The Other Side of the Wall - by Munther Isaac (Paperback)

About the Book

Christians have lived in Palestine since the earliest days of the Jesus movement, yet they are often unheard and ignored in the midst of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. With both lament and hope, Palestinian pastor Munther Isaac offers a theology of the land and a vision for a shared land that belongs to God, where there are no second-class citizens of any kind.

Book Synopsis

A Palestinian Pastor's Invitation to Lament and Hope

Christians have lived in Palestine since the earliest days of the Jesus movement. The Palestinian church predates Islam. Yet Palestinian Christians find themselves marginalized and ostracized. In the heated tensions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the voices of Palestinian Christians are often unheard and ignored.

This book provides an opportunity to hear the realities of life on the ground from a leading Palestinian pastor and theologian. In The Other Side of the Wall Munther Isaac

• Gives the perspective of Palestinian Christians on the other side of the separation wall surrounding most Palestinian West Bank cities today
• Laments the injustices suffered by the Palestinian people yet holds out hope for a just peace and ways to befriend and love his Jewish and Muslim neighbors, and
• Offers a theology of the land and a vision for a shared land that belongs to God, where there are no second-class citizens of any kind, in stark contrast to the dominant religious and nationalistic ideologies and agendas for the region.

"This book is my invitation to you," Isaac writes, "to step into the other side of the wall and listen to our stories and perspective. It is my humble request to you to allow me to share how Palestinians experience God, read the Bible, and have been touched and liberated by Jesus--a fellow Bethlehemite who has challenged us to see others as neighbors and love them as ourselves. . . . This book paints a picture of our story of faith, lament, and hope. And I invite you to join and listen, on our side of the wall."

Review Quotes

"Global Christianity must rethink both its moral and financial support of an Israeli state that in many ways acts un-Christianly to its minority populations. The book is a plea for love and understanding among all those interested in peace in the Holy Land. Isaac's deepest wish is that the land be shared by all and that all treat their neighbor, understood broadly, as precious and worthy of love."

--Library Journal, Denis Frias, June 2020

"Here is a passionate cri de coeur from a Palestinian theologian addressed to the worldwide church--and especially to those who call themselves evangelicals. Unlike those who write about Israel from the safety of their ivory towers outside the Middle East, Munther Isaac has lived all his life under occupation on the West Bank and understands the history and politics the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The book is full of memorable personal experiences and biblical exposition that is grounded in serious scholarship. It is well documented, thoroughly up to date, and amazingly readable. I can't think of a more powerful and moving account of what it means to live out the Sermon on the Mount in an impossibly difficult situation. In the end we are presented not just with spiritual insights but with a realistic vision of how this seemingly endless conflict could actually be resolved."

--Colin Chapman, visiting lecturer at the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary, Beirut, author of Cross and Crescent

"Munther Isaac's deeply moving The Other Side of the Wall tells his story as a Christian growing up in the Palestinian town of Bethlehem over decades of violence, war, and occupation. The reading of Isaac's Palestinian narrative in no way negates Jewish ties to the land but rather tells an often-unheard side of the story. Isaac's experiences of dehumanization and wrestling with God's purpose for the Palestinian people is one with which Christians around the world must contend. Not only that, Christians often contribute further to the suffering of the Palestinian people by elevating one people group over another. The Other Side of the Wall is a must-read, that even in the midst of great suffering and loss and decades of ongoing occupation, Isaac continues to hold on to hope in Christ. He reminds us that our faith can move mountains, elevate justice, and prepare a path to a better world for Palestinians and all people in the Middle East and the world."

--Mae Elise Cannon, executive director of Churches for Middle East Peace, author of Social Justice Handbook and Beyond Hashtag Activism

"This is a voice that must be heard. As an evangelical biblical theologian and church leader, Munther Isaac speaks on behalf of sisters and brothers in Christ whose story and very existence is ignored and marginalized in the West. A wealth of historical and personal experience, including his own, authenticates the educative challenge of his biblical and theological perspectives. The Other Side of the Wall helps us appreciate the other side of an argument that is all too often assumed to have only one legitimate side for Bible-believing Christians."

--Christopher J. H. Wright, Langham Partnership, author of Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament

About the Author

Munther Isaac (PhD, Oxford Centre for Mission Studies) is the academic dean of Bethlehem Bible College in Palestine and director of the Christ at the Checkpoint conference. He is also pastor of Christmas Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bethlehem. He is the author of From Land to Lands, from Eden to the Renewed Earth: A Christ-Centered Biblical Theology of the Promised Land.