Tucker Carlson has a new moral panic: “Jewish settlers” are supposedly driving Christians out of their ancient towns.
In a February 19, 2026 video, Tucker claimed that Israel is forcing “Palestinian Christians” out of Beit Sahour, a town near Bethlehem. According to Tucker, Christians have lived there continuously for 2,000 years since the time of Jesus—until modern Israel came along and enabled “Jewish settlers” to move in.
The First Lie
To sell the story, Tucker interviewed a “Palestinian” Christian, Fares Abraham, who lives in the United States but whose family, Tucker claimed, has lived in Beit Sahour “since the time of Jesus.”
However, Abraham himself admits during the interview that he has never traced his family lineage back that far, which immediately collapses the core claim.
Jesus Lived in Judea, Not Palestine
Then comes the historical sleight of hand. Tucker talks about Jesus-era continuity while somehow forgetting that Jesus was a Jew living in Judea. Not “Palestine”—that name didn’t exist yet. Not the “West Bank”—a term invented in 1950. Jews are not foreign to the land Jesus lived on; they are indigenous to it.
“Palestinian Christians” are not indigenous. There was no such thing as “Palestine” at the time of Jesus. The Romans first applied the name Syria Palaestina—from which the modern term “Palestine” comes—to Judea in the second century A.D., long after Jesus’s death, deliberately attempting to erase Jewish identification with the land. Apparently, Tucker has taken a page from that playbook.
If Jews Are Not Indigenous, Then Neither Was Jesus
Tucker therefore starts the history of Israel with the Romans, claiming that Israel “was originally under Roman rule” and skipping everything that came before. That omission conveniently erases the Jewish Hasmonean dynasty and the fact that Jews ruled and lived in the land for centuries prior, with a continuous presence going back roughly 4,000 years. Tucker is happy to grant Christians indigenous status for 2,000 years—but refuses to apply the same logic to Jews, despite their 4,000 years of uninterrupted residence in the land of Israel.
There Was No Continuous Christian Residence in Beit Sahour Since Jesus
While Christians have lived in Israel since the time of Jesus, Tucker’s claim of uninterrupted Christian residence in Beit Sahour itself doesn’t hold. The town’s own Forefathers Orthodox Church acknowledges that by the mid-13th century, Beit Sahour was nearly uninhabited, aside from a few shepherds and farmers. “Uninterrupted” is simply false.
Beit Sahour’s Church Confirms a Historical Jewish Presence
More inconvenient still, the same church explicitly acknowledges Jewish roots in the area—tracing the town’s history through Jacob, Ruth, Boaz, and King David, the Jewish lineage from which Jesus descends. In other words, Jesus’s Jewish ancestors were in Beit Sahour long before Tucker discovered it on YouTube.
No Jews Are Taking Over Beit Sahour
Then there’s Tucker’s central claim: that “Jewish settlers” are moving into Beit Sahour. They are not. There are no Jews living in Beit Sahour. None.
Which makes his next claim even more absurd: that Israeli rule is allowing Jews to overrun the town. Beit Sahour is not under Israeli rule. It lies in Area A, under full civil and security control of the Palestinian Authority. Under the Oslo Accords, Israelis are legally forbidden from entering Area A. Large red signs at the city’s entrances warn Israeli citizens that entry is illegal and dangerous.
The nearby Jewish community Tucker is referring to, named “Yatziv,” is in Area C, on land that previously hosted a Jordanian—and later Israeli—military outpost. There was no outrage when Jordanian Muslims controlled it.
Tucker does correctly note that Beit Sahour is about 20 percent Muslim. He never explains why Muslim migration into a historically Christian town isn’t framed as “driving Christians out,” but Jews living nearby is.
Finally, Tucker claims the “West Bank has always been there.” It hasn’t. The term was created in 1950 to replace Judea and Samaria—explicitly stripping the land of its Jewish identity. In Jesus’s time, Beit Sahour was part of Judea. That’s where the word “Jew” comes from.
Takeaway
Tucker’s story requires more than erasing Jewish history. It requires erasing Jesus himself.
Jesus was a Jew—born in Judea, descended from Jewish ancestors, living among Jews, practicing a Jewish faith. Portraying Jews as foreign intruders in the land where Jesus lived strips Jesus of his own identity and turns his history into a political prop.
At the same time, Tucker isn’t just distorting the past—he’s denying Jews any legitimate presence in the present. By claiming Jews are “overrunning” a town they are legally barred from entering and omitting basic facts about jurisdiction, he is manufacturing outrage against Jews.
That’s what makes this performance especially grotesque. Tucker begins his video by warning against antisemitism, then proceeds to tell a story that only works if Jews are treated as historical interlopers, modern usurpers, and permanent outsiders—every classic trope, delivered with a knowing wink.
It may be framed as concern for Christians. In reality, it erases Jewish history, erases Jesus’s Jewish identity, and deliberately fuels hostility toward Jews—all while pretending to oppose the very thing it promotes.
SOURCES
X, Hoover Institution, Aish, Jewish Virtual Library, Forefathers Orthodox Church of Beit Sahour, Forefathers Orthodox Church of Beit Sahour, B’Tselem
