Books/articles

Author Colum McCann . “How do we continue living once we have lost our reason to live?
Rami and Bassam live in the city of Jerusalem – but exist worlds apart, divided by an age-old conflict. And yet they have one thing in common. Both are fathers; both are fathers of daughters – and both daughters are now lost.
When Rami and Bassam meet, and tell one another the story of their grief, the most unexpected thing of all happens: they become best of friends. And their stories become one story, a story with the power to heal – and the power to change the world.”

Author Amos Oz . “‘On the kibbutz it’s hard to know. We’re all supposed to be friends but very few really are.’ Amos Oz’s compelling new fiction offers revelatory glimpses into the secrets and frustrations of the human heart, played out by a community of misfits united by political disagreement, intense dissatisfaction and lifetimes of words left unspoken…At the heart of each drama is a desire to be better, more principled and worthy of the community’s respect. With his trademark compassion and sharp-eyed wit, Amos Oz leaves us with the feeling that what matters most between friends is the invisible tie of our shared humanity.”

Author Susan Abulhawa . “Palestine, 1941. In the small village of Ein Hod a father leads a procession of his family and workers through the olive groves. As they move through the trees the green fruits drop onto the orchard floor; the ancient cycle of the seasons providing another bountiful harvest.
1948. The Abulheja family are forcibly removed from their ancestral home in Ein Hod and sent to live in a refugee camp in Jenin. Through Amal, the bright granddaughter of the patriarch, we witness the stories of her brothers- one, a stolen boy who becomes an Israeli soldier; the other who in sacrificing everything for the Palestinian cause will become his enemy. Amal’s own dramatic story threads its way through six decades of Palestinian-Israeli tension, eventually taking her into exile in Pensylvania in America.
Amal’s is a story of love and loss, of childhood, marriage and parenthood, and finally the need to share her history with her daughter, to preserve the greatest love she has. Richly told and full of humanity, Mornings in Jenin forces us to take a fresh look at one of the defining political conflicts of our lifetime. It is an extraordinary debut.“

Author Rev Dr Munther Isaac. “The land is an important theme in the Bible through which the whole biblical history in the Old and New Testaments can be studied and analyzed. Looking at the land in the Bible right from its beginnings in the garden of Eden this book approaches the theme from three distinct perspectives – holiness, the convenant, and the kingdom. Through careful analysis the author recognizes that the land has been universalized in Christ, as anticipated in the Old Testament, and as a result promotes a missional theology of the land that underlines the social and territorial dimensions of redemption.”

Author Rev Dr, Naim Ateek. “Addressing what many consider the world’s most controversial conflict, Naim Ateek offers a succinct primer on liberation theology in the context of the Palestinian struggle for freedom and self-determination. Beginning with the historical roots of this struggle, he shows how the memory of the Holocaust served to trump the claims and aspirations of the native inhabitants of Palestine, and how later Israeli occupation and settlements in the West Bank have contributed to their suffering and oppression.”

Author Munther Isaac. “This book is my invitation to you,” Isaac writes, “to step into the other side of the wall and listen to our stories and perspective. It is my humble request to you to allow me to share how Palestinians experience God, read the Bible, and have been touched and liberated by Jesus-a fellow Bethlehemite who has challenged us to see others as neighbors and love them as ourselves. . . . This book paints a picture of our story of faith, lament, and hope. And I invite you to join and listen, on our side of the wall.”

Editor/Author Mitri Raheb. “The book is the first comprehensive attempt to study and develop a hermeneutic of liberation in the context of the Israeli Occupation of the Palestinian land. It analyses the importance of culture, ethnicity, race, gender, ideology, theology, and politics vis-a-vis the processes of comprehension, analysis, interpretation, and contextualization of the Bible. The scholars from 16 countries bring not only an international scope of persuasions and perspectives, but also foster ecumenical, inter-disciplinary, multi-ethnic, and multi-cultural dialogue and philosophy. the book identifies a new path for theology that is responsible to its original source and that is relevant to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.”

Author Walter Brueggemann.  Renowned Old Testament Theologian in his book Chosen? “explores the situation in modern-day Israel that raises questions for many Christians who are easily confused when reading biblical accounts of God’s saving actions with the Israelites. Are modern Israeli citizens the descendants of the Israelites in the Bible whom God called chosen? Was the promise of land to Moses permanent and irrevocable? What about others living in the promised land? How should we read the Bible in light of the modern situation? Who are the Zionists, and what do they say?

In four chapters, Brueggemann addresses the main questions people have with regards to what the Bible has to say about this ongoing issue. A question-and-answer section with Walter Brueggemann, a glossary of terms, study guide, and guidelines for respectful dialogue are also included. The reader will get answers to their key questions about how to understand God’s promises to the biblical people often called Israel and the conflict between Israel and Palestine today.”

July 2024. The International Court of Justice ruled that the 57 year occupation by Israel of Palestinian territory is illegal and amounts to de facto annexation and must end. Further, all activities related to the occupation must be dismantled and reparations made.

April 2021 – The Israeli Human Rights organization B’Tselem released this report citing Israel an an apartheid state.

In April 2021 Human Rights Watch released this report which “examines Israeli policies and practices towards Palestinians in the OPT and
Israel and compares them to the treatment of Jewish Israelis living in the same territories. It is not an exhaustive evaluation of all types of international human rights and humanitarian law violations. Rather, it surveys consequential Israeli government practices and policies that violate the basic rights of Palestinians and whose purpose is to ensure the domination of Jewish Israelis, and assesses them against the definitions of the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution.”

This document aims to present a comprehensive description and understanding of what antisemitism is and is not. The Jerusalem Declaration is largely in response to the inadequacies and misuse of the Working Definition of anti-semitism of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), which has been adopted by many countries as the standard definition. 

October 2019 article by Jonathan Cook which gives an in-depth understanding up to that point. “Gaza’s problems, however – the fact that it is one of the most densely populated, poorest and polluted places on the planet – are not an accident, or the consequences of some natural cataclysm. The crisis there is entirely man-made – and one that has been engineered over decades by Israel”.

Kairos Palestine and BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency & Refugee Rights have produced this joint resource. A similar joint study was produced in 2012. Eleven years on and the decline in numbers of Palestinian Christians can be directly related to Israel’s colonial and apartheid policies against Palestinians. 

The well respected Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq launched in 2022 a comprehensive coalition report. The report delves into key details and analysis of Israel’s settler colonial and apartheid regime which is imposed on the Palestinian people.

In 2022 on the 15 year anniversary of the Gaza blockade – This Al Jazeera article looks at how Israel’s blockade and policies serve to keep Palestinian families living in the West Bank and Gaza, separate.

In June 2023 “Settler attacks on both Palestinians and their property are nothing new, but the current phenomenon shows a frequency, boldness, and pervasiveness of attacks as well as the involvement of hundreds of settlers participating in organized attacks against the villages in their vicinity. The settlers now feel that they not only enjoy the tacit support of the Israeli Government, but that they are themselves the government and can call the shots directly.”

An excellent Nakba factsheet by Jewish Voice for Peace.

An in-depth article that traces the Nakba from it’s origin to the current day reality.