Beginning BOOK LIST for Holy Land Trip 2016

Beginning BOOK LIST for Holy Land Trip 2016

List of what I’ve read/used/recommend (**means willing to loan out)

Blood Brothers by Father Elias Chacour; published 1984

The story of Elias Chacour, a Palestinian Christian with deep love for Jews and Palestinians alike. Combines the history of Christianity in the Middle East with a new perspective on Bible prophecy and the Zionist movement. We met Father Chacour 30 years ago and he wanted to be sure that we left Israel more confused than when we came. This book is his personal story of being a displaced Christian Palestinian. It is worth the read to realize that all of Jesus’ disciples were once Jewish and now their descendants are all Palestinian Arabs.

The Holy Land: The Indispensable Archaeological Guide for Travelers by Jerome Murphy-O’Connor; originally published 1980 – revised several times

Besides informative timelines and helpful travel guides, the author interweaves information from Josephus, a first-century Romano-Jewish historian and hagiographer (writing the biographies of saints and revered persons). Other primary sources are listed at the beginning of the book include material from these periods: Old Testament, Byzantine, Islamic, Medieval and Modern.

Cities of the Biblical World by LaMoine F. Devries; published 1997

There are a number of books that focus on cities of the Holy Land. I happen to purchase this one used and it has been helpful for focused study.

The Palestine-Israel Conflict: A Basic Introduction by Gregory Harms with Todd M. Ferry; published 2005 – last revised 2012

I am finding this very basic – making it easy to understand the situation (with a clear attempt to not suggest the solution is easy). Other books might do the same but I’m pleased with this one.

My Promised Land by Ari Shavit; published 2013

Easy read in somewhat story form. This has been touted as the next best book on the situation since Thomas Friedmann’s “From Beirut to Jerusalem.” That one was fantastic at the time but was published in 1989. Ari Shavit is a journalist from Israel who grew up troubled by his country being an “occupier” but follows the path of his ancestors to identify how and why. I am only on page 27 but look forward to more.

Chosen? Reading the Bible Amid the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict by Walter Brueggemann; published 2015

Brueggemann asks important questions: Who is chosen? Is it a Holy Land? What is the relationship of Zionism and Israel? The Bible as a source is both questioned and affirmed depending on analysis of its use.

Books I’m curious about but have not yet purchased (Let me know what they are like if you get any of them. Word to the wise: try for used. I’ve bought some that are not good because of their bias.)

The Way to the Spring: Life and Death in PalestineHardcover– June 14, 2016

byBen Ehrenreich(Author)

Over the past three years, American writer Ben Ehrenreich has been traveling to and living in the West Bank, staying with Palestinian families in its largest cities and its smallest villages.Along the way he has written major stories for American outlets, including a remarkableNew York Times Magazinecover story. Now comes the powerful new work that has always been his ultimate goal,The Way to the Spring.

We are familiar with brave journalists who travel to bleak or war-torn placeson a mission to listen and understand, to gather the stories ofpeople suffering from extremes of oppression and want: KatherineBoo,RyszardKapuściński, Ted Conover,and PhilipGourevitch among them. Palestine is, by any measure, whatever one's politics, one such place. Ruled by the Israeli military, set upon and harassed constantly by Israeli settlers who admit unapologetically to wanting to drive them from the land, forced to negotiate an ever more elaborate and more suffocating series of fences, checkpoints, and barriers that have sundered home from field, home from home, this is a population whose living conditions are unique, and indeed hard to imagine. In a great act of bravery, empathy and understanding, Ben Ehrenreich, by placing us in the footsteps of ordinary Palestinians and telling their story with surpassing literary power and grace, makes it impossible for us to turn away.

On PalestinePaperback– April 7, 2015

byNoam Chomsky(Author),IlanPappé(Author),Frank Barat(Editor)

Operation Protective Edge, Israel's most recent assault on Gaza, left thousands of Palestinians dead and cleared the way for another Israeli land grab. The need to stand in solidarity with Palestinians has never been greater. IlanPappé and Noam Chomsky, two leading voices in the struggle to liberate Palestine, 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.On Palestineis the sequel to their acclaimed bookGaza in Crisis.

Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a MovementPaperback– February 9, 2016

byAngela Davis(Author),Frank Barat(Editor),

In these newly collected essays, interviews, and speeches, world-renowned activist and scholar Angela Y. Davis illuminates the connections between struggles against state violence and oppression throughout history and around the world.

Reflecting on the importance of black feminism, intersectionality, and prison abolitionism for today's struggles, Davis discusses the legacies of previous liberation struggles, from the Black Freedom Movement to the South African anti-Apartheid movement. She highlights connections and analyzes today's struggles against state terror, from Ferguson to Palestine.

Frank Barat is a human rights activist and author. He was the coordinator of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine and is now the president of the Palestine Legal Action Network. His books includeGaza in CrisisandCorporate Complicity in Israel's Occupation.

I Am a Palestinian Christian: God and Politics in the Holy Land: A Personal Testimony

by3 Contributors, Release date:Monday, May 8, 1995

MitriRaheb 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.

Mapping Exile and Return: Palestinian Dispossession and a Political Theology for a Shared FuturebyAlain Epp Weaver (Author) Release Date: January 1, 2014

Through an analysis of Palestinian refugee mapping practices for returning to their homeland, Alain Epp Weaver offers a political theology of redrawing the territory compatible with a bi-national vision for a shared Palestinian-Israeli future.

The Israel-Palestine Conflict: One Hundred Years of War3rd Edition

byJames L. Gelvin (Author)

Now entering its third edition, James L. Gelvin's award-winning account of the conflict between Israelis and their forebears, on the one hand, and Palestinians and theirs, on the other, offers a compelling, accessible, and current introduction for students and general readers. Newly updated to take into account the effects of the 2010-11 Arab uprisings on the conflict and the recognition of Palestinian statehood by the United Nations, the book traces the struggle from the emergence of nationalism among the Jews of Europe and the Arab inhabitants of Ottoman Palestine through the present, exploring the external pressures and internal logic that have propelled it. Placing events in Palestine within the framework of global history, The Israel-Palestine Conflict: One Hundred Years of War skillfully interweaves biographical sketches, eyewitness accounts, poetry, fiction, and official documentation into its narrative.

Comprehending Christian Zionism: Perspectives in Comparison

ByGoran Gunner (Editor);Robert O. Smith (Editor) Release Date:October 1, 2014

This work brings together an international consortium of scholars and researchers to reflect on the network of issues and topics surrounding the issue of Christian Zionism.

The Wrath of Jonah: Crisis of Religious Nationalism in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

byHerman J. Ruether(Author);Rosemary Radford Ruether(Author); Date: March 4, 2002

The wrenching situation in the Middle East, recent events have shown, is as complex as it is volatile. In this immensely learned and clarifying volume—here updated and issued in paper for the first time—the Ruethers trace the tortured and contested history of Israel/Palestine from biblical times through the Diaspora, the development of Zionism, the creation of the modern state of Israel, and the subsequent conflict with Arab and Palestinian nationalism.

Magisterial in its grasp of the historical, political, economic, and religious roots of the conflict,The Wrath of Jonahalso offers convincing analysis of the moral and political dilemmas facing Israelis and Palestinians today. Though they see possibilities for peace, the Ruethers are forthright about what they and others see as Israel's betrayal of its own original mandate. Their purpose, state the Ruethers, "continues to be to make a modest contribution to truthful historical accountability that must underlie the quest for justice, without which there can be no 'peace.'"