“If Israel was not in charge of those sites, you would not have the freedom to go celebrate at any of those sites. The Arabs would not allow that. In fact, Bethlehem is controlled by the Palestinian Arabs, and so there’s a church where you can go where they say is where, where Christ was born, and it’s a beautiful church. But you walk out, but first of all, it’s like a pigsty, the city, it’s not well kept, and then they built this massive mosque right in front of it to like tower over it. The Israelis are caretakers of the most important history that we have.” – Ron DeSantis, speaking today to the Iowa anti-LGBTQ evangelical hate group, the Family Leader.
Florida Politics reports:
The Governor seems to be referring to Omar Ibn Al Khattab, which is the sole mosque in Bethlehem’s Old City, opposite the Church of the Nativity. Lonely Planet notes it “was built in 1860 on land granted by the Greek Orthodox Church in honor of Omar, the Prophet Muhammad’s father-in-law, who in 637 took Jerusalem from the flagging Byzantines and then stopped for prayer at the Christian Church of the Nativity.”
Read the full article.
DeSantis: Bethlehem a “Pig Sty” under Palestinian-Arab Rule https://t.co/mFqbAVL2AD pic.twitter.com/gtGdvI59Kj
— Messenger Politics (@MessengerPol) November 17, 2023
