What are “The Basics” when speaking of Israel/Palestine? Most basic of all: some knowledge of recent history – including a little bit of geography – and the current conditions of life in the occupied territories and within Israel. Without those, nothing else will make sense, so we encourage those who are new to this subject to read one or more of the historical resources on our history page and look over the maps that illustrate the events in that history.

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In this section, we have drawn from a wide variety of sources to provide the reader with enough information to understand the most urgent issues in the region today and to begin to help Israelis and Palestinians achieve a just peace.  Many of these subjects build upon information found in “The Basics” section.

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Theology matters—it can oppress and kill, or it can liberate and heal. It shapes church doctrine, Biblical interpretation, mission work, and how Christians act in the world, including the policies they support. When theology joins forces with colonialism and racism, it gives the theft of resources and subjugation of indigenous peoples divine sanction. But, when theology takes seriously the “signs of the times” and attends to the cry for justice, it responds to the divine command to love neighbor and enemy. All churches—all Christians—have inherited both tendencies.

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One source of distortion and confusion that has beset the issue of Israel and Palestine is how it is often cast as a “religious struggle.” Certainly, religious and theological issues play a key role, but seeing the situation as a religious conflict distracts from the primary issue of human rights and from understanding the Palestinian cause as an anti-colonial struggle.

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Real change in the Holy Land will only be possible when we change the narrative in our society about Israel/Palestine, our shared, though often unconscious, interpretation of what is happening there today and how the situation became what it is now. We need to change popular perceptions of Palestinians as the Other, as violent and hate-filled, to introduce accurate information on the history of their struggle for their homeland, their freedom, their rights, and to encourage an understanding of their history in the context of global experiences of colonialism and apartheid.

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