Fiery Post
"Romans Killed Jesus, Not Jews", Yair Netanyahu Says
In a long social media thread, the prime minister’s son argues that Jesus was Jewish, crucifixion was Roman, and collective blame of Jews is an antisemitic distortion.
Yair Netanyahu, the son of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, published a lengthy post earlier today warning that the medieval blood libel of blaming Jews for the death of Jesus is “making a comeback.”
In his post, Netanyahu recounted historical and theological arguments to counter such accusations. He emphasized that Jesus was Jewish, a rabbi named Yehoshua (Joshua), who spoke Hebrew and Aramaic, and whose family, disciples, and early followers were all Jews. “There was no ‘Jews versus Christians,’” Netanyahu wrote. “Christians did not yet exist as a separate religion.” He argued that the New Testament itself was written largely by Jews, with the possible exception of the Gospel of Luke, and that the early Jesus movement was part of Jewish society. Without the Jewish people, Netanyahu said, “there is no Christianity and no Christ.”
Netanyahu highlighted that crucifixion was a Roman method of execution, not a Jewish one. He pointed to historical evidence that Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, sentenced Jesus to death and that Roman soldiers carried out the crucifixion. “The Romans killed Jesus,” he wrote, noting that Rome routinely crucified thousands of Jews it considered political threats.
The post also criticized the idea of collective Jewish responsibility for Jesus’ death. “If all Jews for all time are to be blamed for the crucifixion because of a handful of individuals under Roman control, why aren’t all Romans and their descendants — Italians, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Romanians — blamed for the Roman soldiers who nailed him to the cross?” he asked. He likened the notion of holding Jews collectively responsible to blaming all Americans for school shootings committed by a small minority.
Addressing theological arguments, Netanyahu quoted the Gospel of John to emphasize that, according to Christian belief, Jesus chose to die and “laid down his life of his own accord.”
He also linked the debate to modern politics, arguing that if people insist Jews were responsible for Jesus’ death, that proves Jews were living in the land 2,000 years ago. “Doesn’t that mean Jews are the indigenous people of that land?” he asked, adding that if Palestinians claim to have been the original inhabitants during Jesus’ lifetime, “then logically, they would be the ones to blame for his death, not the Jews.”