Product Review

Addressing what many consider the world's most intractable conflict, Naim Ateek offers a succinct primer on the theology of liberation in the context of the Palestinian struggle for freedom and self-determination. From the historical roots of this struggle, Ateek shows how the memory of the Holocaust has served to trump the claims and aspirations of the native inhabitants, and how later Israeli occupation and settlement sin the West Bank have contributed to their suffering and oppression.

As a Christian theologian himself, Ateek shows how Western Chirstian support for Israeli claims to the land rely on a particular and exclusivist reading of the Bible. In contrast, a Palestinian theology of liberation resonds wiht a counter-strategy for biblical interpretation, one that emphasizes the prophetic thmese of inclusivity and justice. Ateek concludes by providing broad principles of achieiving security, peace, and justice for all the peoples in Isareal/Palestine.