About – Palestine / Israel

The history of the lands now known as Palestine and Israel are laden with the many layers of stories. These stories are often powerfully felt and told from many different perspectives.

For a brief introduction to the socio-political context, we’d recommend the Jewish Voice For Peace (USA) (video), or this short documentary on the history of Palestine, featuring historical footage. This six part series on the history of the Palestinian Israel conflict by Dr. Jonathan Kuttab, a Palestinian Christian leading human rights lawyer, is also an excellent resource. 

For a theological introduction, we’d recommend the Bible and the Land – A series of blogs by Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac from Bethlehem Bible College and Christ at the Checkpoint.

The Sabeel Liberation Theology Centre is an ecumenical grassroots liberation theology movement among Palestinian Christians. The word “Sabeel” is Arabic for ‘the way’ and also a ‘channel’ or ‘spring’ of life-giving water.  Sabeel provides a wealth of information on various topics related to Israel/Palestine, through their Kumi Now (meaning Rise Up) initiative. Each week a different topic is discussed in an online gathering with guest speakers. Related data and information for that topic is distributed, along with links to articles and other organisations. 

The Oceans of Injustice website has an excellent list of the different types of injustices perpetrated against the Palestinian people. Each ‘injustice’ is explained, along with testimonial quotes and a list of further resources to understand the topic.

PIEN have produced this detailed Annexation Guide with loads of links to articles, maps, and other information for you to think through how annexation might impact on Palestinians and Israelis and what you can do, along with this statement we issued.  

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories has a wealth of up-to-date reports, and statistics / maps. Their Humanitarian Atlas is a particularly useful resource in understanding the lay of the land.

If you would like some more detailed information about the context of Palestine and Israel, please see our recommendations of books, videos, and stories.

We have collated some church statements so you can see what Christian leaders in Palestine and around the world have said about this situation.  We have also provided some specific information about Christians in Palestine.

We would encourage you to listen with a generous spirit and open heart as we seek to understand more about what many people call the holy land.