Christmas Nativity scenes are as commonplace in December as fireworks in July and apple orchards in the fall. The symbols are universal: a babe in a manger, a doting mother and father, shepherds, a star… but this year some Nativity scenes, including one previously displayed at the Vatican, have included a new feature. The keffiyeh is a traditional Palestinian black and white scarf that has been co-opted by many pro-Palestine protesters as a symbol of solidarity with the people of Gaza. Nativity scenes have popped up throughout the world with baby Jesus cradled on a keffiyeh. Some Nativity scenes have gone so far as to include rubble around the baby Messiah, symbolizing the destroyed homes that have become the dominate feature of homes in Gaza as Israel continues to bomb the region in response to the October 7 attacks last year.

The move has been criticized by some as unnecessarily political. “The fact of the matter is, Jesus was a Jew… To suggest Jesus was a Palestinian is to push a political agenda that is extremely offensive. The nativity is for everyone. It’s something that should surpass politics,” Pastor Mark Burns of Harvest Faith Center in Easley, South Carolina told The New York Post. Dr. André Villeneuve, a professor of Old Testament and Biblical Languages at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, told The Post the imagery was “absurd.” “Dressing baby Jesus in a keffiyeh is not only a cynical exploitation of the manger scene for political and propagandistic purposes, but it is also an absurd rewriting of history. Everyone knows that Jesus was a Jew, a son of Israel. If he had been born in our generation, he would pray in a synagogue—not in a church or mosque.”

The criticism exploded after Pope Francis attended the December 7 inauguration of a Nativity scene with Jesus in a keffiyeh made by two artists from Bethlehem, which is now in modern-day Gaza. Representatives of the Palestinian Embassy to the Holy See, as well as representatives of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, had been in attendance during the event. By the following Wednesday, however, Jesus and his keffiyeh had disappeared. No reason has been given for the removal. Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See Press Office, has stated that it is traditional for the baby Jesus to be removed and then placed back in the manger on December 24. It is unclear whether Jesus with his keffiyeh will be present on the 24^th in the Vatican. Bethlehem-based artist Johny Andonia, who led the project, denied any political intentions in including the keffiyeh. “It came about in a spontaneous way, actually, because we learned that the child baby Jesus has to be covered or even absent until the 24th of December, and [the on-the-ground coordinator] suggested to cover it with a keffiyeh. And they said no, no, not to cover him. And then he asked, can I put it then under [the child Jesus] and the people … in charge at that time accepted laying the keffiyeh under the baby Jesus, and this is how it came about,” he said. “It’s only about recognition. This keffiyeh represents the people who had presented the Nativity scene.”