judea as a Palestinian entity.
The late Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat often denied that Jerusalem was the site of the Jewish temple, and described Jesus as a Palestinian.
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