[This article was written by the well-known author Jules Gomes, a biblical scholar and journalist based in Rome. It appeared on the Middle East Forum on January 20th, and reprinted in its entirety with permission.]
“Israeli Christians and Islamic Converts Blast Declaration for Adopting a Submissive Posture Toward Islam“
Christian theologians are excoriating a statement from the Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem, which condemns Christian Zionism as a “damaging” ideology used to “mislead the public, sow confusion, and harm the unity of our flock.”
The January 17, 2026, declaration went viral on social media after antisemitic influencers, the United Nations Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, and the Heritage Foundation’s vice president, Roger Severino (who later deleted his tweet), weaponized it to attack Christians who support Israel.
The statement, which is part of a concerted effort from anti-Israel activists on the left and the “woke right” to discredit evangelical Christians who constitute the backbone of U.S. support for Israel, follows former Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s attack on Christian Zionism as a “Christian heresy” and a “brain virus” in an interview with neo-Nazi podcaster Nick Fuentes.
In their statement, the church leaders attack individuals welcomed by Israel “at official levels both locally and internationally.”
While the unsigned declaration claims that the unnamed leaders “alone” represent the churches in the Holy Land in matters of “religious, communal, and pastoral life,” previous signed statements reveal that the body includes the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox and Eastern and Roman Catholic prelates, as well as Lutherans and Episcopalians. Pope Leo XIV’s envoy Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa is the highest-profile cleric in the organization.
In their statement, the church leaders attack individuals welcomed by Israel “at official levels both locally and internationally,” alluding to 150 evangelical journalists and 1,000 pastors invited by the Israeli government to recent conferences in Jerusalem, warning them not to interfere in the “internal life of the churches.”
The statement does not clarify the term “Christian Zionism,” which the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem defines as Christians supporting “the Jewish people’s right to return to their homeland.” Top Catholic theologians like André Villeneuve and Gavin D’Costa even affirm “Catholic Zionism,” with Villeneuve arguing that Zionists can be Jewish, Christian, or non-religious.
Zionism “is not the product of nineteenth-century Protestant dispensationalism but is deeply rooted in Scripture,” explains Villeneuve, a professor at Michigan’s Sacred Heart Major Seminary. “If God’s gifts and calling to Israel are irrevocable, then this must include the gift of the land and Israel’s calling to live in it.”
“The unconditional gift of the election of the Jewish people is the theological foundation of Catholic Zionism,” writes D’Costa, a lecturer at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, Rome. “Many New Testament texts support the notion that Catholics should endorse Zionism. Jesus himself was a Jewish Christian Zionist.”
“Ironically, these bishops decry Christian Zionism when their own church has proclaimed the precise truths they condemn,” Anglican theologian Gerald McDermott, distinguished professor of Theology at Jerusalem Seminary, observes.
McDermott explains how Vatican II’s Nostra Aetate quotes Romans 9 to affirm that today’s Jews retain the “sonship and the glory and the covenants and the law and the worship and the promises,” and in 1991, Pope John Paul II referred to the return of Jews to the “mountains of Israel” in the last centuries as a fulfillment of Ezekiel’s promise.
“It is tragic that in this day of explosive antisemitism reminiscent of the 1930s, these bishops—contradicting Church teaching—give credence to hateful allegations that God’s covenant with Israel has ended and that the state of Israel does not deserve to exist,” warns McDermott, editor of The New Christian Zionism: Fresh Perspectives on Israel and the Land.
“Arab Christians are basically expected to actively promote and support the Arab cause, or else.”
A.J. Nolte, Regent University professor and director of its Institute for Israel Studies, observes that the statement reveals the patriarchs’ “internal dhimmitude,” which he defines as “an unspoken subordination of Arab Christians to Muslim interests, both inside Israel and, to a greater degree, in the Palestinian territories.”
“Arab Christians are basically expected to actively promote and support the Arab cause, or else,” Nolte laments. “Taking shots at Christian Zionism is more attractive than taking shots at Israel. Besides, attacking Christian Zionists will have no impact on their relationship with Israeli authorities.”
Further, most Christian Zionists are evangelicals, and the bishops do not like evangelicals for historical reasons, including the fact that “evangelicals also often try to convert Muslims, which the historic churches often want to discourage,” Nolte adds. He notes that all these patriarchates have ongoing property disputes with Israel.
The theologian also explains how such statements have virtually no fallout on the bishops, because the bishops know the next time Hamas or another radical Palestinian group holds a church hostage—as they did with the Church of the Nativity—the Israel Defense Forces will still rescue them.
Prominent Israeli Christians also have denounced the statement. Shadi Khalloul, an Aramaic Christian and former Knesset candidate, called the “unsigned statement” a “confession that Christians are persecuted by Arab Islamic governments and think adopting a dhimmi Church attitude gives protection.”
“If the Arab Church condemns Israel, nothing happens. If the Arab Church condemns Islamic jihad, many things happen,” Jordanian author Dan Burmawi, who converted from Islam to Christianity, tweeted. “That is why churches across the Arab world are quick to condemn Israel, and almost never condemn Islamic jihad.”
Jules Gomes is a biblical scholar and journalist based in Rome.
