Digging Deeper

We Googled Palestinian recently. There were 7,470,000 hits. How do you wade through all that information? We’d like to share some sites we’ve found interesting along with books that may help you to understand more about Palestinians, their culture and religion and the challenges they face. We certainly don’t agree with all the information and opinions that are included.

Happy surfing! If you find a site or a book that you think we should include here, please let us know. 

United Nations Relief and Works Agency:   This is the UN agency created to assist the Palestinian refugees. Both historical and current statistics and information about refugees and refugee camps can be found here. 

Passia:  Another good site for general information about Palestinians is the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs (PASSIA), a non-profit, Arab institution seeking to present the Palestinian Question in its national, Arab and international contexts through academic research, dialogue and publication.

The World Fact Book: Find information on the history, people and other current information on Gaza and the West Bank.  You can look up information about any country, but they don’t give information specifically about Palestinians in other countries.

It is practically impossible to get unbiased news about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The major news networks always carry the headlines.  We suggest you read several sources.  Below are some sources you might not ordinarily read.

Haaretz Newspaper:  This is an Israeli newspaper.  They are fairly balanced and can be critical of both Israel and the Palestinians. 

Maan News Agency: An independent news source based in the West Bank. They claim to be one of the most browsed websites in the Palestinian Territories.

Jerusalem Post: This is another Israeli newspaper. This one is very biased against Palestinians. We include it so you can get several sides of the news. 

B'Tselem:  This is an Israeli human rights organization that documents abuses by all sides.

Palestinian Center for Human Rights: This is a Palestinian human rights organization based in Gaza. They reports on events from a Palestinian point of view, but also include abuses from both Palestinians and Israelis.

Arabic Bible Website:  In addition to both audio and written versions of the Bible in Arabic, this site has information about Islam for Christians and about Christianity for Moslems.  It also gives information about the status of Christianity in various Middle Eastern countries. 

Al Bushra: This website was created by a Palestinian, Roman Catholic Priest who now serves in California.  It includes heritage, history, traditions, theology and current events of the Christian people in the Middle East.

Answering Islam:  As the name implies, this site provides answers posed by Islam from a Christian perspective.

Praying for Muslims:  This site is specifically for the "30 Days of Prayer for Muslims" around the world during Ramadan, but they also have some interesting articles about Islam from a Christian perspective. 

Islam On-Line:  This site includes links to many other sites on a wide variety of Islamic topics.  The information is from a Muslim perspective.

Musalaha: This organization has a vision to see reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians first among followers of Jesus and then to those of interfaith communities.

Bethlehem Bible College:  Click on this site to find out more about this interdenominational Evangelical institution.

Seeds of Peace: This organization is dedicated to empowering young leaders from regions of conflict with the leadership skills required to advance reconciliation and coexistence.

It is hard to find reliable information about Palestinians outside Gaza and the West Bank. 

Minorities at Risk: A project based at the University of Maryland that tracts ethnic groups around the world. Their website has some interesting information about Palestinians in Jordan and Lebanon, but for some reason nothing about Syria.

Wikipedia has an interesting article on the Palestinian Diaspora including the number living in countries around the world. 

Elias Chacour was born in 1939 and is now the Archbishop in the Galilee of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church. In 2001, Chacour gave an address at commencement at Emory University in Atlanta where he accepted an honorary degree. Here’s an excerpt:

You who live in the United States, if you are pro-Israel, on behalf of the Palestinian children I call unto you: give further friendship to Israel. They need your friendship. But stop interpreting that friendship as an automatic antipathy against me, the Palestinian who is paying the bill for what others have done against my beloved Jewish brothers and sisters in the Holocaust and Auschwitz and elsewhere.

And if you have been enlightened enough to take the side of the Palestinians -- oh, bless your hearts -- take our sides, because for once you will be on the right side, right? But if taking our side would mean to become one-sided against my Jewish brothers and sisters, back up. We do not need such friendship.  We need one more common friend.  We do not need one more enemy, for God's sake. (from Wikipedia)

Father Chacour has written two books, Blood Brothers and We Belong to the Land that we recommend highly. They recount his experiences as an Arab Christian in the midst of conflict. Last time we checked they were both available at Amazon. 

Brother Andrew is remembered by many for the book, God’s Smuggler, which describes his work taking the Bible behind the Iron Curtain.   In recent years, he has devoted much of his time to the Middle East. This book, Light Force: A Stirring Account of the Church Caught in the Middle East Crossfire that he wrote with Al Janssen will help you understand more about the struggles that Christians have living in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon.

Jimmy Carter was widely criticized for his 2006 book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid . Although we did notice some errors, we thought it accurately portrayed the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis. 

Roland Muller’s book, The Messenger, The Message, The Community : Three Critical Issues for the Cross-Cultural Church-Planter, is a must read for those wishing to understand and share the Gospel among people in shame/honor cultures such as the Palestinians.

If you haven’t already, you should read a book or two on Islam. Amazon lists over 140,000 books on Islam. Christian Book Distributors (www.Christianbook.com) has 535.   That is not an endorsement of either bookseller, but an admission that are many confusing choices.    We do not believe that Islam is our enemy or that the Moslem people are our enemies. The Bible clearly tells us that Satan is the enemy. (Ephesians 6:12) Many Christian authors approach the topic as if Islam and Moslems are the enemy.   If you want to gain a clear understanding of Islam and find ways to reach Moslem people, those kinds of books will not be helpful. A quick scan of the table of contents will tell you how the author approaches the topic.   There are a number of good books available. You might try one of these: 

Answering Islam: The Crescent in Light of the Cross; Norman L. Geisler and Abdul Saleeb

Muslims, Christians, and Jesus: Gaining Understanding and Building Relationships; Carl Mederais