Published : 02 Aug 2026, 07:56 PM
Updated : 08 Sep 2026, 09:29 AM
Even as they come under daily verbal and physical attack in Jerusalem, the existence and experience of Palestinian Jews largely remain invisible to American evangelicals who support the return of Jews to their Holy Land, Father Munther Isaac tells CNN.
Isaac, the director of the Bethlehem Institute for Peace and Justice, and Father Bashar Fawadleh of the last entirely Christian town in the occupied West Bank, have a similar message to their American brethren: “Come and see.”
“Our experience has been when pastors and lay people come to Palestine, see the walls, see the settlements, meet with families struggling just to survive in their land — that’s when their eyes are opened,” Isaac told the American news outlet.
Isaac and Fawadleh are interested in reaching the evangelicals who hold to Christian Zionism, which sees the modern state of Israel as a fulfilment of prophecy in the Bible.
They say this perspective ignores Palestinian Christians while also going against the Christian tenet of loving one’s neighbour.
“Theology has been weaponised,” Isaac told CNN. “These are Christians who are funding and supporting the major threat on our existence in the land today.”
Isaac, 47, was born in a Christian town near Bethlehem. Jewish settlements have been built on much of the land where he played as a child and he cannot walk the couple of miles from his home in Bethlehem to the ancient churches, temples, and mosques in Jerusalem. A 26-foot-high wall encircles the West Bank town. It was built after the Second Intifada to prevent suicide bombers from reaching Jerusalem easily.
In the past year, the Israel government has stepped up its support for building on Palestinian land. It has forced many Muslims to move and splintered the Christian communities in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Fawadleh told CNN 90 people had left Taybeh, called Ephraim in the Bible’s Gospel of John, in the past three years. Now only about 1,200 people live in the last fully Christian town in the West Bank. The number will likely fall further.
The priest says his parishioners are afraid to harvest their olive groves. Local resident Roland Bassir told CNN his cement factory just outside the town is attacked by settlers on most days.
“If I have the opportunity to leave, I would leave and not stay in this town, because there is no future for me or my children,” Bassir said.
Christian leaders in the area are concerned that some of the moral and financial support for the growth of such settlements come from the Christian Zionist movement.
The patriarchs and heads of the churches in Jerusalem issued a statement in January calling it a “damaging ideology”.
Christian Zionists believe their religion tells them to support Jews living in the Holy Land to speed the Second Coming of Christ, the end of the world, and the start of the eternal afterlife for Christians.
US-based evangelical groups Christians United for Israel (CUFI) and Christian Friends of Israeli Communities (CFOIC) are among the most prominent faith-based organisations supporting these settlements, CNN reports.
CFOIC says it is supporting 80 Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, which it calls by the Biblical names Judea and Samaria. Its website urges supporters “give generously, so that the communities of Biblical Israel may flourish.”
Kimberly Troup, director of the US office for CFOIC, told CNN she was friends with a Bethlehem pastor and believes that Christians had left the city because of Muslim persecution, not Israel’s actions.
She wrote to CNN: “Christian Zionism is an authentic expression of Biblical beliefs grounded in the Bible, which, as Christians, we believe is the word of God. Being a Christian Zionist means following God’s word as stated in the Bible that He gave the Land of Israel to the Jewish people.”
But Isaac says this does not reflect the reality on the ground, where the land is already home to Christians and Muslims.
“Given the threat of settlers over our lives these days — an actual threat against our lives as Palestinian Christians — these are Christians who are funding and supporting the major threat on our existence in the land today,” he said. “What this shows is, again, that we are not in their plan. They don’t think of us. They don’t see us.”
CUFI declined to respond to Isaac. Instead, it told CNN in an email statement that it supported the Israel government.
Isaac joked that these evangelicals are living in the 7th Century.
One of these evangelicals is US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who is a Christian Baptist minister himself. Huckabee told CNN he rejected Isaac’s criticisms. He added that he knew Palestinian Christians who were also Christian Zionists.
“No one overlooks the experiences of Palestinian Christians in the Holy Land. But Evangelicals believe the Bible — ALL of it,” he said. “It’s not a cafeteria where we pick and choose what fits our own prejudices and desires. There is nothing ‘racist’ about believing what the Bible clearly says about God’s promises to the Jews, and the Jewish faith is the foundation of the Christian faith. I hope Rev Isaac joins evangelicals in calling for an adherence to the authority of Scripture.”
Isaac preaches on social media and has done interviews and attended conferences in the US to urge people to learn about Palestinian Christians.
“I think many evangelicals are warming up to our perspective,” he said.
“We’re not coming into this discussion by saying, ‘Forget the Bible. Let’s talk about politics.’ It’s not our approach. Our approach is ‘Let’s read the Bible together,’ but let’s also read it with Palestinian Christians and connect it to the reality on the ground.”
He even spoke at Wheaton College, one of America’s best-known evangelical institutions in 2024. Isaac believes the invitations from traditionally conservative evangelical venues suggest younger Christians are more willing to question their assumptions.
CNN says there is support for this shift in polling, citing a 2025 University of Maryland study found that 51 percent of older evangelical Americans sympathised more with Israelis than Palestinians, compared with 24 percent of younger evangelicals.
Isaac has gained some supporters through his efforts. One of them is Ben Norquist, who said he had accepted Christian Zionism growing up in Minnesota without truly thinking of those it could affect negatively.
“Palestinians were invisible to me,” he told CNN. But Norquist says his viewpoint changed in his 20s when he began engaging with the stories of Palestinians and eventually travelled to the Holy Land himself for his studies.
“Something that’s important about what happened for me is that that process didn’t make me less Christian, so to speak. I didn’t ever question the foundations of my faith. What it felt like was I was actually discovering a truer version of what Jesus calling us to all along, and that’s how I feel even today.”
Isaac and Fawadleh both believe they have special roles to play as Christians in the Holy Land, CNN says.
Fawadleh urged all to visit. He said, “As Jesus invited the two disciples of John the Baptist, come and see. Hear our stories.”
His invitation was seconded by Isaac.
“We feel the weight of history upon our shoulders to continue the Christian presence and message from the place where it all started, and that message has to be one of love your neighbour, justice, and peacemaking,” he said.
