AMMAN, Jordan (RNS) — King Abdullah II’s annual iftar has become a highly anticipated Ramadan event where members of the royal family, religious leaders and local notables, as well as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and key members of his government, are all invited to break the daily fast with a dinner at the royal palace.
With the Muslim fasting season coinciding with Christian Lent this year, the usual contingent of Christian leaders was especially august on March 11, with Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem and William Hanna Shomali, an auxiliary bishop of the Latin patriarchate, joining Muhammad Hussein, the grand mufti of Jerusalem, at the meal, which included customary Lenten dishes for the Christians.
The gesture of offering Lenten food at an iftar was well received. The Christian leaders spoke powerfully against the rise in Western countries of Christian Zionism — Christian support for Israel based on biblical beliefs, especially apocalyptic prophecies — and its negative influence on peace and justice in the Middle East.
Theophilus noted the importance of the king’s role as the custodian of Muslim and Christian holy places in Jerusalem and warned that the Christian presence in the Holy Land is facing organized attacks by Israeli extremists and Israel’s pressure on historically Christian property. But the thrust of his remarks was to warn against the growing threat posed by Christian Zionism, which he called “a fundamentalist movement that misinterprets and misuses the Christian message for political ends.”
In a short speech, Bishop Shomali seconded Theophilus’ theme, saying “The Catholic Church does not accept the consecration of the land of Palestine in the name of the Jewish people based on the Torah, as Christian Zionism in America claims. The Torah was never a land deed that validates the land of one person at the expense of another. Rather, the religious book calls for the support of the poor, the needy and the oppressed, and to establish justice and peace on earth. The people of Palestine will not accept a homeland other than Palestine, even if they are blessed in the paradises of the East and the West.”
Shomali noted the symbolism of the shared meal. “His Majesty’s invitation to the Muslim and Christian religious leaders of Jerusalem to break their fast at his table is a call for continued brotherhood and coexistence. Brothers and friends are those who sit at one table and share a meal. His offering of Lenten food to the Christians demonstrates his respect for our religious sensibilities. Everyone was fasting, but in their own way,” the bishop noted.
Christian Zionism is a new topic in Jordanian politics. It was first mentioned Dec. 17, during an audience with the king as he was extending his holiday wishes to Christians in Jordan, Palestine and around the world. At that occasion and at the March 11 iftar was Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad, the king’s chief adviser for religious and cultural affairs and personal envoy.
In January, Prince Ghazi opened an event at the traditional site of Jesus’ baptism, on the east bank of the Jordan River, at which some 40 internationally known academics gathered for three days to discuss how a largely politicized religious phenomenon is fueling and justifying the continuation of war, forced hunger and occupation of Palestine. The conference was meant to provide a platform for experts to discuss the intersection of theology, history and politics in shaping religious narratives and policies.
“Christian Zionism is not limited to a specific group, such as evangelicals, or a specific region, such as the United States. Its danger lies in the fact that it is supported by many across most countries of the world,” said the opening event’s moderator, the Rev. Mitri Raheb, founder and president of Dar al-Kalima University in Bethlehem.
Palestinian speakers spoke about the challenges of being a Palestinian evangelical Christian. “The term ‘evangelical’ has been marred because of the association of evangelicals with Israeli war criminals,” said Jack Sara, president of Bethlehem Bible College. He blamed Christian Zionism, calling it “a heretical replacement theology that replaced Jesus with Israel.”
For years the Jordanian king and his government have stayed away from theological issues, especially those concerning the Christian faith. But the rise of religious nationalism in several places around the globe has encouraged Christian Zionists in the U.S. and other parts of the world to award Israel an open-ended justification for its prosecution of the war in Gaza and has forced a change in policy in Amman.
U.S. President Joe Biden had his own political, and perhaps personal, reasons for blindly backing Israel through the first year and more of the war. But the influence of Christian Zionists can be felt in the current White House’s acceleration of U.S. policy of discrimination against Palestinian Muslims and Christians. The developments are causing worry in the Middle East, as the most powerful country in the world is being encouraged to violate international law and offering only religious justification, if any.
Polls show that white American evangelicals’ support for Israel has surpassed that of Jewish Americans. American Christian fundamentalists have called for ethnic cleansing in Gaza and renaming the Palestinian West Bank Judea and Samaria, as they were known in biblical times, as a clear sign of support for Israel’s annexation of Palestinian territories to Israel. Jordan has said that such annexation, which would further destabilize the Middle East, would be tantamount to a declaration of war.
(Daoud Kuttab, an award-winning Palestinian journalist, is the publisher of Milhilard.org. His book “State of Palestine NOW” is available on Amazon. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily represent those of RNS.)
