Palestine-Israel Resources
Curated by Daniel Bannoura, PhD
This is a detailed list of resources to help you understand and engage with the situation in Palestine and Israel. The whole conversation about this issue is highly convoluted and charged, which is further problematized by the one-sided biased attitude on the issue in Western political discourse, mainstream media outlets, and church communities.
The list below includes easy and quick content like podcasts, social media profiles, articles, documentaries, and videos. There are also books on theology, history and politics, as well as novels and short stories.
Media
The Israel-Palestine conflict: a brief, simple history (10 mins)
A short video by Vox about the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This is highly recommended as a quick introduction before you examine the issues more thoroughly.
How Israel Was Created (14 mins)
How exactly was that country born on land that was already called Palestine?
How Palestinians were expelled from their homes (16 mins)
Around the time that Israelis celebrate Independence Day, Palestinians commemorate “The Nakba,” or “The Catastrophe.” The Nakba was a series of events, centered around 1948, that expelled hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homeland and killed thousands. The Nakba isn’t the beginning of the story, but it’s a key part of Palestinian history. Significantly, the Nakba is still ongoing.
The U.S. Media Has a Palestine Problem (10 mins)
This is a very important video we want you to watch just because you come from the West, and there exists a default prejudice against Palestine and Palestinians that has, consciously and subconsciously, influenced the way you think about the Middle and Palestine/Israel.
Inside Israeli Apartheid (22 mins)
For decades Palestinians have accused Israel of the crime of Apartheid: one system that privileges Jews, and another that discriminates against Palestinians. Now, the rest of the world is catching up. In the past few years, leading global and Israeli human rights groups have joined their Palestinian counterparts in calling Israel an Apartheid state. From the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza, to Palestinian communities inside Israel, this is a look Inside Israeli Apartheid. This video is made by Mondoweiss, an Israeli news outlet. Check out other excellent videos by Amnesty International, and AJ+.
October 7 (60 mins)
Hamas’s incursion into Israel on October 7 transformed the politics of the Middle East. This is a forensic analysis of the events of that day. The investigation discovered many war crimes committed by Hamas members and others. It also found that many of the worst stories that came out in the days following the attack were false. This was especially true of atrocities that were used repeatedly by politicians in Israel and the West to justify the ferocity of the bombardment of the Gaza Strip, such as the mass killing of babies and allegations of widespread and systematic rape.
Christmas sermon: “Christ in the Rubble”
This is the viral Christmas sermon given by Palestinian Lutheran pastor Munther Isaac in December 2023.
Daniel Bannoura’s conversation with Preston Sprinkle on Theology on the Raw about the history of the conflict and a theological reflection about Western Christian support for the Gaza war.
Why are Palestinian Christians leaving Jesus’ Birthplace (Youtube)
Palestinian Christians have been disappearing from the Holy Land for decades, even though this region is where Christianity began. So what’s going on? Dena Takruri goes to Bethlehem to ask the Palestinian Christians who remain.
How Evangelicals betray Christians in the Holy Land (Youtube)
For millions of American evangelical Christians, supporting Israel is a core part of their faith. They believe Israel needs to exist so that the “end times” prophecies and return of Jesus Christ are guaranteed. But what does that support mean for people who share their religion but live under Israeli occupation?
How Israel and its Allies Weaponize Antisemitism (Youtube)
Criticizing Israel or calling for a ceasefire in Gaza is not antisemitic. So why does Israel and so many of its allies say it is?
Why evangelicals influence US foreign policy in the Middle East | EP1 (Youtube)
The first episode of Praying for Armageddon goes inside the evangelical Christian movement to explore its influence on US democracy and foreign policy. Preparing for the “end times”, a grassroots pastor gathers an army of veterans in the heartland of the United States, and megachurch ministers provide spiritual advice to politicians in the nation’s capital.
How evangelicals influence US foreign policy in the Middle East | EP2 (Youtube)
The second episode of Praying for Armageddon examines the dangerous consequences of the fusion between evangelical Christians and US politics. It shows not only how the very fabric of US democracy is weakened but also highlights the devastating impact religion wields on US foreign policy.
How Does the Government of Israel Treat Christians? (Youtube)
How does the government of Israel treat Christians? This is Tucker Carlson’s interview with Munther Isaac.
Where the Olive Trees Weep (2024)
Where Olive Trees Weep offers a searing window into the struggles and resilience of the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation. It explores themes of loss, trauma, and the quest for justice. The documentary follows, among others, Palestinian journalist and therapist Ashira Darwish, grassroots activist Ahed Tamimi, and Israeli journalist Amira Hass. We also witness Dr. Gabor Maté offer trauma-healing work to a group of women who were tortured in Israeli prisons.
Watch: Where the Olive Trees Weep (Amazon Prime), Where the Olive Trees Weep (Youtube).
No Other Land (2024)
This film made by a Palestinian-Israeli collective shows the destruction of the occupied West Bank’s Masafer Yatta by Israeli soldiers and the alliance which develops between the Palestinian activist Basel and Israeli journalist Yuval.
Watch: No Other Land (Amazon Prime)
Gaza (2019)
Gaza takes us to a unique place beyond the reach of news reports to reveal a world rich with eloquent and resilient characters, offering us an enriching portrait of a people attempting to lead meaningful lives against the rubble of perennial conflict.
Watch: Gaza (Amazon Prime)
Israelism (2024)
When two young American Jews raised to unconditionally support Israel witness the way Israel treats Palestinians, their lives take sharp left turns. They join a movement of young American Jews battling the old guard to redefine Judaism’s relationship with Israel, revealing a deepening generational divide over modern Jewish identity.
Watch: Israelism (Amazon Prime), Israelism (Youtube: Vice, Aljazeera)
1913: Seeds of Conflict
Examines seeds of the Middle East conflict sown in pre-WWI Ottoman Palestine.
Watch: 1913 Seeds of Conflict (Youtube)
Palestine 1920: The Other Side of the Palestinian Story (2022)
“A land without a people, and a people without a land” is how the relationship between Palestine and the Jewish people was described by Christian writers in the 1800s. And the 20th-century history of the Middle East has largely been written through these eyes. But this film from Al Jazeera Arabic looks at Palestine from a different angle. It hears from historians and witness accounts, and features archive documents that show Palestine as a thriving province of Greater Syria and the Ottoman Empire at the dawn of the 20th century.
Watch: Palestine 1920 (Youtube)
Occupation 101: Voices of the Silenced Majority (2006)
This documentary focuses on the current and historical root causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It covers a wide range of topics, which include the first wave of Jewish immigration from Europe in the 1880s, the 1920 tensions, the 1948 war, the 1967 war, the first Intifada of 1987, the Oslo Peace Process, settlement expansion, the role of the United States government, the second Intifada of 2000, the Separation Barrier, and the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, as well as many heart-rending testimonials from victims of this tragedy. Although it’s a bit dated, the documentary provides an excellent primer into the roots and manifestations of the conflict.
Watch: Occupation 101 (Youtube)
5 Broken Cameras (2011)
Nominated for a 2012 Academy Award, is a first-hand account of protests in Bil’in, a West Bank village affected by the Israeli Separation Wall.
Watch: 5 Broken Cameras (Vimeo); 5 Broken Cameras (Youtube)
The Law in These Parts (2012)
Winner of the Documentary Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, The Law in These Parts is a revelatory investigation into the judicial and moral complexities of Israel’s military legal system for governing Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Watch: Watch The Law in These Parts (Amazon)
The Story of Palestinian Christians: The Stones Cry Out (2013)
In 1948 the history of Palestine changed forever, but little is ever said about the upheaval faced by its Christian minority. Christians have lived side by side with Muslims and Jews for almost two thousand years. An integral part of Palestinian society, they have shared in the events of recent history, yet their voices are seldom heard and worse: their existence often ignored.
Watch: The Stones Cry Out (Youtube)
Little Town of Bethlehem (2010)
“An inspiring true story of three men–an Israeli Jew, a Palestinian Muslim, and a Palestinian Christian–in a land gripped by fear, hatred, and division. Expected to be enemies, they instead strive together to end the cycle of violence.”
Watch: Little Town of Bethlehem
With God on Our Side (2010)
A documentary that examines the theology of Christian Zionism and demonstrates a biblical alternative that promotes peace and reconciliation for both Jews and Palestinians.
Watch: With God on Our Side (Youtube)
Till Kingdom Come (2020)
A documentary that investigates the political alliance between American evangelicals and Israel’s right-wing, and their influence on the Trump administration’s foreign policy.
Watch: ‘Til Kingdom Come
Naila & The Uprising (2017)
When a nation-wide uprising breaks out in 1987, a woman in Gaza must make a choice between love, family and freedom. Undaunted, she embraces all three, joining a clandestine network of women in a movement that forces the world to recognize the Palestinian right to self-determination for the first time. Naila and the Uprising chronicles the remarkable journey of Naila Ayesh whose story weaves through the most vibrant, nonviolent mobilization in Palestinian history – the First Intifada in the late 1980s.
Watch: Naila and the Uprising (Vimeo)
The Gatekeepers (2012)
Israeli documentary nominated for a 2012 Academy Award. It tells the story of the Israeli internal security service, the Shin Bet, through the lens of six of its former directors
Watch: Watch The Gatekeepers (Amazon Prime)
Encounter Point (2006)
It follows a former Israeli settler, a Palestinian ex-prisoner, a bereaved Israeli mother, and a wounded Palestinian bereaved brother who risk their lives and public standing to promote a nonviolent end to the conflict.
Watch: Encounter Point (Amazon Prime)
Afterward (2020)
Afterward delves into the secret wounds carried by victims as well as victimizers as the Jerusalem-born filmmaker seeks to make sense of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the wave of anti-Semitism sweeping the globe.
Watch: Afterward (Amazon Prime)
Roadmap to Apartheid (2012)
Narrated by award-winning journalist Alice Walker, this film compares what is happening in Palestine to South Africa when it was under Apartheid.
Watch: Roadmap to Apartheid (Amazon Prime)
The Wanted 18 (2015)
A film that follows the story of 18 cows purchased by the town of Beit Sahour during the first intifada to provide milk for the community.
Watch: The Wanted 18 (Amazon Prime)
The Occupation of the American Mind: Israel’s Public Relations War in the United States
Released in 2016, the documentary takes an eye-opening look at pro-Israel public relations efforts within the U.S. Narrated by Roger Waters and featuring leading observers of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and U.S. media culture, the film explores how the Israeli government, the U.S. government, and the pro-Israel lobby have joined forces, often with very different motives, to shape American media coverage of the conflict in Israel’s favor.
Watch: The Occupation of the American Mind (Youtube)
Killing Gaza (2018)
In Killing Gaza, Jewish journalists Max Blumenthal and Dan Cohen documented Israel’s 2014 war on Gaza. Yet this film is much more than a documentary about Palestinian resilience and suffering. It is a chilling visual document of war crimes committed by the Israeli military, featuring direct testimony and evidence from the survivors.
Watch: Killing Gaza (Vimeo)
Gaza (2019)
“Gaza takes us to a unique place beyond the reach of news reports to reveal a world rich with eloquent and resilient characters, offering us an enriching portrait of a people attempting to lead meaningful lives against the rubble of perennial conflict”
Watch: Gaza (Amazon Prime)
Resistance Climbing (2023)
In conflict-torn Palestine, a diverse group of climbers finds community, solace and redemption.
Watch: Resistance Climbing
Boycott (2021)
A legal thriller with“accidental plaintiffs” at the center of the story, Boycott is a bracing look at the far-reaching implications of anti-boycott legislation and an inspiring tale of everyday Americans standing up to protect our rights in an age of shifting politics and threats to freedom of speech.
Watch: Boycott (JustVision)
The Law and the Prophets (2023)
In Israel, East Jerusalem, and the West Bank, the law is whatever Israel deems to be in the best interest of Jewish Israelis and to the detriment of Palestinians. Israel violates the civil and human rights of Palestinians as a matter of standard, accepted policy. However, there are brave, determined individuals who are trying to expose the destructive, unjust, and sometimes invisible ways in which Israel exploits and oppresses Palestinians. The Law and the Prophets explains the mechanisms of control that Israel deploys to subjugate Palestinians. These mechanisms, some violent and some nonviolent, have been perfected through decades of civil and military rule of Palestinians both within Israel, and in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Watch: The Law and the Prophets (Youtube)
The Present (2020, 24m)
This short film was released on Netflix and nominated for a 2021 Academy Award. It is a short film about a father and daughter in the Israeli-occupied West Bank trying to buy a wedding anniversary gift.
Watch: The Present (Netflix)
The Lemon Tree (2008, 1h 46m)
This film follows the legal efforts of a Palestinian widow to stop the Israeli defense minister, her next-door neighbor, from destroying the lemon trees of her family farm. At the same time, she develops a human bond with the minister’s wife.
Watch: Lemon Tree (Prime)
When I Saw You (2021, 1h 37m)
Longing to reunite with his missing father in the wake of the Six-Day War, an 11-year-old Palestinian boy sets out on a life-changing journey.
Watch: When I Saw You (Netflix)
Omar (2013, 1h 38m)
With his girlfriend, Nadia, living on the other side of an Israeli-built boundary wall, young Palestinian Omar regularly scales it to visit her.
Watch: Omar (Netflix)
Salt of This Sea (2008, 1h 45m)
A Palestinian American woman travels to her homeland to retrieve her grandfather’s savings, which had been frozen since his exile during the Nakba.
Watch: Salt of This Sea (Netflix)
Paradise Now (2005, 1hr 31m)
The movie follows two Palestinian childhood friends who have been recruited for a strike on Tel Aviv and focuses on their last days together.
Watch: Paradise Now (Prime)
Mo
Mo is the first American show created by a Palestinian and showing a Palestinian family on TV. It’s a comedy-drama starring Mo Amer as the titular character and is loosely based on Amer’s own life as a Palestinian refugee living in Houston, Texas.
Watch: Mo (Netflix)
Fauda
The widely popular, yet controversial, Israeli TV show depicts the exploits of Israeli intelligence in the West Bank and Gaza. Palestinians are critical of the show because of its hurtful stereotypes and one-sided portrayal of Palestinians. Read here a critical review.
Watch: Fauda (Netflix)
Our Boys
In the summer of 2014, three Jewish teenagers are kidnapped and murdered, leaving Israel shocked. Two days later, the burned body of a 16-year-old Palestinian from eastern Jerusalem, is found. Based on true events, this HBO limited series follows Simon, an officer from the Shin Bet, as he investigates the murder, while the parents of the slain teenager seek justice.
Watch: Our Boys (Max)
Shtisel
An Israeli TV show about a Haredi family living in an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Jerusalem that reckons with love, loss, and the doldrums of daily life.
Watch: Shtisel (Netflix)
Across the Divide
Hosted and produced by a group of Palestinian and American Christians, Across the Divide explores the intersection of the Christian faith and social justice in the context of Palestine-Israel and its relationship to the church in the West, and seeks to provide a space for thoughtful and critical conversations that reflect on the situation in Palestine-Israel through the lens of Christian faith, theology, and the Bible.
Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts; Watch on Youtube.
Christ at the Checkpoint Podcast
Rev. Munther Isaac hosts Palestinian theologians, clergy, and leaders for conversations that highlight and empower the voice of Palestinian Christians. Conversations range from discussing the life of Palestinian Christians under occupation, and their perspectives and theological reflections about the Palestine question.
Listen: Christ at the Checkpoint Podcast (Spotify)
Preoccupation Podcast
This podcast is a deep dive into the social, economic, and political history of Palestine. Through the narration of Palestine’s history, the podcast hopes to address some of the most common misconceptions about Palestine and Palestinians.
Listen: Preoccupation Podcast (Spotify)
Haaretz Weekly
A weekly podcast in English by Haaretz, Israel’s oldest daily newspaper, covering Israel, the Middle East, and the Jewish World.
Listen: Haaretz Weekly (Spotify)
This is Palestine
A podcast hosted by the Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU) that highlights people, issues, and events around Palestine. The podcast brings stories from the ground in Palestine and speaks with experts and activists to bring unique perspectives and analyses about Palestine from across the world.
Listen: This is Palestine Podcast (Spotify)
Occupied Thoughts
A podcast hosted by the Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP) that dives deep into issues related to Israel, Palestine, and the occupation.
Listen: Occupied Thoughts (Spotify)
The Mondoweiss Podcast
A podcast by Israeli news agency Mondoweiss that covers the movements, activists, and policymakers who affect what’s happening in Palestine. It covers Palestinians’ stories of occupation, resistance, and hope -stories that show us all how the world’s struggles interconnect.
Listen: The Mondoweiss Podcast (Spotify)
IMEU
Giving you access to untold stories, facts, and expert sources on all things Palestine— politics, culture, art, and activism.
Middle East Eye
Eye on Palestine
Jewish Voice for Peace
An American advocacy organization, JVP members are inspired by the Jewish tradition to work together for peace, social justice, equality, human rights, respect for international law, and a U.S. foreign policy based on these ideals.
IfNotNow
American Jews organizing our community to end U.S. support for Israel’s apartheid system and demand equality, justice, and a thriving future for all.
Breaking the Silence
@breakingthesilenceisrael
Aljazeera English – Middle East News | Al Jazeera
Almayadeen – Al Mayadeen English
+972 Magazine – +972 Magazine
Mondoweiss – Mondoweiss
Electronic Intifada – The Electronic Intifada
The Intercept – The Intercept
Democracy Now – Democracy Now
Solidarity Organizations
Adalah
A legal center for Arab minority rights in Israel. Adalah
Addameer
A Palestinian prisoner support and human rights center. Addameer
Al Haq
A Palestinian human rights organization in Ramallah. Al-Haq
Alternative Information Center
A partnership of Israelis and Palestinians to promote the joint struggle for freedom and national rights of Palestinians. AIC palestine
Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem
ARIJ prepares high quality, professional research studies and maps that track settlement expansion, movement restrictions, and control of natural resources, among other issues. The ARIJ website is an excellent resource for maps. Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem (ARIJ)
BDS Movement
A movement established by Palestinian civil society calling for the boycott, divestment and sanctions of Israel. The BDS movement
Badil Resource Center
Conducts advocacy related to UN Resolution 194 and supports refugees throughout the West Bank. BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights
Lajee Center
Lajee Center’s main aim is to provide Palestinian refugee youth with cultural, educational, social and developmental opportunities. Lajee Center
Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs
A research and publishing organization with a full range of historical and current maps of Palestine/Israel. PASSIA
Palestinian Center for Human Rights
A non-profit organization dedicated to protecting human rights, promoting the rule of law, and upholding democratic principles in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
Stop the Wall
A grassroots organization that connects the Popular Committees Against the Wall from across Palestine. Stop the Wall
Breaking the Silence
Israeli ex-soldiers tell stories about their experiences in enforcing the occupation. Breaking the Silence
B’Tselem
An Israeli human rights group that researches and publishes data on human rights abuses in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza. B’tselem’s website includes an interactive map that highlights human rights abuses. B’Tselem
Gisha
Gisha is an Israeli not-for-profit organization whose goal is to protect the freedom of movement of Palestinians, especially Gaza residents. http://www.gisha.org
Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions
An Israeli peace organization that works to end the occupation and confront the Israeli policy of house demolitions. ICAHD
Yesh Din
Yesh Din is an Israeli human rights organization working to achieve long-term structural improvement in the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. http://www.yesh-din.org
Zochrot
An Israeli organization that works to raise awareness of the Nakba in Israel. http://zochrot.org/en
Challenging Christian Zionism
The website of the Institute for the Study of Christian Zionism provides analysis on the devastating impact of Christian Zionism and works to disseminate a theology of biblical justice. https://www.christianzionism.org/
Christ at the Checkpoint
The influential series of Christ at the Checkpoint, organized by Bethlehem Bible College hosted their fourth Christ at the Checkpoint conference. This website includes lectures and articles from the conference. Christ at the Checkpoint
Community Peacemaker Teams
A North American Christian organization with a “violence reduction presence” in Hebron since 1995. Community Peacemaker Teams
Kairos Palestine: A Moment of Truth
A Palestinian Christian response to the occupation. Kairos Palestine
MennoPIN
The Mennonite Palestine/Israel Network is an independent grassroots network which relates to the Peace and Justice Support Network of Mennonite Church USA. MennoPIN
Sabeel
The Palestinian ecumenical liberation theology center – Sabeel, Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center
Network of Evangelicals for the Middle East – NEME
Churches for Middle East Peace – CMEP
The Telos Group – Telos Group
Mennonite Action – MennoAction
Kairos USA – Kairos USA
Friends of Sabeel North America – FOSNA
Friends of Tent of Nations North America – FOTONNA
Christians for a Free Palestine – Christians for a Free Palestine
Black Christians for Palestine – Black Christians for Palestine (IG)
Gaza Ceasefire Pilgrimage – Gaza Ceasefire Pilgrimage (IG)
Jewish Voice for Peace
A Jewish American advocacy organization, JVP members are inspired by Jewish tradition to work together for peace, social justice, equality, human rights, respect for international law, and a U.S. foreign policy based on these ideals. Jewish Voice for Peace
Rabbis for Human Rights
RHR was established with the purpose of giving voice to the Zionist ideal and the Jewish religious tradition of human rights. Rabbis for Human Rights | English
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
OCHA’s website has good maps, slideshows, and reports on closures, checkpoints, and the humanitarian situation in Gaza and the West Bank. OCHA oPt
United States Campaign for Palestinian Human Rights
A national network of activists and organizations who are committed to freedom, justice, and equality for the Palestinian people and who work to end U.S. complicity in their oppression.US Campaign for Palestinian Rights
Who Profits?
A project of the Coalition of Women for Peace that tracks and publishes the names of Israeli and international companies that profit from the occupation of Palestine. Who Profits
Books & Articles
A Call for Repentance: An Open Letter from Palestinian Christians to Western Church Leaders and Theologians
Amnesty International’s Report on Genocide in Gaza
This report documents Israel’s actions during its offensive on the occupied Gaza Strip from 7 October 2023. It examines the killing of civilians, damage to and destruction of civilian infrastructure, forcible displacement, the obstruction or denial of life-saving goods and humanitarian aid, and the restriction of power supplies. It analyses Israel’s intent through this pattern of conduct and statements by Israeli decision-makers. It concludes that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
Identifying Antisemitism and Racism in Talk about Israel and Palestine
An excellent article by Lisa Schirch to help you identify antisemitism and anti-Palestinian racism that are rife in current conversations about the conflict.
Identifying Antisemitism and Racism in Talk about Israel and Palestine
When the foundations are being destroyed, what does the peacemaker do?
Rula Khoury-Mansour
When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the peacemaker do?
Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel system of domination and crime against humanity
This is a significant and detailed report released recently by Amnesty International, the world-renowned human rights organization about the system of Apartheid in Palestine/Israel.
Kairos Palestine
This is a seminal theological document written in 2009 by a number of Palestinian theologians. It provides a theological response to the Israeli occupation and details the Palestinian Christian message of faith, hope, and love from the heart of Palestinian suffering.
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967
In this report, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese, addresses a number of human rights concerns, in particular regarding the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, in the context of the settler-colonial features of the prolonged Israeli occupation
Report on the Situation of Human Rights
Nakba: The Palestinian catastrophe, explained
An article that breaks down the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948, which continues to define events in Israel-Palestine today
Nakba: The Palestinian catastrophe, explained | Middle East Eye
The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East
Sandy Tolan
Tolan focuses on one small stone house in Ramla—once an Arab community, but now primarily Jewish. Built in 1936 by an Arab family but acquired by a Jewish family after the Israelis captured the city in 1948, this simple stone house has anchored for decades the hopes of both its displaced former owners and its new Jewish occupants.
Buy: The Lemon Tree (Amazon)
Mornings in Jenin
Susan Abulhawa
Mornings in Jenin is a multi-generational story about a Palestinian family. Forcibly removed from the olive-farming village of Ein Hod by the newly formed state of Israel in 1948, the Abulhejos are displaced to live in canvas tents in the Jenin refugee camp. We follow the Abulhejo family as they live through a half century of violent history. Amidst the loss and fear, hatred and pain, as their tents are replaced by more forebodingly permanent cinderblock huts, there is always the waiting, waiting to return to a lost home.
Buy: Mornings in Jenin (Amazon)
Footnotes in Gaza
Joe Sacco
A graphic novel that illustrates daily life in Khan Younis and Rafah, spanning fifty years of narrating the stories of war and occupation in Gaza.
Buy: Footnotes in Gaza (Amazon)
Unfortunately, It Was Paradise: Selected Poems
Mahmoud Darwish
Mahmoud Darwish is critically acclaimed as one of the most important poets in the Arabic language, and beloved as the voice of his people the Palestinians. A legend in Palestine, his lyrics are sung by fieldworkers and schoolchildren. This collection spans Darwish’s entire career, nearly four decades, revealing an impressive range of expression and form.
Buy: Unfortunately, It Was Paradise (Amazon)
Palestine’s Children: Returning to Haifa & Other Stories
Ghassan Kanafani
Kanafani is what one of the most prominent Palestinian writers of all time. In Palestine’s Children, each story involves a child who is victimized by political events and circumstances, but who nevertheless participates in the struggle toward a better future. As in Kanafani’s other fiction, these stories explore the need to recover the past –the lost homeland– by action. At the same time, written by a major talent, they have a universal appeal.
Buy: Palestine’s Children (Amazon)
Palestine
Joe Sacco
A graphic novel that combines the techniques of eyewitness reportage in Palestine with the medium of comic-book storytelling to explore this complex, emotionally weighty situation. Sacco captures the heart of the Palestinian experience in image after unforgettable image, with great insight and remarkable humor.
Buy: Palestine (Amazon)
Footnotes in Gaza
Joe Sacco
A graphic novel that illustrates daily life in Khan Younis and Rafah, spanning fifty years of narrating the stories of war and occupation in Gaza.
Buy: Footnotes in Gaza (Amazon)
Christ in the Rubble: Faith, the Bible, and the Genocide in Gaza
Munther Isaac
In this impassioned and incisive book, Munther Isaac challenges mainstream Christians’ uncritical embrace of the modern State of Israel. Speaking from his unique vantage point as a prominent Palestinian Christian pastor and theologian, he proclaims a truth that is rarely acknowledged in Christian circles: Israel’s campaign to eliminate the Palestinian people did not begin after October 7, 2023. Rather, the campaign is a continuation of a colonial project with nineteenth-century roots that has, since 1948, established systems of entrenched discrimination and segregation worse than South Africa’s apartheid regime.
Buy: Christ in the Rubble (Amazon)
The Other Side of the Wall: A Palestinian Christian Narrative of Lament and Hope
Munther Isaac
Munther Isaac is an Evangelical Lutheran pastor from Beit Sahour. In his book, Isaac gives the perspective of Palestinian Christians on the other side of the separation wall surrounding most Palestinian West Bank cities today. Isaac reflects theologically on what’s happening on the ground, laments the injustices suffered by the Palestinian people, holds out hope for a just peace and ways to befriend and love his Jewish and Muslim neighbors.
Buy: The Other Side of the Wall (Amazon); Listen: The Other Side of the Wall (Audible)
Decolonizing Palestine: The Land, The People, The Bible
Mitri Raheb
Decolonizing Palestine challenges the weaponization of biblical texts to support the current settler-colonial state of Israel. Raheb argues that some of the most important theological concepts –Israel, the land, election, and chosen people – must be decolonized in a paradigm shift in Christian theological thinking about Palestine. Decolonizing Palestine is a timely book that builds on the latest research in settler-colonialism and human rights to place traditional theological themes within the wider socio-political context of settler colonialism as it is practiced by the modern nation-state of Israel.
Buy: Decolonizing Palestine (Amazon)
Faith in the Face of Empire: The Bible through Palestinian Eyes
Mitri Raheb
Through Palestinian eyes, a challenging view of how the reality of empire shapes the context of the biblical story and the ongoing experience of Middle East conflict. Jesus was a Middle Easterner. If he were to travel through Western countries today he would be ‘randomly’ pulled aside and scrutinized. For Mitri Raheb, a Palestinian Christian living under Israeli occupation, the Middle Eastern context of the biblical story is crucial to its understanding and its relevance to his people today.
Buy: Faith in the Face of Empire (Amazon)
The Politics of Persecution: Middle Eastern Christians in an Age of Empire
Mitri Raheb
Mitri Raheb charts the plight of Christians in the Middle East from the invasion of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799 to the so-called Arab Spring. The book analyzes the diverse socioeconomic and political factors that led to the diminishing role and numbers of Christians in Palestine, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan during the eras of Ottoman, French, and British Empires, through the eras of independence, Pan-Arabism, and Pan-Islamism, and into the current era of American empire.
Buy: The Politics of Persecution (Amazon)
The Cross in Contexts: Suffering and Redemption in Palestine
Mitri Raheb
A Palestinian theologian from Bethlehem and a New Testament scholar from the United States explore the meaning of the crucifixion in light of both first and twenty-first century Palestinian contexts. Together, their insights coalesce around themes that expose the divine power of the cross both for Jesus’s first followers and for contemporary readers alike.
Buy: The Cross in Contexts (Amazon)
I Am a Palestinian Christian: God and Politics in the Holy Land: A Personal Testimony
Mitri Raheb
Mitri Raheb explores the recent history of the Palestinian Christians, and the complex meeting of the world’s three major monotheistic religions. Clearly and without rancor, his book situates the continuing plight of Palestinians in the unique history of the Palestinian Christians, the national and regional struggles since World War II, and the rich yet complex juncture of the world’s three major monotheistic religions. In the pains and hopes of his people, Raheb reveals an emerging Palestinian Christian theology.
Buy: I Am a Palestinian Christian (Amazon)
Through My Enemy’s Eyes: Envisioning Reconciliation in Israel-Palestine
Salim J Munayer and Lisa Loden
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 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.
Buy: Through My Enemy’s Eyes (Amazon)
Whose Land? Whose Promise?
Gary Burge
An exploration of evangelical attitudes towards the politics and theology surrounding Israel and Palestine through personal anecdotes and biblical exegesis, written by Wheaton College professor Gary Burge.
Buy: Whose Land? Whose Promise? (Amazon)
Jesus and the Land: How the New Testament Transformed ‘Holy Land’ Theology
Gary Burge
The relationship of ‘land’ to ‘theology’ has been a motif living within the Jewish tradition since the patriarchal era: one mark of the covenant with Abraham was the promise of land. Gary Burge explores what the New Testament says about ‘the land’ and outlines the various ways in which these passages have been interpreted.
Buy: Jesus and the Land (Amazon)
Whose Promised Land? The Continuing Conflict over Israel and Palestine
Colin Chapman
The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians has profoundly affected the Middle East for almost seventy years, and shows no sign of ending. With two peoples claiming the same piece of land for different reasons, it remains a huge political and humanitarian problem. Can it ever be resolved? If so, how? These are the basic questions addressed in a new and substantially revised fifth edition of this highly acclaimed book.
Buy: Whose Promised Land? (Amazon)
Christian Zionism and the Restoration of Israel: How Should We Interpret the Scriptures?
Colin Chapman
How should Christians today understand the many promises and prophecies in the Old Testament about the future of Israel and its land? Are Christian Zionists justified in believing that these have been fulfilled in the return of Jews to their land since the 1880s and the creation of the State of Israel in 1948? This book discusses all the key texts about the restoration of Israel that are quoted in these debates, questioning the Christian Zionist interpretation and offering an alternative.
Buy: Christian Zionism and the Restoration of Israel (Amazon)
Christian Zionism: Road-map to Armageddon?
Stephen Sizer
Sizer provides here a thorough examination of the historical development, variant forms, theological emphases, and political implications of Christian Zionism. His excellent and informative survey is interwoven with a critical assessment that repudiates both nationalistic Zionism and anti-Semitism.
Buy: Christian Zionism (Amazon)
More Desired than Our Owne Salvation: The Roots of Christian Zionism
Robert O. Smith
Millions of American Christians see U.S. support for the State of Israel as a God-ordained responsibility. American sympathies for the State of Israel are consistently and often substantially higher than for Arab states or Palestinians. More Desired than Our Owne Salvation is a compelling historical look at how this consensus came to be.
Buy: More Desired than Our Owne Salvation (Amazon)
Arabs in the Shadow of Israel: The Unfolding of God’s Prophetic Plan for Ishmael’s Line
Tony Maalouf
A thoughtful and well-documented call to rethink the role of Arabs in the plan of God. Western Christianity’s long-standing support of Israel has, perhaps unintentionally, nurtured a prejudice against Arab people—the descendants of Abraham’s first son, Ishmael. Tony Maalouf contends that this bias differs dramatically from the biblical portrayal of Ishmael and the nations that have sprung from him.
Buy: Arabs in the Shadow of Israel (Amazon)
The Land: Place as Gift, Promise, and Challenge in Biblical Faith
Walter Brueggemann
The land was one of the most vibrant symbols for the people of ancient Israel. In this careful treatment, Walter Brueggemann follows the development of his theme through the major blocks of Israel’s traditions. The book provides a point of entrance both to the theology of the Old Testament and to aspects of the New Testament even as it illuminates crucial issues of the contemporary scene.
Buy: The Land (Amazon)
A Palestinian Theology of Liberation: The Bible, Justice and the Palestine-Israel Conflict
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.
Buy: A Palestinian Theology of Liberation (Amazon)
Blood Brothers: The Dramatic Story of a Palestinian Christian Working for Peace in Israel
Elias Chacour
Chacour is a Melkite priest born in Kufr Bir’im, a depopulated Christian Palestinian village in the Galilee. In Blood Brothers he blends his riveting life story with historical research to reveal a little-known side of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the birth of modern Israel.
Buy: Blood Brothers (Amazon)
Yet in the Dark Streets Shining: A Palestinian Story of Hope and Resilience in Bethlehem
Bishara Awad
Released in 2021, Yet In the Dark Streets Shining details the little-known story of Palestinian Christians through the heartbreaking but inspiring account of a boy who grew up to be a spiritual and community leader in Bethlehem. Bishara Awad was just a child when his father was killed by a sniper during the Israeli-Arab war of 1948. After the family fled their Jerusalem home, Bishara and his siblings grew up as refugees. His spiritual journey brought him through poverty and danger while witnessing loss and death. Under the shadows of persecution and war, he learned how to live his Christian faith in Bethlehem, the birthplace of Christ. When Bishara learned how to forgive, he became a firebrand of faith and hope. Rising to the many challenges, he launched Bethlehem Bible College, the first Bible college in the West Bank. Through the dashed hopes of one war after another, as well as opposition on all sides, Bishara’s story conveys how he and other Palestinian Christians continue to live their faith and envision a better future.
Buy: Yet in the Dark Streets Shining (Amazon)
Palestinian Memories: The Story of a Palestinian Mother and her People
Alex Awad
This story of Huda Awad is a portrait of the history of modern Palestine as told through a Palestinian life of courage, motherhood, and family, told by her son, Pastor Alex Awad from Jerusalem.
Buy: Palestinian Memories (Amazon)
In Search of Fatima
Ghada Karmi
Karmi’s memoir relates her childhood in Palestine, her flight to Britain after the Nakba, and coming of age in a Jewish suburb in London. This book narrates the experience of displacement and struggles with identity as a Palestinian in the diaspora.
Buy: In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story (Amazon)
The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017
Rashid Khalidi
An authoritative and important book about the history of one hundred years of war waged against the Palestinians written by the foremost US historian of the Middle East, told through pivotal events and family history.
Buy: The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine (Amazon)
Palestinians and Israelis: A Short History of Conflict
Michael Scott-Baumann
Published in 2021, this is a very useful and well-written book that provides much more than a concise history of the conflict. The value of the book is enhanced significantly by the inclusion of an index, a helpful glossary of key terms and people, a chronological timeline, and a bibliography for further study. The book will also prove useful for interactive group discussion as each chapter begins with key questions answered and concludes with personal testimonies to illustrate the human impact of the conflict.
Buy: Palestinians and Israelis (Amazon)
My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel
Ari Shavit
Named one of the best books of the year by the New York Times book review and the Economist. An authoritative and deeply personal narrative history of the State of Israel, by one of the most influential journalists writing about the Middle East today.
Buy: My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel (Amazon)
Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History
Nur Masalha
This rich and magisterial work traces Palestine’s millennia-old heritage, uncovering cultures and societies of astounding depth and complexity that stretch back to the very beginnings of recorded history.
Buy: Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History (Amazon)
Gaza: An Inquest into Its Martyrdom
Norman Finkelstein
The Gaza Strip is among the most densely populated places in the world. More than two-thirds of its inhabitants are refugees, and more than half are under eighteen years of age. Since 2004, Israel has launched eight devastating “operations” against Gaza’s largely defenseless population. Thousands have perished, and tens of thousands have been left homeless. In the meantime, Israel has subjected Gaza to a merciless illegal blockade.
Buy: Gaza (Amazon)
The Invention of the Jewish People
Shlomo Sand
A historical tour de force, The Invention of the Jewish People offers a groundbreaking account of Jewish and Israeli history. Exploding the myth that there was a forced Jewish exile in the first century at the hands of the Romans, Israeli historian Shlomo Sand argues that most modern Jews descend from converts, whose native lands were scattered across the Middle East and Eastern Europe.
Buy: The Invention of the Jewish People (Amazon)
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine
Ilan Pappe
Ilan Pappe is a prominent Israeli historian. In this book, he provides archival evidence of the planned destruction of Palestinian villages from 1948. He argues that if such an act were to take place today, it would be called ethnic cleansing.
Buy: The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (Amazon)
The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World
Avi Shlaim
The “one book everyone should read for a concise history of Israel’s relations with Arabs” (Independent). What was promulgated as an “iron-wall” strategy―building a position of unassailable strength― was meant to yield to a further stage where Israel would be strong enough to negotiate a satisfactory peace with its neighbors. The goal still remains elusive, if not even further away. This penetrating study brilliantly illuminates past progress and future prospects for peace in the Middle East.
Buy: The Iron Wall (Amazon)
Israel and Palestine: Reappraisals, Revisions, Refutations
Avi Shlaim
From the 1917 Balfour Declaration to the 2008 invasion of Gaza, Israel and Palestine places current events in their proper historical perspective, and assesses the impact of key political and intellectual figures, including Yasir Arafat and Ariel Sharon, Edward Said and Benny Morris. It also re-examines the United States’ influential role in the conflict, and explores the many missed opportunities for peace and progress. Clear-eyed and meticulous, Israel and Palestine is an essential tool for understanding the fractured history and future prospects of the region.
Buy: Israel and Palestine: Reappraisals, Revisions, Refutations (Amazon)
Colonizing Palestine: The Zionist Left and the Making of the Palestinian Nakba
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury
Based on extensive empirical research in local colony and national archives, Colonizing Palestine offers a microhistory of frontier interactions between Zionist settlers and indigenous Palestinians within the British imperial field. Juxtaposing history and memory, examining events in their actual time and as they were later remembered, Sabbagh-Khoury demonstrates that the dispossession and replacement of the Palestinians in 1948 was not a singular catastrophe, but rather a protracted process instituted over decades.
Buy: Colonizing Palestine (Amazon)
Hamas Contained: A History of Palestinian Resistance
Tareq Baconi
Hamas Contained offers a history of Hamas, drawing on interviews with organization leaders and their publications. Tareq Baconi maps Hamas’s thirty-year transition from fringe military resistance towards governance, culminating in Israeli efforts to contain the movement to the Gaza Strip. Baconi argues that under Israel’s approach of managing rather than resolving the conflict, Hamas’s demand for Palestinian sovereignty has effectively been marginalized in favor of military action against Hamas, and by implication, all Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Buy: Hamas Contained (Amazon)
The Threshold of Dissent: A History of American Jewish Critics of Zionism
Marjorie Feld
The Threshold of Dissent explores the long history of anti-Zionist and non-Zionist American Jews. It positions contemporary critics within a century-long debate about the priorities of the American Jewish community, one which holds profound implications for inclusion in American Jewish communal life and for American Jews’ participation in coalitions working for justice. At a time when American Jewish support for Israel has been diminishing, The Threshold of Dissent uncovers a deeper―and deeply contested―history of intracommunal debate over Zionism among American Jews.
Buy: Threshold of Dissent (Amazon)
The Vanishing: Faith, Loss, and the Twilight of Christianity in the Land of the Prophets
Janine di Giovanni
The Vanishing reveals the plight and possible extinction of Christian communities across Syria, Egypt, Iraq, and Palestine after 2,000 years in their historical homeland. Di Giovanni’s riveting personal stories and her conception of faith and hope are intertwined throughout the chapters. The book is a unique act of pre-archeology: the last chance to visit the living religion before all that will be left are the stones of the past.
Buy: The Vanishing (Amazon)
Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning
Peter Beinart
In Peter Beinart’s view, one story dominates Jewish communal life: that of persecution and victimhood. It is a story that erases much of the nuance of Jewish religious tradition and warps our understanding of Israel and Palestine. After Gaza, where Jewish texts, history, and language have been deployed to justify mass slaughter and starvation, Beinart argues, Jews must tell a new story. After this war, whose horror will echo for generations, they must do nothing less than offer a new answer to the question: What does it mean to be a Jew?
Buy: Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza (Amazon)
A Genocide Foretold: Reporting on Survival and Resistance in Occupied Palestine
Chris Hedges
The book confronts the stark realities of life under siege in Gaza and the heroic effort ordinary Palestinians are waging to resist and survive. Weaving together personal stories, historical context, and unflinching journalism, Chris Hedges provides an intimate portrait of systemic oppression, occupation, and violence.
Buy: A Genocide Foretold (Amazon)
The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Tough Questions, Direct Answers
Dale Hanson Bourke
The author sheds light on the places, terms, history, and current issues surrounding the conflict that exists between Palestine and Israel. Offering a fairly balanced 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.
Buy: The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (Amazon)
On Palestine
Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappe
Ilan Pappé and Noam Chomsky, two leading Jewish intellectuals, discuss the road ahead for Palestinians and how the international community can pressure Israel to end its human rights abuses against the people of Palestine.
Buy: On Palestine (Amazon)
Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine
Noura Erakat
Justice for Some offers a new approach to understanding the Palestinian struggle for freedom, told through the power and control of international law. Focusing on key junctures―from the Balfour Declaration in 1917 to present-day wars in Gaza―Noura Erakat shows how the strategic deployment of law has shaped current conditions. Over the past century, the law has done more to advance Israel’s interests than the Palestinians’. But, Erakat argues, this outcome was never inevitable.
Buy: Justice for Some (Amazon)
Behind the Wall: Stories from Occupied Palestine
Rich Wiles
Wiles offers a glimpse inside the West Bank’s refugee camps through a collection of oral histories, vignettes, and photographic portraits
Buy: Behind the Wall: Life, Love, and Struggle in Palestine (Amazon)
Decolonizing Israel, Liberating Palestine: Zionism, Settler Colonialism, and the Case for One Democratic State
Jeff Halper
This book explores how the concept of settler colonialism provides a clearer understanding of the Zionist movement’s project to establish a Jewish state in Palestine, displacing the Palestinian Arab population and marginalizing its cultural presence. Jeff Halper argues that the only way out of a colonial situation is decolonization: the dismantling of Zionist structures of domination and control and their replacement by a single democratic state, in which Palestinians and Israeli Jews forge a new civil society and a shared political community.
Buy: Decolonizing Israel, Liberating Palestine (Amazon)
Occupied with Nonviolence: A Palestinian Woman Speaks
Jean Zaru
Jean Zaru, the longtime activist and Quaker leader from Ramallah, discusses the pain and central convictions that animate Christian nonviolence and activity today.
Buy: Occupied with Nonviolence: A Palestinian Woman Speaks (Amazon)
The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World
Antony Loewenstein
Israel’s military industrial complex uses the occupied, Palestinian territories as a testing ground for weaponry and surveillance technology that they then export around the world to despots and democracies. For more than 50 years, occupation of the West Bank and Gaza has given the Israeli state invaluable experience in controlling an “enemy” population, the Palestinians. It’s here that they have perfected the architecture of control.
Buy: The Gaza Laboratory (Amazon)
Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement
Angela Davis
A collection of essays, interviews, and speeches in which world-renowned activist and scholar Angela Davis illuminates the connections between struggles against state violence and oppression throughout history and around the world.
Buy: Freedom Is a Constant Struggle (Amazon)
Israel and South Africa: The Many Faces of Apartheid
Ilan Pappé
In this book, Ilan Pappé, one of Israel’s preeminent academics, brings together lawyers, journalists, policy makers and historians of both countries to assess the implications of the apartheid analogy for international law, activism and policy making. With contributors including the distinguished anti-apartheid activist Ronnie Kasrils, Israel and South Africa offers a bold and incisive perspective on one of the defining moral questions of our age.
Buy: Israel and South Africa (Amazon)
Towers of Ivory and Steel: How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom =
Maya Wind
Israeli universities have long enjoyed a reputation as liberal bastions of freedom and democracy. Drawing on extensive research and making Hebrew sources accessible to the international community, Maya Wind shatters this myth and documents how Israeli universities are directly complicit in the violation of Palestinian rights.
Buy: Towers of Ivory and Steel (Amazon)
Safety through Solidarity: A Radical Guide to Fighting Antisemitism
Shane Burley and Ben Lorber
Since the outbreak of war in Gaza, debates around antisemitism have become more polarized and high-stakes than ever. How can we stand in solidarity with Palestinians seeking justice, while also avoiding antisemitism — and resisting those who seek to conflate the two? How do we forge the coalitions across communities that we need, in order to overcome the politics of division and fear? Using personal stories, historical deep-dives, front-line reporting, and interviews with leading change-makers, Burley and Lorber help us break the current impasse to understand how antisemitism works, what’s missing in contemporary debates, and how to build true safety through solidarity, for Jews and all people.
Buy: Safety Through Solidarity (Amazon)
Taking Action
U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights: Stop Gaza Genocide Action Toolkit.
Palestinian Youth Movement: All the Walls Will Fall: 2023 Palestine Liberation Resource List.
A Growing Culture: Free Palestine Resource Toolkit.
Palestinian Feminist Collective: All Out for Palestine.
Dream Defenders: Black and Palestinian Solidarity Organizing Toolkit.
US Campaign for Palestinian Rights: Action Toolkit.
A Growing Culture Free Palestine: Resource Toolkit.
Abolitionist Teaching Network: Resources for Educators to Support a Free Palestine.
Decolonize Palestine: Reading List.
Network of Evangelicals for the Middle East – Resources
MennoPIN – Resources (study guides, congregational resources, Christian Zionism)
FOSNA – Countering Christian Zionism
FOSNA – Preach Palestine
FOSNA – Lenten Resources
FOSNA – Direct Action Database
MCC – FAQ about Palestine and Israel
Toolkits by Christians for a Free Palestine
- Day of Action Toolkit. This is the main hub for resources, and links to most others.
- Outreach Toolkit. Use this to recruit people from your network to your action.
- Media Toolkit. A key to a successful action is getting media coverage. Use this toolkit to connect with local media, and make your own.
- Program Outline. Whether you are planning an action inside a Rep’s office, or outside, this guide will help you plan your program.
- Service of Repentance Liturgy Example. Use these prayers, songs, and structure for a service of repentance at your representative’s office.
- Posters, Slides, and Other Visuals. Printable posters and visuals for your action.
- Talking Points. Consistent messaging is important. Use your talking points guide to help shape what your speakers will say.
Christ in the Rubble: Faith, the Bible, and the Genocide in Gaza
Munther Isaac
In this impassioned and incisive book, Munther Isaac challenges mainstream Christians’ uncritical embrace of the modern State of Israel. Speaking from his unique vantage point as a prominent Palestinian Christian pastor and theologian, he proclaims a truth that is rarely acknowledged in Christian circles: Israel’s campaign to eliminate the Palestinian people did not begin after October 7, 2023. Rather, the campaign is a continuation of a colonial project with nineteenth-century roots that has, since 1948, established systems of entrenched discrimination and segregation worse than South Africa’s apartheid regime.
Buy: Christ in the Rubble (Amazon)
The Other Side of the Wall: A Palestinian Christian Narrative of Lament and Hope
Munther Isaac
Munther Isaac is an Evangelical Lutheran pastor from Beit Sahour. In his book, Isaac gives the perspective of Palestinian Christians on the other side of the separation wall surrounding most Palestinian West Bank cities today. Isaac reflects theologically on what’s happening on the ground, laments the injustices suffered by the Palestinian people, holds out hope for a just peace and ways to befriend and love his Jewish and Muslim neighbors.
Buy: The Other Side of the Wall (Amazon); Listen: The Other Side of the Wall (Audible)
Decolonizing Palestine: The Land, The People, The Bible
Mitri Raheb
Decolonizing Palestine challenges the weaponization of biblical texts to support the current settler-colonial state of Israel. Raheb argues that some of the most important theological concepts –Israel, the land, election, and chosen people – must be decolonized in a paradigm shift in Christian theological thinking about Palestine. Decolonizing Palestine is a timely book that builds on the latest research in settler-colonialism and human rights to place traditional theological themes within the wider socio-political context of settler colonialism as it is practiced by the modern nation-state of Israel.
Buy: Decolonizing Palestine (Amazon)
Faith in the Face of Empire: The Bible through Palestinian Eyes
Mitri Raheb
Through Palestinian eyes, a challenging view of how the reality of empire shapes the context of the biblical story and the ongoing experience of Middle East conflict. Jesus was a Middle Easterner. If he were to travel through Western countries today he would be ‘randomly’ pulled aside and scrutinized. For Mitri Raheb, a Palestinian Christian living under Israeli occupation, the Middle Eastern context of the biblical story is crucial to its understanding and its relevance to his people today.
Buy: Faith in the Face of Empire (Amazon)
The Politics of Persecution: Middle Eastern Christians in an Age of Empire
Mitri Raheb
Mitri Raheb charts the plight of Christians in the Middle East from the invasion of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799 to the so-called Arab Spring. The book analyzes the diverse socioeconomic and political factors that led to the diminishing role and numbers of Christians in Palestine, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan during the eras of Ottoman, French, and British Empires, through the eras of independence, Pan-Arabism, and Pan-Islamism, and into the current era of American empire.
Buy: The Politics of Persecution (Amazon)
The Cross in Contexts: Suffering and Redemption in Palestine
Mitri Raheb
A Palestinian theologian from Bethlehem and a New Testament scholar from the United States explore the meaning of the crucifixion in light of both first and twenty-first century Palestinian contexts. Together, their insights coalesce around themes that expose the divine power of the cross both for Jesus’s first followers and for contemporary readers alike.
Buy: The Cross in Contexts (Amazon)
I Am a Palestinian Christian: God and Politics in the Holy Land: A Personal Testimony
Mitri Raheb
Mitri Raheb explores the recent history of the Palestinian Christians, and the complex meeting of the world’s three major monotheistic religions. Clearly and without rancor, his book situates the continuing plight of Palestinians in the unique history of the Palestinian Christians, the national and regional struggles since World War II, and the rich yet complex juncture of the world’s three major monotheistic religions. In the pains and hopes of his people, Raheb reveals an emerging Palestinian Christian theology.
Buy: I Am a Palestinian Christian (Amazon)
Through My Enemy’s Eyes: Envisioning Reconciliation in Israel-Palestine
Salim J Munayer and Lisa Loden
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 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.
Buy: Through My Enemy’s Eyes (Amazon)
Whose Land? Whose Promise?
Gary Burge
An exploration of evangelical attitudes towards the politics and theology surrounding Israel and Palestine through personal anecdotes and biblical exegesis, written by Wheaton College professor Gary Burge.
Buy: Whose Land? Whose Promise? (Amazon)
Jesus and the Land: How the New Testament Transformed ‘Holy Land’ Theology
Gary Burge
The relationship of ‘land’ to ‘theology’ has been a motif living within the Jewish tradition since the patriarchal era: one mark of the covenant with Abraham was the promise of land. Gary Burge explores what the New Testament says about ‘the land’ and outlines the various ways in which these passages have been interpreted.
Buy: Jesus and the Land (Amazon)
Whose Promised Land? The Continuing Conflict over Israel and Palestine
Colin Chapman
The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians has profoundly affected the Middle East for almost seventy years, and shows no sign of ending. With two peoples claiming the same piece of land for different reasons, it remains a huge political and humanitarian problem. Can it ever be resolved? If so, how? These are the basic questions addressed in a new and substantially revised fifth edition of this highly acclaimed book.
Buy: Whose Promised Land? (Amazon)
Christian Zionism and the Restoration of Israel: How Should We Interpret the Scriptures?
Colin Chapman
How should Christians today understand the many promises and prophecies in the Old Testament about the future of Israel and its land? Are Christian Zionists justified in believing that these have been fulfilled in the return of Jews to their land since the 1880s and the creation of the State of Israel in 1948? This book discusses all the key texts about the restoration of Israel that are quoted in these debates, questioning the Christian Zionist interpretation and offering an alternative.
Buy: Christian Zionism and the Restoration of Israel (Amazon)
Christian Zionism: Road-map to Armageddon?
Stephen Sizer
Sizer provides here a thorough examination of the historical development, variant forms, theological emphases, and political implications of Christian Zionism. His excellent and informative survey is interwoven with a critical assessment that repudiates both nationalistic Zionism and anti-Semitism.
Buy: Christian Zionism (Amazon)
More Desired than Our Owne Salvation: The Roots of Christian Zionism
Robert O. Smith
Millions of American Christians see U.S. support for the State of Israel as a God-ordained responsibility. American sympathies for the State of Israel are consistently and often substantially higher than for Arab states or Palestinians. More Desired than Our Owne Salvation is a compelling historical look at how this consensus came to be.
Buy: More Desired than Our Owne Salvation (Amazon)
Arabs in the Shadow of Israel: The Unfolding of God’s Prophetic Plan for Ishmael’s Line
Tony Maalouf
A thoughtful and well-documented call to rethink the role of Arabs in the plan of God. Western Christianity’s long-standing support of Israel has, perhaps unintentionally, nurtured a prejudice against Arab people—the descendants of Abraham’s first son, Ishmael. Tony Maalouf contends that this bias differs dramatically from the biblical portrayal of Ishmael and the nations that have sprung from him.
Buy: Arabs in the Shadow of Israel (Amazon)
The Land: Place as Gift, Promise, and Challenge in Biblical Faith
Walter Brueggemann
The land was one of the most vibrant symbols for the people of ancient Israel. In this careful treatment, Walter Brueggemann follows the development of his theme through the major blocks of Israel’s traditions. The book provides a point of entrance both to the theology of the Old Testament and to aspects of the New Testament even as it illuminates crucial issues of the contemporary scene.
Buy: The Land (Amazon)
A Palestinian Theology of Liberation: The Bible, Justice and the Palestine-Israel Conflict
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.
Buy: A Palestinian Theology of Liberation (Amazon)
Our community has been asking us how to take action at this critical moment in history. Below, we are outlining some of the ways in which you can do so. It is our responsibility to do whatever is in our power to put a stop to this genocide.
Talking points:
- Talking points and messaging for Palestinians and allies– Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy (PIPD)
- 10 things to remember when reporting on Palestine– Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy (PIPD)
- 5 things you need to know about what’s happening in Israel and Gaza-American Friends Service Committee
General actions you can take:
- SHUT IT DOWN FOR PALESTINE– Media Demands.
- Organize and join demonstrations in your cities and on your campuses. The best way to learn about planned protests is to research local Palestine solidarity and anti-militarism groups active in your area and ensure that you are following them on social media.
- Raise awareness on social media. Share posts from the BDS movement, Visualizing Palestine, Makan, and Rabet by PIPD.
- Follow the social media accounts of the following organizations: AJP, JVP, USCPR, IMEU, PYM.
- Stop hate and incitement: the rise in hate and incitement against Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims in the West has reached shocking new heights! You can do something to stop this and hold people accountable!
1 – Take a screenshot of the post
2 – Submit to this website: http://www.cjpme.org/accountability.
If you are in the U.S., Canada, or Europe:
- Write to your officials to call for an immediate stop to this genocide. See sample letter by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement
- In the UK, call on your MPs to take urgent action – EAPPI UK & Ireland
- In Ireland, email your elected representatives using this template – EAPPI UK & Ireland
- In Canada, use this form to send an email to Prime Minister Trudeau, your local MP or other federal political leaders – Canadians for Peace and Justice in the Middle East
- In the U.S., use any of the following resources from our partners to call on the U.S. government to put an immediate stop to the genocide:
- Tell Congress: Stop Fueling the Gaza Genocide – Adalah Justice Project
- Tell Congress: Open humanitarian access to Gaza now! American Friends Service Committee
- Call Congress: Stop the Gaza Genocide – US Campaign for Palestinian Rights
- Email Congress: Stop Funding the Gaza Genocide – US Campaign for Palestinian Rights
- Call on Congress to demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza – Americans for Justice in Palestine Action
- Call Now: Stop Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza – Jewish Voice for Peace
If your rights are violated:
- Report racism, incitement to violence, hate speech, and censorship to 7amleh at 7or.
- Seek legal support and report violations to Palestine Legal in the US, The Legal Center For Palestine in Canada, and the ELSC in Europe.
Liberatory Giving
- Beyond Humanitarian Aid: Supporting Palestinian Organizations Working to Dismantle the Occupation and Shift the Narrative
- Transforming BuildPalestine Summit: A New Webinar Series on Reclaiming Funding in Times of Crisis
- Liberatory Giving for Palestine, Besan Abu Joudeh with Nora Lester-Murad-Podcast
Other Toolkits and Resources
- Makan Rights – Gaza a Genocidal Assault
- Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network – Grounding the Current Moment: An Al-Shabaka Syllabus
- Gaza is Palestine – Resources
- This Week In Palestine – November Issue
To Download Visualizing Palestine’s visuals:
United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)
Palestine Red Crescent Society
Palestine Children’s Relief Fund
Middle East Children’s Alliance
More: Trusted organizations to donate to Palestine, Local Palestinian Organizations Responding to the Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza – BuildPalestine
Articles & Statements
- Breaking the Silence Statement from Oct 8
- Open Letter from Palestinian Christians
- Jewish Currents Explainer Doc
- First-hand Account from Gaza’s Trail of Tears from Reporter with The Intercept
- Stephen Wertheim Opinion Piece
- Jewish Telegraphic Agency Article on Rep. Tlaib’s Perspectives
- Rafael Shimunov’s Skepticism Towards Zionist Statements
- Map Showing How Settlements in West Bank Make Two-State Solution Daunting
- Understanding Jewish Struggle for Palestine from a Taiwanese American Perspective
- Hayim Katsman’s Vision of Struggle
- What You Can’t Unsee
Interviews (Mostly YouTube links provided, but most are available on audio-only platforms too)
- Gabor Mate in conversation with his daughter
- Daniel Bannoura on Theology in the Raw
- Peter Beinart on Democracy Now
- Rashid Khalidi on Amanpour and Company
- Benny Morris and separately Yousef Munayyer on Conversations with Coleman
- Max Blumenthal on The Chris Hedges Report
- Norman Finkelstein on The Katie Halper Show
- Omer Bartov on Democracy Now
- Amaney Jamal on The Ezra Klein Show
- Queen Rania of Jordan on CNN
- Naomi Klein on On the Nose (A Jewish Currents Podcast)
News/Commentary Sources
- Breaking Points
- Near-daily news and analysis with thoughtful journalism and an anti-establishment perspective
- Available on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and other podcast platforms
- Democracy Now
- Daily news and interviews with leading historians, academics, and activists
- Available on democracynow.org, YouTube, podcast platforms, and some TV/radio stations
- PBS NewsHour
- Daily news and analysis with an establishment-friendly lens
- Available on pbs.org/newshour, YouTube, and public television stations
- Bad Faith Podcast
- Podcast hosted by Bernie Sanders campaign veteran, with interviews about Israel-Palestine
- Available on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and podcast platforms
- The Ezra Klein Show – NYT
- Podcast by journalist and co-founder of Vox, with interviews about Israel-Palestine
- Available on NYT site, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and other podcast platforms
Documentaries
Instagram Accounts
Rashida Tlaib (Personal) & (Congressional)
US Campaign for Palestinian Rights
Institute for Palestine Studies
X/Twitter Accounts
About Face: Veterans Against the War
