Decolonizing Palestine

 Decolonizing Palestine: The Land, The People, The Bible 

by Mitri Raheb  

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. Decolonizing Palestine is a timely book that builds on the latest research in settler-colonialism and human rights to place traditional theological themes within the wider socio-political context of settler colonialism as it is practiced by the modern nation-state of Israel. Written by a native Palestinian Christian theologian who continues to live in the region, Decolonizing Palestine provides an insider’s perspective that disrupts hegemonic and imperialist narratives about the region. 

Review

“Decolonizing Palestine powerfully examines the inseparability of the liberation of Palestinians and the decolonizing of theological discourses. Raheb interrogates the interpretations of biblical stories as a warrant to practice violence in all its forms while illuminating decolonial theological pathways. The book scrutinizes obvious manifestations of violent Jewish and Christian theological justifications authorizing the dispossession of Palestinians. It also focuses on liberal forms of Christian Zionism and their likewise harmful insidious legacies. A Palestinian-Christian grappling with the colonial histories of Christian Europe, Raheb underscores the inexcusability of claims to theological innocence and mystified ahistorical and depoliticized biblical hermeneutics. Decolonizing Palestine is a necessary intervention in the study of the interplay between settler colonialism and theology. The decolonial move, for Raheb, is not abstract but embodied and historical. Every student of Palestine/Israel and settler colonialism should read this book.”

―Atalia Omer, professor, University of Notre Dame; author, Days of Awe: Reimagining Jewishness in Solidarity with Palestinians.

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Orbis Books (August 30, 2023)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 184 pages
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1626985490
• Grade level ‏ : ‎ 12 and up