Reading Lists
Books
Is Peace Possible in the Holy Land? Christian Palestinians Speak The Justice and Peace Commission
Is Peace Possible? provides a valuable resource for pilgrims, pilgrimage leaders, tourists and anyone seeking to better understand the Christian perspective and experience of those living in the Land where Jesus was born, died and was resurrected. It contains the findings of the Justice and Peace Commission, which functions under the direction of the Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land. The Assembly was established to foster unity within the Church and serves as as a Catholic resource to further the social mission of the Church. It is composed of the Catholic Ordinaries of the various Rites, who have jurisdiction over the territory of the Holy Land. Is Peace Possible? is a compilation of the Commission’s reports and seeks to share their findings. Our hope is that better understanding can lead to peace.
The Hundred Years War Rashid Khalidi
Original, authoritative, and important, The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine is not a chronicle of victimization, nor does it whitewash the mistakes of Palestinian leaders or deny the emergence of national movements on both sides. In reevaluating the forces arrayed against the Palestinians, it offers an illuminating new view of a conflict that continues to this day.
Skeptics Guide to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Dale Hanson Bourke
With all of the heat surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, even the most basic facts can be hard to grasp. How do we make sense of what we read in the Bible―and what we read in the news? In this Skeptic’s Guide™, Dale Hanson Bourke sheds light on the places, terms, history, and current issues shaping this important region. Offering an even-handed presentation of a range of views on the most controversial issues, she provides a framework for American Christians to use in understanding why the conflict occurred, why it continues―and what remains to be done.
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine Ilan Pappe
Renowned Israeli historian, Ilan Pappe’s groundbreaking book revisits the formation of the State of Israel. Between 1947 and 1949, over 400 Palestinian villages were deliberately destroyed, civilians were massacred and around a million men, women, and children were expelled from their homes at gunpoint.Denied for almost six decades, had it happened today it could only have been called “ethnic cleansing”. Decisively debunking the myth that the Palestinian population left of their own accord in the course of this war, Ilan Pappe offers impressive archival evidence to demonstrate that, from its very inception, a central plank in Israel’s founding ideology was the forcible removal of the indigenous population. Indispensable for anyone interested in the current crisis in the Middle East.
A Land Full of God: Christian Perspectives Toward the Holy Land Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon, ed.
A collection of essays from Christian leaders with varying views on The Holy Land, peace building, and how US Christians can and should be involved.
Blood Brothers Elias Chacour
As a child, Elias Chacour lived in a small Palestinian village in Galilee. The townspeople were proud of their ancient Christian heritage and lived at peace with their Jewish neighbors. But early in 1947, their idyllic lifestyle was swept away as tens of thousands of Palestinians were killed and nearly one million forced into refugee camps. An exile in his native land, Elias began a years-long struggle with his love for the Jewish people and the world’s misunderstanding of his own people, the Palestinians. How was he to respond? He found his answer in the simple, haunting words of the Man of Galilee: “Blessed are the peacemakers.” In Blood Brothers, Chacour blends his riveting life story with historical research to reveal a little-known side of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the birth of modern Israel. He touches on controversial questions such as “What behind-the-scenes politics touched off the turmoil in the Middle East? “, “What does Bible prophecy really have to say? “, and “Can bitter enemies ever be reconciled?”
The Lemon Tree: an Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East Sandy Tolan
In 1967, Bashir Al-Khayri, a Palestinian twenty-five-year-old, journeyed to Israel, with the goal of seeing the beloved old stone house, with the lemon tree behind it, that he and his family had fled nineteen years earlier. To his surprise, when he found the house he was greeted by Dalia Ashkenazi Landau, a nineteen-year-old Israeli college student, whose family fled Europe for Israel following the Holocaust. On the stoop of their shared home, Dalia and Bashir began a rare friendship, forged in the aftermath of war and tested over the next thirty-five years in ways that neither could imagine on that summer day in 1967. Based on extensive research, and springing from his enormously resonant documentary that aired on NPR’s Fresh Air in 1998, Sandy Tolan brings the Israeli-Palestinian conflict down to its most human level, suggesting that even amid the bleakest political realities there exist stories of hope and reconciliation.
Mornings in Jenin Susan Abulhawa
A Novel – A story about the life of a Palestinian family throughout the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, following their displacement from 1948 until today.
The Israelis: Ordinary People in an Extraordinary Land Donna Rosenthal
This is a great book to look beyond the politics at the diverse lives, aspirations and challenges of ordinary Israelis.
Dark Hope: Working for Peace in Israel and Palestine David Shulman
For decades, we’ve been shocked by images of violent clashes between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. But for all their power, those images leave us at a loss: from our vantage at home, it’s hard for us to imagine the struggles of those living in the midst of the fighting. Now, American-born Israeli David Shulman takes us right into the heart of the conflict with Dark Hope, an eye-opening chronicle of his work as a member of the peace group Ta‘ayush, which takes its name from the Arabic for “living together.”
The Revered Alex Awad has been for few decades engaging Western Christian explaining to them the Arab – Israeli conflict from a Palestinian Christian point of view. He has been able to touch the hearts and minds of tens of thousands of people. This book reflects his heart and mind and makes his arguments accessible to an even-larger audience.
The Land Cries Out: Theology of the Land in the Israeli-Palestinian Context Salim J. Munayer (Editor), Lisa Loden (Series Editor)
Our theology does not exist in a vacuum but must relate to the world we inhabit and must influence our moral and ethical actions. This is especially true when discussing theology of “the land” in the context of a violent territorial conflict. The Holy Land has seen so much bloodshed that the earth itself is crying out to God. The chapters presented in this book form a unique collection of voices speaking from different perspectives on the issue of the theology of the land. These voices include Messianic Jewish and Palestinian Christian theologians and scholars who live in the Holy Land, as well as others from around the world. The various chapters reflect a wide spectrum of opinion and reveal how much disagreement still exists among followers of Christ. However, the dialogue generated by having these opposing voices side by side, speaking to each other rather than past each other, is encouraging. This book is both challenging and inspirational, and contributes in an innovative way to this important discussion.
Through My Enemy’s Eyes Salim J. Munayer
This book addresses the universal theological dimension of reconciliation in the context of the Israeli Messianic Jewish and Palestinian Christian divide. Palestinian Christians and Israeli Messianic Jews share a belief in Jesus as the son of God and Messiah. Often, though, that is all they have in common. This remarkable book, written in collaboration by a local Palestinian Christian and an Israeli Messianic Jew, seeks to bridge this gap by addressing head on, divisive theological issues (as well as their political implications) such as land, covenant, prophecy and eschatology which separate their two communities. The struggle for reconciliation is painful and often extremely difficult for all of us. This unique work seeks to show a way forward.
Whose Land? Whose Promise?: What Christians Are Not Being Told about Israel and the Palestinians Gary M Burge Ph.D.
Because events in the Middle East continue to escalate in tragic complexity, Christians still struggle with making sense of it all. In this updated version of Whose Land? Whose Promise?, Burge further explores the personal emotions and opinions; and sharpens his theological argument in the context of the new developments surrounding the crisis in the Middle East. Whose Land? Whose Promise? offers insight for the thoughtful reader on an explosive topic and challenges personal truths on peace.
I Am a Palestinian Christian Mitri Raheb
A personal testimony of God and politics in the Holy Land. Mitri Raheb is a Palestinian Arab Lutheran Christian pastor who ministers in his hometown of Bethlehem. For many American Christians this combination of identities is incomprehensible. They assume that Palestinian Arabs are Muslims, not Christians, much less Lutherans. Raheb writes as a cultural mediator to the Western Christian world and as a local theologian for the Palestinian community. He grapples with how Palestinian Christians can develop a local theology that can be both truthful and helpful in mediating the conflicts between Israel and Palestine and among Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Both are conflicts in which religion, politics, and collective identity intertwine.
Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-1999 Benny Morris
Righteous Victims, by the noted historian Benny Morris, is a comprehensive and objective history of the long battle between Arabs and Jews for possession of a land they both call home. It appears at a most timely juncture, as the bloody and protracted struggle seems at last to be headed for resolution.
Websites and Newspapers
Churches for Middle East Peace
CMEP works to encourage U.S. policies that actively promote a just, lasting, and comprehensive resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, ensuring security, human rights and religious freedom for all the people of the region.
“We are a movement of young Christians in their 20s and 30s dedicated to designing and implementing a national campaign for peace and justice in the Holy Land. Our mission is to promote a holistic understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict within U.S. communities by creating space for dialogue and advocating for both Israelis and Palestinians who are pursuing peace and justice in the Holy Land.”
Violence and chaos in the Middle East have left many around the world hopeless and feeling helpless. As followers of Jesus, we refuse to be sidetracked by the temptation to despair. Prayers for Peace (P4P) provides a way for Christians of diverse political and theological backgrounds to stand up for peace and unite in supplication to God with a special focus on prayers for the Holy Land. Prayers for Peace provides Jesus’ followers with the common language of prayer around which to mobilize their energy and passion for the land that gave birth to our faith. To combat the prevailing images of discord, Prayers for Peace will highlight peace-building organizations that we may pray for them as they live out the reconciliation offered in the Prophets and Jesus’ message of shalom.
A group of Israeli Messianic Jewish and Palestinian Christian women.
Israeli Newspaper
Jerusalem Newspaper
“+972 Magazine is a blog-based web magazine that is jointly owned by a group of journalists, bloggers and photographers whose goal is to provide fresh, original, on-the-ground reporting and analysis of events in Israel and Palestine. Our collective is committed to human rights and freedom of information, and we oppose the occupation. However, +972 Magazine does not represent any organization, political party or specific agenda.”
Articles
Israel Fast Facts– CNN Library
Everything You Need to Know About Israel-Palestine– Edited by Zack Beauchamp
Gaza Situation Report 187– UNRWA
Israel-Palestinian conflict: Is one homeland the solution?– Samuel Thrope
Hands on the Switch – GISHA
The Costs of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict – C. Ross Anthony, Daniel Egel, Charles P. Ries, Craig Bond, Andrew Liepman, Jeffrey Martini, Steven Simon, Shira Efron, Bradley D. Stein, Lynsay Ayer, Mary E. Vaiana
Power Shortages Leave Gaza in the Dark– Khalil Hamra and Fares Akram.
The Gaza Cheat Sheet – Real Data on the Gaza Closure– GISHA
The Last Nail in Bethlehem’s Coffin: The Annexation Wall in Cremisan – The Society of St. Yves – Catholic Center for Human Rights
Lights for Gaza and the Darkness of Lent– Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon
Bethlehem Bible College Joins Ecumenical Gathering of Peace– Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon
Is UN The Anti-Christ? No, But Settlements Are Detrimental To Peace– Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon
