In the modern political imagination of Western Evangelicals, the State of Israel has taken on an almost mythic role — a divinely sanctioned actor whose existence is intertwined with prophecy, redemption, and the Second Coming. This interpretation, however, has come at a cost: the erasure and betrayal of the Palestinian Christians, whose roots in the Holy Land stretch back over two millennia.

The overwhelming support of many Evangelical Christians for Zionist policies — both religious and political — is often couched in theological language, appealing to Genesis 12:3 (“I will bless those who bless you...”), and fueled by apocalyptic expectations rooted in dispensationalist eschatology. But this theological framework has proven devastatingly indifferent to the lived realities of Palestinians — Muslim and Christian alike — who have suffered under decades of occupation, dispossession, and systemic discrimination.

What’s particularly tragic is the utter disregard Evangelical Zionism has shown toward the Palestinian Christian community. These Christians are not recent converts or immigrants — they are the living descendants of the earliest followers of Christ. The irony is striking: those who claim to love Jesus the most are backing policies that marginalize, exile, and silence the very communities that have preserved his legacy in the land of his birth.

The modern Palestinian Christian Diaspora, scattered by successive wars, occupations, and economic strangulation, once formed a vital part of the Arab world's intellectual and political vanguard. From Beirut to Jerusalem to Haifa, Palestinian Christians played a crucial role in building civil society. They were editors, educators, jurists, and founders of political movements — injecting sophistication, pluralism, and a cosmopolitan sensibility into Arab nationalism and cultural life.

Palestinian Christians were also bridge-builders, often mediating between Arab nationalism and Western liberalism. They articulated a vision of Arab society that was inclusive, modern, and rooted in local traditions while open to global ideas. Their exodus — driven by war, economic collapse, and a sense of abandonment by both the West and the Arab regimes — has deeply impoverished the social and political fabric of the Levant.

In their absence, the region has witnessed an increasing polarization: a hardening of ethno-religious identities, a rise in militant ideologies, and the erosion of the secular and pluralistic Arab polity that once seemed within reach. The Palestinian cause, once a unifying issue among diverse Arab and global leftist movements, has become fragmented and marginalized. In no small part, this is due to the uncritical, one-sided support for Israel by Evangelical political actors, whose influence in Washington has ensured consistent military aid, diplomatic cover at the UN, and the shielding of Israel from any meaningful accountability.

This Evangelical support often masquerades as "pro-Israel" but renders Palestinian Christians invisible. It is a cruel irony that churches in the U.S. send mission trips to Israel, yet have no awareness of — or interest in — the indigenous Christians of Bethlehem or Ramallah.

If Evangelicals truly seek to honor Christ and walk in his footsteps, they must begin by listening to the cries of his followers in the land where he once walked. They must acknowledge the suffering not only of Muslims but of their own brothers and sisters in faith who have been pushed to the margins. They must confront the uncomfortable truth that support for an ethno-nationalist state, built on dispossession, cannot be squared with the Gospel's call for justice, mercy, and peacemaking.

Ultimately, the tragedy of Evangelical Zionism is not just its complicity in the erasure of Palestine, but its betrayal of the Christian ethic it claims to uphold. By siding with power over the oppressed, with empire over witness, and with prophecy over people, it has rendered itself morally incoherent.