Christian Zionism, a theology that justifies the displacement of people from their homes to serve an ethnonationalist, apartheid state cannot be reconciled with Christian values, writes Khalil Sayegh [photo credit: Getty Images]
President-elect Donald Trump is not taking any chances this time around. Three weeks after his decisive victory over Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, Trump has already packed his cabinet with acolytes and mavericks, all ready to make America great, again.
Talking heads in D.C. remind us that the only predictable thing about Donald Trump is his unpredictability. But that isn’t strictly true. Rather, Trump’s cabinet picks reveal an ideological, religious essence that first reared its head in Trump’s first administration and has, predictably, been supercharged. That essence is Christian Zionism.
On November 13, Donald Trump announced his selection of former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee as his choice for US Ambassador to Israel. Huckabee, a staunch Christian Zionist, has a long history of denying the existence of the Palestinians, has called for a “one-state solution” — in opposition to the official US position — which permits Israel to formally and illegally annex the occupied West Bank, and referred to the Iranian nuclear deal with the US as a “holocaust”.
Unfortunately for Palestinians and Arabs, Huckabee is the rule, not the exception in Trump’s pro-Israel swamp. As Robert Inkalash details in the Palestine Chronicle, there are several Christian Zionists in Trump’s cabinet, each with long, lucrative ties to Israel, from UN Ambassador Elise Stefanik — involved in the firing of Harvard President Claudine Gay — to National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz, and Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth.
All the above believe that God alone has granted the entirety of Palestine, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea (and beyond), to the Jewish people, leaving no space for the Palestinians and their inalienable right to self-determination. In short, they demand unrestricted, unconditional support for Israel and encourage the accelerated genocide of the Palestinian people.
As a Palestinian Christian from Gaza, I reject this expansionist, destructive theology, both as a Christian and as a Palestinian. Like millions of other Palestinians, my family has endured immense suffering from the ethnic cleansing of the Nakba in 1948 to the ongoing, accelerated genocide in Gaza today.
Christian Zionism, a theology that justifies the displacement of my people from our homes to serve an ethnonationalist, apartheid state cannot, in any way, be reconciled with Christian values. It is a theology that distorts the fundamental teachings of Christianity that all humans are created in the image of God.
The makeup of the Trump Administration 2.0 can, therefore, only signal worrying times ahead for the Palestinian people.
We saw it all before in Trump’s first administration, from Mike Pence’s unconditional support for Israel being rooted in his evangelical beliefs to the ‘Pompeo Doctrine’ that declared that Israel’s illegal settlements in the West Bank are not “inconsistent with international law”.
However, the decision to relocate the US embassy to Jerusalem was the landmark victory for Christian Zionists during Trump’s first term, shattering decades of diplomatic precedence, and offering an ideological spark that grips the party today. Trump himself acknowledged that the move was “for the evangelicals” and the embassy’s opening ceremony was filled with prominent Christian Zionist figures, including Pastor John Hagee, founder of Christians United for Israel and pastor of a church in San Antonio. In his prayer, Hagee expressed gratitude to God for the “miracle of Israel” and for granting the land to the Jewish people.
The return of Christian Zionism
Influential evangelicals like Pastor John Hagee have helped popularise and cement the idea that historic — and occupied — Palestine is reserved exclusively for the Jewish people in the American psyche.
According to a Pew Research survey, 70% of White evangelicals believe that God granted the land of Palestine to the Jewish people, correlating to the view that Christians are therefore obligated to support the state of Israel.
This “dispensationalist theology” — which preaches that God has a distinct plan for the salvation of the Jewish people, including their return to the Holy Land, and is often used to justify Christian American support for Israel — does seem to be losing influence among the newer generation of evangelical scholars, who’ve challenged the theology first introduced by John Darby from England in 1862 and later popularised by Dwight L. Moody and William E. Blackstone in the 19th Century. But despite this, as Daniel G. Hummel, explains, “pop dispensationalism” remains influential in the United States, particularly among older evangelicals.
Palestinian Christians, particularly Palestinian evangelicals, continue to show how the weaponisation of Christian theology to support Israel is both unbiblical and unethical.
As Palestinian theologian Munther Isaac asks, “How can the God of the Bible allow the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their homeland,” adding, “Won’t God contradict Himself by allowing a nation to ethnically cleanse Christians?”
Subscribe Now and Listen to our Podcasts OnAnd our fears are real. Palestinians are being ethnically cleansed by Israel in Gaza and Palestinian Christians in the West Bank, particularly in areas like Bethlehem, Beit Jala, Ramallah, and others, are being erased by the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements.
Eighty-four percent of Palestinian Christians expressed fears of being attacked by settlers, while 14% have reported that their land has been confiscated by settlers or by the Israeli occupation.
The ideology of Christian Zionism has real-life effects on Palestinian Christians that figures like Mike Huckabee and Pete Hegseth endorse. So, when Donald Trump appointed Mike Huckabee as US Ambassador to Israel, I tweeted him an invitation to visit the West Bank so that I could show him how illegal Israeli settlements have a destructive impact on Christians, not only in Palestine but across the region.
I would have taken him to Al-Makhrour in Bethlehem to meet Alice Kaysiyeh, whose land had been seized by settlers. Alice was attacked for attempting to defend her land and was then detained by Israeli police.
Alice’s story is not unique in Palestine; it reflects the experience of Palestinians every day who face violence, apartheid, and land theft, all with the backing of the Israeli state. This is also the reality for Christians in Palestine today.
Yet, as Alice Kaysiyeh and her family have shown, Christians are firmly rooted in Palestine. This is our land, too. And rather than destroy and upheave, as Christian Zionists have encouraged, we tend and nurture the land. This is what the Bible teaches us to do.
It seems clear that Donald Trump’s Christian Zionist cabinet will only intensify their vicious, anti-Palestinian policy in his second tenure as US president. We need to challenge Christian Zionists, challenge their power, and call for justice.
Christian Zionism is a settler colonial theology that is at “peace with the idea and reality of occupation”. But while Christian Zionists encourage violence, we, as Palestinian Christians, must stay grounded in the Bible’s call for peace. This land belongs to God, not the possession of any one ethnicity or religion.
Khalil Sayegh is a political analyst focused on Palestinian politics and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He is also the co-founder of the Agora Initiative. Khalil holds a Master’s degree in Political science from the American University in Washington, DC, where he researched democratization in the Middle East and Political Violence.
Follow him on X: @KhalilJeries
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