Books of Interest
Decolonizing Palestine: The Land, The People, The Bible is a basic introduction to the history and understanding of the conflict between the state of Israel and the Palestinian ‘territories.’
By Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb; published August 2023; available in paperback and Kindle editions
Writing as a native Palestinian Christian theologian who was born and lives in Bethlehem, Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb shares insights into the current understanding of the settler-colonial state of Israel, as well as a native theological understanding of Biblical texts and how they have been misread in light of the issue of the land and people. A former Pastor of the Lutheran Bethlehem Christmas Church, Dr. Rehab still finds hope in scriptures as well as the community in which he lives – one made up of Jews, Muslims and Christians.
Sarah and Her Sisters: American Missionary Pioneers in Arab Female Education, 1834-1937
By Robert D. Stoddard, Jr.; published 2020; available in hardback and Kindle editions
The author served as Vice President of Lebanese American University, 1999-2005; prior to that he was the Beirut University College's director of development (1979-1988). This book is the result of questions he had about the women who started the college. The book covers the first century of the college's existence. His research into the women resulted in lectures he gave, and the President challenged him to "connect the dots" between the early days, and the current great University. Anyone with BCW/BUC/LAU background or interest in the history of women's education in the Middle East will want to read this book. (Bob Stoddard is a member of the SLPN and of the Israel Palestine Mission Network; he helped SLPN get started by launching our first pledge drive in 2014.)
The Crash of Flight 3804: A Lost Spy, A Daughter's Quest, and the Deadly Politics of the Great Game for Oil
By Charlotte Dennett; published April 2020; available in hardcover and Kindle editions
The author spent her high school years in Lebanon. Her father was killed in 1947 in a plane crash en route to Ethiopia. Years later, Charlotte takes seriously her hunch that her father was assassinated, and she wrote this book as a result. The world powers that sought control of oil in the Middle East were responsible for much of the turmoil that ensued. The book includes chapters on Syria, Turkey, Iraq, and Israel. (The author Is also a good friend of the Rev. Ann Brunger, current moderator of the SLPN network, and her husband Dr. Scott Brunger, both cited as childhood friends and classmates from the American Community School in Beirut.)
Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War
By Robin Yassin-Kassab and Lelia Al-Shami; published January 2016; available in hardcover, paperback and Kindle editions
Burning Country explores the horrific and complicated reality of life in present-day Syria with unprecedented detail and sophistication, drawing on new first-hand testimonies from opposition fighters, exiles lost in an archipelago of refugee camps, and courageous human rights activists among many others. These stories are expertly interwoven with a trenchant analysis of the brutalization of the conflict and the militarization of the uprising, of the rise of the Islamists and sectarian warfare, and the role of governments in Syria and elsewhere in exacerbating those violent processes.” The Nation says,” Burning Country avoids the easy indulgence of indignation; instead, it elicits the voices of many different Syrians involved in the uprising, acknowledging their suffering as well as their courage, intelligence, and humanity, while explaining the terrible choices that have been forced on them.
A Deadly Misunderstanding: Quest to Bridge the Muslim/Christian Divide
By Ambassador Mark Siljander; in paperback; published June 2016; available from Amazon in paperback
The author shares “a spiritual and political journey that started with an in-depth linguistic study of the Bible and led to the discovery that Christianity and Islam share many base words and concepts. In his role as ambassador to the United Nations Siljander began sharing his insights on the connections between Islam and Christianity, with surprising results.”
The Dirty War on Syria: Washington, Regime Change and Resistance
By Dr. Tim Anderson; published June 2016; Available through Global Research: store.globalresearch.ca or Amazon in paperback
“This book is a careful academic work, but also a strong defense of the right of the Syrian people to determine their own society and political system. That position is consistent with international law and human rights principles, but may irritate western sensibilities, accustomed as we are to an assumed prerogative to intervene. At times I have to be blunt, to cut through the double-speak. In Syria the big powers have sought to hide their hand, using proxy armies while demonizing the Syrian Government and Army, accusing them of constant atrocities; then pretending to rescue the Syrian people from their own government.”
Frustrated with God: A Syrian Theologian’s Reflections on Habakkuk
By Riad A. Kassis; published May 2016; available in paperback and Kindle editions
“The dilemma of pain and suffering has always been a subject of discussion for theologians, philosophers and ordinary people. This dilemma becomes more complicated when it is related to God’s holiness, love and mercy. Many questions come to mind when we face pain and suffering. We even become frustrated with God himself as we ask him “Why?” and “How long?” This book, that was born out of the so-called “Arab spring” particularly the Syrian crisis addresses these and other questions from the perspective of an ancient prophet called Habakkuk. Will we be able to find the right answers? Will God respond? This is what you will discover as you read this book. But I must caution you that it is not an easy one.”
The Home That Was Our Country: A Memoir of Syria
By Alia Malek; published February 2017; available in hardcover, paperback and Kindle editions
“At the Arab Spring's hopeful start, Alia Malek returned to Damascus to reclaim her grandmother's apartment, which had been lost to her family since Hafez al-Assad came to power in 1970. Its loss was central to her parent's decision to make their lives in America. In chronicling the people who lived in the Tahaan building, past and present, Alia portrays the Syrians--the Muslims, Christians, Jews, Armenians, and Kurds--who worked, loved, and suffered in close quarters, mirroring the political shifts in their country. Restoring her family's home as the country comes apart, she learns how to speak the coded language of oppression that exists in a dictatorship, while privately confronting her own fears about Syria's future.”
Not in God’s Name: Confronting Religious Violence
By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks; published October 2015; available in hardcover, paperback and Kindle editions
“But through an exploration of the roots of violence and its relationship to religion, and employing groundbreaking biblical analysis and interpretation, Rabbi Sacks shows that religiously inspired violence has as its source misreadings of biblical texts at the heart of all three Abrahamic faiths. By looking anew at the book of Genesis, with its foundational stories of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Rabbi Sacks offers a radical rereading of many of the Bible’s seminal stories of sibling rivalry: Cain and Abel, Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brothers, Rachel and Leah.”