NEW EVENTS ARE HIGHLIGHTED IN RED
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PALESTINE TOUR INFORMATION
as of March 17, 2023
Information compiled by Voices From the Holy Land.
Table of Contents
Scheduled Tours for 2023 ........................................................................................................................1 Tour Organizations..................................................................................................................................4 Virtual (Online) Tours..............................................................................................................................6 Handbooks, Maps, and Guides ................................................................................................................6
Scheduled Tours for 2023
RCA Immersion Tour of Palestine Nov. 5-18, 2023 This trip will be led by Rev. Joshua Vis, Ph.D., who serves as Church Engagement Facilitator in Israel and Palestine with RCA Global Mission. He stands alongside Palestinian and Israeli individuals and organizations who seek an end to the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza, in a ministry of peace with justice. He leads immersion tours that include a deep dive into both the history and archaeology of the Bible and the history and current realities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. https://www.rca.org/global-mission/missionaries/josh-sally-vis/ Register here: https://sforce.co/3y0mxDe For more information and to request flyer, contact Stephanie: ssoderstrom@rca.org |
Joint Advocacy Initiative Youth Journey for Justice - Palestine July 8-16, 2023 Youth, 17 - 30, from all over the world are invited to join the Journey for Justice in Palestine. https://www.jai-pal.org/en/advocacy-visits-trips/advocacy-programs-palestine/journey-for-justice |
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9-Day Architectural Tour of Palestine (Siraj Tours) Oct. 6-15, 2023 Visiting: Nazareth, Nablus, Ramallah, Bethlehem, Jericho, Hebron, Jerusalem. Tour covers Palestine's architectural heritage and “the architecture of the occupation.” It will be centred in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem but will also include a couple of days in Nazareth (a predominantly Palestinian city in Israel), where guided by a Palestinian architect we’ll visit the site of Palestinian villages destroyed in 1948 and explore the newly regenerated old city. Link to photos from previous tours: https://bit.ly/Palestine_snapshot Contact: karena.batstone@gmail.com |
Travel2Palestine Tours Encounter Palestine Tour May 28 – June 1, 2023 Aug.27 – 31st, 2023 Oct. 29th – Nov. 2, 2023 Palestinian Citizens of Israel Tour Nov. 5 – 9, 2023 We run small expert-led tours. Our mission is to educate and inform on the situation in Palestine and Israel, specifically on the impact on human rights. We have Palestinian and Israeli guides and UK organisers. We focus mainly on occupied Palestine, but also look at human rights of Palestinians living within Israel. We take you to refugee camps, settlements, checkpoints and villages under attack by settlers. You get top-level briefings from Palestinian and Israeli NGOs and from the United Nations. You meet politicians and experts and activists. The focus is very much on the occupation and the conflict, with only basic sightseeing (tour participants can stay on to do sightseeing on their own). https://travel2palestine.org/bookvisit/ Contact: Martin director@t2ptravel.com or Mary organiser@t2ptravel.com |
St. John’s Church, Lafayette Square and Christ Church, Georgetown Co-sponsored pilgrimage Sept. 29 - Oct. 11, 2023: The voyage will offer pilgrims the opportunity to visit many of the major sites of our faith. The group will be guided by Iyad Qumri, a Palestinian Christian who has been leading pilgrims through this special place for more than 25 years. For more info: https://www.iyadqumripilgrimages.com Sign up: https://stjohns-dc.org/contact-paulbarkett/ |
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Holy Land Franciscan Pilgrimages 12 pilgrimages planned for 2023 When you travel with us, your pilgrimage benefits the Christians who live in the Holy Land in a couple of ways. First, you can support their livelihood because we’re able to direct you to Christian-owned businesses and restaurants. And secondly, any support to the Holy Land Friars supports the work they do in the Holy Land, work in providing education, healthcare, care for children and the elderly, and maintenance of the holy shrines themselves. https://holylandpilgrimages.org/upcoming-pilgrimages/ For more info: info@holylandpilgrimages.org |
“Living Stones” Tour of Palestine-Israel June 11-24, 2023 Featuring Dr. Michael Spath, founder of the Indiana Center for Middle East Peace https://indianacmep.org For more info: lmichaelspath@gmail.com |
Americans for Peace Now Dual-Narrative Tour of Israel, Palestine And Morocco March 2023 The tour will combine the traditional elements with new, exciting programming that takes advantage of MEJDI Tours' expertise. Meet Israeli and Palestinian elected leaders and other officials at the Knesset and in Ramallah, and Palestinians in East Jerusalem, Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan. For more info: kpaul@peacenow.org |
Community Peacemaker Team Delegation Visits to Palestine Nakba Day May 10-22, 2023 Multifaith Peacemaking Sept. 27 – Oct. 9, 2023 Olive Harvest Nov. 3-15, 2023 CPT sends short-term (7-14 day) peacemaker delegations into crisis settings around the world. These delegations link communities experiencing violence with individuals and groups. Delegations offer participants a first-hand experience of CPT’s on-the-ground experiment in non-violence. https://cpt.org/delegations/palestine |
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Tour Organizations
Kairos Recommended trips to Israel/Palestine
https://www.kairosresponse.org/recommended_trips-1.html
Adventure tours
Abraham Palestine HeritageTrail
https://phtrail.org/trail/
Amos Trust Palestine Marathon
https://www.amostrust.org/amos-travel/run-palestine-2023/
Amos Trust Travel
https://www.amostrust.org/amos-travel/
Amos Trust
https://www.amostrust.org/amos-travel/experience-palestine-2023/
Bike Palestine
https://bikepalestine.com/
Siraj Center
https://sirajcenter.org/
Walk Palestine
https://www.walkpalestine.com/en
Human Rights/Factfinding Tours
Alternative Tourism Group
http://atg.ps/
Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (3-month stays, coordinated by the World Council of Churches)
https://www.quaker.org.uk/our-work/eappi
Eyewitness Palestine
https://eyewitnesspalestine.org/
The Palestine Committee (Norway)
https://palestinakomiteen.no/ [website is in Norwegian]
To Be There
https://tobe-there.com/
Travel2Palestine (UK)
https://travel2palestine.org/
UCC Palestine/Israel Network
https://www.uccpin.org/witness-trips
USPCR
https://uscpr.org/activist-resource/ethical-travel-to-palestine-challenging-apartheid-tourism/
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Wi’am
https://www.alaslah.org/tours/
YMCA and YWCA
https://www.jai-pal.org/en/advocacy-visits-trips/advocacy-programs-palestine/journey-for-justice
Zaytoun (UK)
https://zaytoun.uk/visit-palestine/
Responsible Religious Pilgrimages
Center for Jewish Nonviolence
https://cjnv.org/
Churches for Middle East Peace
https://cmep.org/travel/
Community Peacemaker Teams
https://cpt.org/delegations
Footsteps of Jesus (Disciples of Christ)
http://www.footstepsofjesustour.org/
Friends of Sabeel Witness Trips)
https://www.fosna.org/come-see-visit-the-holy-land friends@fosna.org
Holy Land Franciscan Pilgrimages
info@holylandpilgrimages.org
Laila Tours & Travel (Bethlehem)
https://www.lailatours.com/
Lightline Pilgrimages (UK)
https://www.lightline.org.uk/
Living Stones (Holy Land Trust)
https://www.fosna.org/come-see-visit-the-holy-land
Living Stones Pilgrimages (Pilgrims of Ibillin)
https://www.pilgrimsofibillin.org
Living Stones Tours (United Methodists for Kairos Response)
https://www.kairosresponse.org/tours.html
McCabe Pilgrimages (UK)
https://www.mccabe-travel.co.uk/
Network of Evangelicals for the Middle East
https://neme.network/
Pilgrimage People (UK)
https://pilgrimagepeople.org/
RCA Immersion Tours of Israel-Palestine
https://www.rca.org/global-mission/missionaries/josh-sally-vis/
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Tangney Tours (UK)
https://www.tangney-tours.com/
Tree of Life Journeys (First Congregational Church of Old Lyme)
https://tolef.org/
Virtual (Online) Tours
Green Olive Tours
https://greenolivetours.com/online-events/
Visit to Deir al Balah, Gaza (ANERA, video)
https://www.anera.org/blog/a-visit-to-deir-al-balah-gaza/
We Are Not Numbers (video shorts)
https://www.youtube.com/@wearenotnumbers2698
Handbooks, Maps, and Guides
“Palestine & Palestinians” Guidebook (ATG)
http://atg.ps/guidebook
Comprehensive information on Palestinian culture, history, archaeology, religion, architecture, and politics, along with practical information (transport, hotels, cafes, restaurants, museums, hiking routes, cultural centers, etc.) to travel responsibly.
Wujood “Existence/Presence” (Grassroots Jerusalem)
https://www.grassrootsalquds.net/wujood
Political tourist guide of Jerusalem, emphasizing the city’s unique attractions while drawing a picture of the realities of Palestinian Jerusalemite communities from a grassroots perspective. It invites visitors to take an active role in supporting Palestinian freedom by supporting the Palestinian economy or volunteering.
Interactive Map of Jerusalem (Grassroots Jerusalem)
https://www.grassrootsalquds.net/
Profiles the neighborhoods, history, stories, businesses, and local organizing of Palestinian Jerusalemites.
Palestine Open Maps (Visualizing Palestine and Columbia University Studio X Amman) https://palopenmaps.org/
An online interactive map of the geography of Palestine, including present-day Palestinian localities and the hundreds of destroyed Palestinian villages often erased from official government maps.
VisitPalestine.tech
https://visitpalestine.tech/
Itineraries, logistical support, and more for travelers interested in the Palestinian technology and startup sector.
Welcome to Palestine
https://www.welcometopalestine.com
A website offering comprehensive destination guides, broken down by city and village.
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Selected Bibliography on
Palestine & Israel
Abunimah, Ali, One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse. 2007
Clear-eyed, sharply reasoned, and compassionate, One Country proposes a radical alternative: to revive the neglected idea of one state shared by two peoples. Abunimah shows how the two are by now so intertwined―geographically and economically―that separation cannot lead to the security Israelis need or the rights Palestinians must have. Taking on the objections and taboos that stand in the way of a binational solution, he demonstrates that sharing the territory will bring benefits for all.
Abunimah, a Palestinian American, is the co-creator and editor of the Electronic Intifada Web site. A graduate of Princeton University and the University of Chicago, he has written for the Chicago Tribune, among other publications.
Ateek, Naim Stifan, A Palestinian Theology of Liberation 2017
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. Supported by many Western Christians, Israeli claims to the land rely on a particular exclusivist reading of the Bible. In contrast, a Palestinian theology of liberation responds with a counterstrategy for biblical interpretation, emphasizing the prophetic themes of inclusivity and justice. Ateek concludes by providing principles for achieving security, peace, and justice for all peoples in Israel/Palestine.
Baconi, Tareq, Hamas Contained: A History of Palestinian Resistance 2018 (new material added after October 7, 2023)
Hamas has ruled Gaza and the lives of the two million Palestinians who live there since 2006. Hamas Contained, first published in 2018, offers a history of the group, 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. This dynamic―a violent equilibrium between Hamas and Israel and the movement's containment in the Gaza Strip―lasted for sixteen years, until it was shattered by Hamas’s offensive on October 7, 2023.
Now with new material that provides an analytical framework and reflection on Hamas's offensive of October 7, 2023, and Israel's ensuing war on Gaza, Hamas Contained is an even more essential guide to understanding Hamas and the brutal violence of Israel’s war on Palestinians.
Barber, Brian, No Way But Forward 2025
No Way But Forward takes you there via a set of deeply human accounts of three ordinary young Palestinian men over the past thirty years, including the year following October 7, 2023. Their lives have been riddled with oppressive military constraint, violence, humiliation, and loss. Yet along with their parents, wives, and children, they have persevered in making an honorable life for themselves. These narratives are gripping, instructive, inspiring, tragic, and universally relevant as tales of survival, endurance, and hope.
Bennis, Phyllis, Understanding Palestine & Israel 2025
People watched in horror as Israel responded to the terrible acts of October 7, 2023 with a brutal war against the people of Gaza. They demanded a ceasefire and protested the U.S. government financing, arming, and protecting Israel’s war. A key question was when to start the clock — because none of those events actually began on October 7; all had their origins in events many years earlier.
In straightforward, accessible language Phyllis Bennis takes on that question — and more — providing answers to many questions about this ongoing conflict. What is the Balfour Declaration? What are the Occupied Territories? What is Zionism — and do all Jews support it? Does Israel have the right of self-defense? What were conditions like in Gaza before October 7?
Carter, Jimmy, Peace Not Apartheid, 2007 and We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land 2009
The former president reflects on the actions necessary to bring a true peace to a troubled region he knows well.
Chacour, Elias Blood Brothers 1984
Father Elias Chacour is a Catholic priest and the Archbishop of the Melkite Church in Israel. Born in a village in the Galilee, he and his family were expelled in 1948 as part of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by Zionist forces. Father Chacour has stayed in Israel, devoting himself to peace through the education of Palestinian children and working for reconciliation between Palestinians and Jews. This is the memoir of an extraordinary man.
Erakat, Noura, Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine 2019
Justice in the “Question of Palestine” is often framed as a question of law. Yet none of the Israel-Palestinian conflict's most vexing challenges have been resolved by judicial intervention. Occupation law has failed to stem Israel's settlement enterprise. Laws of war have permitted killing and destruction during Israel's military offensives in the Gaza Strip. The Oslo Accord's two-state solution is now dead letter.
Justice for Some offers a new approach to understanding the Palestinian struggle for freedom, told through the power and control of international law. Erakat shows how the strategic deployment of law has shaped current conditions. Within the law, change is possible. International law can serve the cause of freedom when it is mobilized in support of a political movement. Presenting the promise and risk of international law, Justice for Some calls for renewed action and attention to the “Question of Palestine”.
Falk, Richard, Dugard, John, Lynk, Michael, Protecting Human Rights in Occupied Palestine: Working Through the United Nations 2023
This book is the first comprehensive examination of UN efforts to protect Palestinian human rights in the territories occupied by Israel more than 50 years ago in the 1967 War. Working through the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, three top international legal experts served for six consecutive years as unpaid Special Rapporteurs with a UN mandate to report on Israeli violations of international humanitarian law and human rights standards. Strikingly, despite their differences in background and political outlook, they came to a unanimous consensus confirming the routine and various Israeli violations of Palestinian basic rights. This book recounts their frustrations, their trials, their experiences, and their conclusions. This is a brilliant and authoritative account of the manner in which Israel has administered the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Gorenberg, Gershom, The Accidental Empire 2006
An essential and well-written book. An Israeli journalist and historian, Gorenberg recaps Zionist history as the preamble to conditions that set up the occupation of the Palestinian territories post-1967. He then tells the whole tragic story of fanaticism, political cowardice, and failed opportunities. A unique and courageous window into Israeli society and politics.
Halper, Jeff, War Against the People: Israel, the Palestinians and Global Pacification 2015
Modern warfare has a new form. The days of international combat are fading. So how do major world powers maintain control over their people today?
This book has disturbing insight into the new ways world powers such as the US, Israel, Britain and China forge war today. It is a subliminal war of surveillance and whitewashed terror, conducted through new, high-tech military apparatuses, designed and first used in Israel against the Palestinian population. Including nano-technology, hidden camera systems, information databases on civilian activity, automated targeting systems and unmanned drones, it is used to control the very people the nation's leaders profess to serve.
Jeff Halper reveals that this practice is much more insidious than previously thought. As Western governments claw back individual liberties, War Against the People is a reminder that fundamental human rights are being compromised for vast sections of the world, and that this is a subject that should concern everyone.
Isaac, Muther, Christ In the Rubble 2025
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.
He calls on Christians to repent of their complicity in the destruction of the Palestinian people. And he challenges them to realign their beliefs and actions with Christ—who can be found not among perpetrators of violence, but with victims buried under the rubble of war.
Khalidi, Rahshid, The Hundred Years' War on Palestine 2021
A landmark history recounting one hundred years of war waged against the Palestinians. Drawing on untapped archival materials and the reports of generations of family members, Khalidi traces a colonial war on the Palestinians, waged first by the Zionist movement and then the State of Israel, backed by Britain and the United States. He highlights the key episodes in this colonial campaign, from the 1917 Balfour Declaration to the destruction of Palestine in 1948, from Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon to the endless and futile peace process.
Original, authoritative, and important, The Hundred Years' War on Palestine is not a chronicle of victimization, nor does it whitewash the mistakes of Palestinian leaders or deny the emergence of national movements on both sides. In reevaluating the forces arrayed against the Palestinians, it offers an illuminating new view of a conflict that continues to this day.
Masalha, Nur, Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History 2018
Starting with the earliest references in Egyptian and Assyrian texts, Nur Masalha explores how Palestine and its Palestinian identity have evolved over thousands of years, from the Bronze Age to the present day. Drawing on a rich body of sources and the latest archaeological evidence, Masalha shows how Palestine's multicultural past has been distorted and mythologized by Biblical lore and the Israel–Palestinian conflict.
In the process, Masalha reveals that the concept of Palestine, contrary to accepted belief, is not a modern invention or one constructed in opposition to Israel, but rooted firmly in ancient past. Palestine represents the authoritative account of the country's history.
McDonald, Alex, When They Speak Israel: A Guide to Clarity in Conversations about Israel 2021
When They Speak Israel is a guide for better understanding one’s own and others’ association with Israel. It is a guide written primarily for people who oppose racism and stand for human rights yet want to build relationships and conversations with others who may have different views. When They Speak Israel responds to talking points that we hear in the press and from politicians about Israel, Palestine, and everyone in between. The guide offers queries to unpack these talking points offering potential bridges for thinking, caring, and conversations where they would otherwise be almost impossible.
McDonald, Alex, How I Learned to Speak Israel: An American's Guide to a Foreign Policy Language, 2021
How I Learned to Speak Israel is a guide for Americans wanting to better understand the Israel/Palestine situation. It is the author’s story of how he thought he knew about the situation and history only to learn that a lot of mythology was mixed in. This book provides tools and approaches for discerning what is fact from fiction. How I Learned to Speak Israel emphasizes the importance of the language used to create the understandings we have of the situation and how the language used by the media and politicians affects domestic US policy and our rights as Americans.
Pappe, Ilan, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine 2007
Pappe is among a group of Jewish revisionist historians called the “New Historians” who have documented the actual actions of Zionist and then Israeli forces at the time of the founding of the State of Israel. This book relies greatly on material from Israeli military archives.
Pappe, Ilan, The Biggest Prison on Earth: A History of the Occupied Territories 2019
From the author of the bestselling study of the 1948 War of Independence comes an incisive look at the Occupied Territories, picking up the story where the ethnic cleansing of Palestine left off.
Pappe, Ilan, Ten Myths about Israel 2017 (updated in 2023)
The Israeli historian Ilan Pappe examines the most contested ideas concerning the origins and identity of the contemporary state of Israel. Pappé refutes myths that are cited as truth by the media, the military, and accepted without question by the world’s governments. These myths reinforce the regional status quo and help prevent a solution.
Peled, Miko, The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine 2012
In 1997, a tragedy struck the family of Israeli American Miko Peled: His beloved niece Smadar was killed by a suicide bomber. That tragedy propelled Peled onto a journey of discovery. It pushed him to re-examine many of the beliefs he had grown up with, as the son and grandson of leading figures in Israel’s political-military elite.
Raheb, Mitri, Decolonizing Palestine: The Land, The People, The Bible 2023
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. Written by a native Palestinian Christian theologian living in the region, Decolonizing Palestine provides an insider’s perspective that disrupts dominating and imperialist narratives about the region.
Rodash, Allis & Ronald, A Safe Haven: Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel 2010
This book studies the politics and decision-making process that led President Truman to support the founding of the modern state of Israel.
Rosen, Brant, Wrestling in the Daylight: A Rabbi’s Path to Palestinian Solidarity 2012
Shocked by what he read about the 2008 Israeli military campaign in Gaza, American Rabbi Rosen began to publicly question his long held "liberal Zionist" beliefs in his blog Shalom Rav.
Rothchild, Alice, Condition Critical: Life and Death in Israel/Palestine 2017
Since 2003, obstetrician Alice Rothchild has traveled annually to Israel/Palestine with other concerned Americans, to learn about health and human rights situation of politically marginalized communities, especially Palestinians. Condition Critical presents key blog posts and analytical essays that explore everyday life in Israel, East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza up close and with searing honesty. These eyewitness reports and intimate stories depict the critical condition of a region suffering from decades-old wounds of colonization and occupation. Condition Critical dares (and inspires) its readers to examine the painful consequences of Zionism and Israeli expansion and to bend the arc of the moral universe towards justice.
Sfard, Michael, The Wall and the Gate: Israel, Palestine, and the Legal Battle for Human Rights 2018
From renowned human rights lawyer Michael Sfard, an unprecedented exploration of the struggle for human rights in Israel's courts.
In The Wall and the Gate, renowned human rights lawyer Michael Sfard, chronicles the struggle of a Palestinian farmer in the West Bank, cut off from his olive groves by the construction of Israel’s controversial separation wall. Asked by the farmer to petition the courts to allow a gate to be built in the wall, Sfard recounts the unfolding of key cases and issues, ranging from land confiscation, deportations, the creation of settlements, punitive home demolitions, torture, and targeted killings―all actions considered violations of international law. In the process, he lays bare the reality of the occupation and the lives of the people who must contend with that reality. He exposes the surreal legal structures that have been erected to put a stamp of lawfulness on an extensive program of dispossession. Finally, he weighs the success of the legal effort, reaching conclusions that are no less paradoxical than the fight itself. The Wall and the Gate is a signal contribution to everyone concerned with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and human rights everywhere.
Shlaim, Avi, Genocide in Gaza: Israel, Hamas, and the Long War on Palestine 2025
The brutal war launched by Israel on the Gaza Strip in response to the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023, was a major landmark in the blood-soaked history of the Israeli Palestinian conflict. This was the eighth Israeli military offensive in Gaza since Operation Cast Lead of December 2008. It was also the most savage, destructive, and lethal attack with a death toll that has exceeded by far the combined total of the previous seven offensives.
In this book Avi Shlaim argues that these recurrent attacks are the inevitable result of Zionist settler colonialism whose basic objective is the elimination of the native population. In this war, however, Israel has gone beyond land-grabbing and ethnic cleansing to committing actual genocide. Providing Israel with the weapons of mass murder as well as diplomatic protection at the UN, makes America not only complicit but an enabler of Israel’s egregious war crimes.
Suarez, Tom, Palestine Hijacked: How Zionism Forged an Apartheid State from the River to the Sea 2022
How terror was used by Zionist militias to transform Palestine into an apartheid settler state.
The Israel-Palestine “conflict” is typically understood to be a clash between two ethnic groups—Arabs and Jews—inhabiting the same land. Thomas Suárez digs deep below these preconceptions and their supporting “narratives” to expose something starkly different: the violent take-over of Palestine by Zionism, using terror to assert its claim to the land by force, based on questionable moral and legal foundations.
Drawing extensively from original source documents, Suárez interweaves secret intelligence reports, newly declassified military and diplomatic correspondence, and the terrorists’ own records boasting of their successes. His account details a litany of Zionist terrorism against anyone in their way—the indigenous Palestinians, the British who had helped establish Zionism, and Jews who opposed the Zionist agenda. Far from being isolated atrocities by rogue groups, the use of terror was deliberate and sustained, carried out or supported by the same leaders who then established and led the Israeli state.
Tolan, Sandy, The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East 2006
The histories of two families, a Bulgarian Jewish family that barely escapes the Holocaust and a Palestinian family forced to flee their home during the establishment of the state of Israel, bound together in a house lived in and loved by both. Meticulous endnotes anchor the human narration firmly in the history and events of the time.
Wagner, Donald E., Glory to God in the Lowest: Journeys to an Unholy Land 2022
A personal, political, and religious journey from Evangelical Christian faith and conservative politics to solidarity with the poor and advocacy for anti-war, anti-racism, and Palestinian rights. The memoir touches on history and includes political analysis and theological reflection. In it, Donald Wagner describes Israel’s continued colonization and destruction of Palestinian lives and chronicles his involvement in a grassroots movement of resistance that demands justice based on full equality, an end to the Israeli military occupation and settler colonization project, the right of return for Palestinian refugees, and full political rights for the Palestinian people.
SELECTED DOCUMENTARY FILMS
Voices Across the Divide - 57 min. Filmmaker Alice Rothchild is an American Jew raised on the tragedies of the Holocaust and the dream of a Jewish homeland in Israel. The film follows her personal journey as she begins to understand the Palestinian narrative while exploring the Palestinian experience of loss, occupation, statelessness, and immigration to the US. The documentary is both a personal journey to understand the Palestinian narrative as well as the implications and contradictions of deeply held cultural beliefs in the Jewish community. Rothchild interviews those who participated in the Nakba – and those affected by it.
Budrus (2009) - 70 min. Budrus is an award-winning feature documentary film about a Palestinian community organizer, Ayed Morrar, who unites local Fatah and Hamas members along with Israeli supporters in an unarmed movement to save his village of Budrus from destruction by Israel’s Separation Barrier
Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land (2004) - 80 min. This video shows how the foreign policy interests of American political elites-working in combination with Israeli public relations stratgies-influence US news reporting about the Middle East conflict. Combining American and British TV news clips with observations of analysts, journalists and political activists, Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land provides a brief historical overview, a striking media comparison, and an examination of factors that have distorted U.S. media coverage and, in turn, American public opinion.
With God On Our Side (2010) - 82 min. With God On Our Side takes a hard look at the theology and politics of Christian Zionism, which teaches that because the Jews are God's chosen people, Israeli government policies should not be questioned, even when these policies are unjust.
Life in Occupied Palestine - 55 min. Anna Baltzer, a Jewish-American Columbia graduate and Fulbright scholar, presents her discoveries as a volunteer with the International Women's Peace Service in the West Bank, documenting human rights abuses and supporting Palestinian-led nonviolent resistance to the Occupation. Baltzer's presentation provides those interested in the Israel/ Palestine conflict with critical information and documentation that can be difficult to obtain through mainstream Western media sources, and to encourage dialog towards taking action on the issue. Topics discussed include checkpoints, settlements, Israeli activism, Zionism, 1948 War & refugees, censorship, the Wall, the ongoing annexation of Palestinian land, and the almost unbearable living conditions under the occupation.
Little Town of Bethlehem (2010) - 75 min. The documentary shares the gripping story of three men, born into violence, willing to risk everything to bring an end to violence in their lifetime. A Christian, a Muslim, and a Jew-shaped by events of their Palestinian and Israeli upbringing-find inspiration in the words and actions of Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi. Sami, Ahmad, and Yonatan believe that violence can indeed be stopped but recognize their own struggles will remain. Yet they will struggle together to discover a common humanity through non-violent action. In the city of Bethlehem where it is said God became man, these men stand alongside others whose central desire is to be accepted and treated as fully human.Their story brings fresh hope to the ongoing conflict between Palestine and Israel while taking a stand against violence throughout the world.
The People and the Olive - 70 min. What do olive trees mean to Palestinian farmers? Olives are their livelihood, their source of sustenance and the way they root themselves, historically and spiritually, to the land. But Palestinians are denied access to nearly 30 percent of their beloved olive trees in the West Bank as they struggle to live under Israeli military occupation. How do they persevere? And what should the international community understand about Palestinian olive farmers, who love their land and harvest it every season to feed their families — just as farmers across the world do?
On the Side of the Road - 103 min. Filmmaker Lia Tarachansky is a Jew who was born in Kiev. When she was six her family moved to the Ariel settlement in the West Bank. Her mother wanted to contribute to Zionism, Lia said. Tarachansky turns the camera on herself as she revisits settlements and interviews current residents. She says her goal is just to examine and narrate.
Occupation Has No Future - 84 min. Through conversations with Israeli conscientious objectors, former soldiers, and Palestinians living under occupation, Occupation Has No Future creates a survey of the current atmosphere in Israel and the West Bank. The film explores the Israeli social environment that creates heightened militarism and leads to fear and aggression; and examines the consequences of Israeli policies for the Palestinian people as well as for Israeli civil society. Additionally, this documentary looks at the Israeli anti-militarist movement and Israeli youth refusing conscription, refusing orders, and partnering with a growing grassroots Palestinian campaign of civil disobedience against the occupation
Checkpoint - 80 min. Documentary filmmaker Yoav Shamir's depiction of the checkpoints that the Israel Defense Forces man in the Palestinian Authority.
Defamation (2009) - 101 min. Intent on shaking up the ultimate 'sacred cow' for Jews, Israeli director Yoav Shamir embarks on a provocative - and at times irreverent - quest to answer the question, "What is anti-Semitism today?"
Encounter Point - 85 min. Film 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. Their journeys lead them to the unlikeliest places to confront hatred within their communities. The film explores what drives them and thousands of other like-minded civilians to overcome anger and grief to work for grassroots solutions
Occupation 101: Voices of the Silenced Majority - 90 min. A thought-provoking and powerful documentary film on the current and historical root causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and U.S. political involvement.
Five Broken Cameras - 90 min. When his fourth son, Gibreel, is born, Emad, a Palestinian villager, gets his first camera. In his village, Bil'in, a separation barrier is being built and the villagers start to resist this decision. For more than five years, Emad films the struggle, which is led by two of his best friends, alongside filming how Gibreel grows. Very soon it affects his family and his own life. Daily arrests and night raids scare his family; his friends, brothers and himself are either shot or arrested. One Camera after another is shot at or smashed, each camera tells a part of his story.
Living under the Occupation: Daily Life in Occupied Palestine - 27 min. A film made by EFA MEPs (Members of the European Parliament) François Alfonsi, Jill Evans and Ana Miranda during their visit to the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Promises (2002) -106 min. Several Jewish and Palestinian children are followed for three years and put in touch with each other, in this alternative look at the Jewish-Palestinian conflict. The three filmmakers followed a group of seven local children between 1995 and 1998. These seven children tell their own story about growing up in Jerusalem. When the protagonists speak out in an epilogue a couple of years later, it becomes apparent that all have lost their childlike innocence.
Salt of the Earth: Palestinian Christians in the Northern West Bank (2004) - 193 min. Marthame and Elizabeth Sanders lived in the Christian Palestinian village of Zababdeh from August, 2000, through December, 2003. Volunteers with the Presbyterian Church (USA), their ministry was one of ecumenical support to the Church in the land of its birth. The film documents the lives of nine Palestinian Christians living in the northern West Bank. This film grew out of a desire among their Palestinian neighbors to share their stories, and a desire among Christians in the West to hear them. The Sanders describe the project as "a labor of love, a response to the graciousness, warmth, hospitality, and welcome we received from our Palestinian neighbors and colleagues."
The Colour of Olives - 97 min. Like many Palestinian families, the Amers live surrounded by the infamous West Bank Wall where their daily lives are dominated by electrified fences, locks and a constant swarm of armed soldiers. Constructed with a combination of verité scenes and re-enactments, this poignant and richly crafted film offers its audience a much needed opportunity to reflect on the effects of racial segregation, the meaning of borders and the absurdity of war.
The Gatekeepers - 101 min. A documentary featuring interviews with all surviving former heads of Shin Bet, the Israeli security agency whose activities and membership are closely held state secrets
The Law In These Parts (2013) - 105 min. What is legal and what is just? The wide gap between the two is explored meticulously by this Israeli investigation of the legal structure created after the 1967 Six Days War, specifically to treat the West Bank and Gaza Strip as occupied territories. Speaking with some of Israel’s most respected lawyers and judges – men who helped to craft and later interpret these laws – filmmaker Ra’anan Alexandrowicz asks tough, pointed questions and gets even tougher answers. He asks his subjects to consider the consequences of their actions in a highly politicized environment. This documentary takes the position that unjust laws create unjust realities. Laws that everyone admits are not perfect but are the best that can be done under difficult circumstances may result in tragedy for everyone: both the judges and the judged.This film is winner of the Best Documentary Award at the Sundance and Jerusalem Film Festivals.
It's Better to Jump - 75 min. There is a centuries-old seawall in the ancient port of Akka, located on Israel's northern coast. Today, Akka is a modern city inhabited by Muslims, Christians, Jews, and Baha'i, but its history goes all the way back to rule of the Egyptian Pharaohs. Young people dare to stand atop the 40' one-meter thick block structure and risk their fate by jumping into the roiling sea. This perilous tradition has continued for many generations, and has become a rite of passage for the children of Akka. "It's Better to Jump" is about the ancient walled city of Akka as it undergoes harsh economic pressures and vast social change. The film focuses on the aspirations and concerns of the Palestinian inhabitants who call the Old City home.
Home Front – Portraits From Sheikh Jarrah - Getting beyond the sensational headlines and broad generalizations that normally dominate discussions of Jerusalem, Home Front captures voices rarely heard, of those struggling to stop settlement expansion in East Jerusalem and build a future of pluralism and equality in the city. Featuring the accounts of a Palestinian teenager forced to give up half his home to Israeli settlers, an American-born Israeli mother who gets drawn into the demonstrations after her children’s arrest, a Palestinian community organizer who brings local women to the forefront of the struggle, and a veteran of the Israeli army who becomes one of the campaign’s leaders, Home Front chronicles the resolve of a neighborhood, and the support it receives from the most unexpected of places.
Censored Voices - The 1967 'Six-Day' war ended with Israel's decisive victory; conquering Jerusalem, Gaza, Sinai and the West Bank. It is a war portrayed, to this day, as a righteous undertaking - a radiant emblem of Jewish pride. One week after the war, a group of young kibbutzniks, led by renowned author Amos Oz, recorded intimate conversations with soldiers returning from the battlefield. The recording revealed an honest look at the moment Israel turned from David to Goliath. The Israeli army censored the recordings, allowing the kibbutzniks to publish only a fragment of the conversations. 'Censored Voices' reveals the original recordings for the first time.
Teaching Ignorance - 2015, 52 Minutes. This powerful film follows several Israeli and Palestinian teachers over the course of an academic year. It asks: How do the Palestinian, Israeli Arab, and Israeli Jewish educational systems teach the history of their peoples? By observing teachers, the film shows us their exchanges and confrontations with students as they transmit the values of religion, politics, and nationalism in the classroom. In Teaching Ignorance, educators from all sides of the conflict debate their peoples’ official curriculum, wrestling with is restrictions. This film offers an intimate glimpse into the profound and long-lasting effect that the Israeli/Palestinian conflict transmits to the next generation.