From Fair Witness: Review of Naim Ateek’s “A Palestinian Christian Cry for Reconciliation”

Justice, Peace and Education in Rev. Naim Ateek's "A Palestinian Christian Cry for Reconciliation"

In his most recent book, "A Palestinian Christian Cry for Reconciliation,"  Rev. Naim Ateek  claims to be about the "struggle for justice and peace" between Israelis and Palestinians and that he merely seeks to "educate."  But almost every sentence in his book indicates otherwise.

Justice is not served by hurling false accusations at Jews and Israelis

•           "even before the establishment of the state of Israel, Zionists were using violence and terrorism unashamedly to achieve their goals."  (p. 41)

•           "This belief that Palestinians are worth less than Jews, hidden in the hearts of some Zionists, began to be put into practice over time.  It has been a slow and creeping genocide."  (p. 47)

Justice is not served by accusing a people of being immoral because of their desire for nationhood and threatening that Jewish statehood will lead to world-wide disaster

•            "Silence about the immoral core of Israeli statehood makes us all complicit in breeding the terrorism that threatens a catastrophe which would tear the world apart."  (p. 45)

Peace is not achieved by likening suicide bombers to biblical heroes

•           "Read in the light of the suicide bombers of this century, the story [of Samson in the Bible] poses a  barrage of question. Was Samson a suicide bomber? Was he acting on behalf of the God of justice who wills the liberation of the oppressed?  Was God pleased with the deaths of thousands of men and women of the Philistines? Are we confronted with similar stories today in the experience of suicide bombers? Is it legitimate to tell the story of Samson by substituting Ahmad for his name? Can it be said that the God of justice is active in working out the liberation of the oppressed Palestinians through the likes of Ahmad?" (p. 123)

Justice is not achieved by being blatantly dishonest about the peace process

 

•           Rev. Ateek claims that since 1988 the Palestinians "have officially extended their hands, expressing their eagerness to make peace with Israel, yet Israel has spurned these offers." (p. 153).   Yet, he must know that the peace process ultimately failed in 2000  after Israel accepted the offer of a two-state solution under the Clinton Parameters while Chairman Yasser Arafat refused the offer, choosing instead to pursue a bloody course of suicide bombing against Israel.

Peace is not achieved by insulting another religious tradition

•           Rev. Ateek wonders if "Jews today understand the  . . . [Book of Jonah]. . ." (p. 75)

•           And he implies that Judaism is nothing more than "an antiquated tribal theology that still insists on a special Jewish god, on the privileges of a special people of God . . ." (p. 76)

Rev. Ateek is not educating when he grossly distorts biblical and modern history and misrepresents facts

•           Rev. Ateek must know that Jesus Christ was Jewish, not Palestinian, and lived in Israel years before the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and renamed the area "Palastina" and probably a few centuries before any Arabs arrived in the region.  Yet in an apparent attempt to wipe out the Jewish connection to Israel and deny the Jewish roots of Christianity, Rev. Ateek brazenly distorts biblical history by writing "Palestinian liberation theology focuses on the humanity of Jesus of Nazareth, who was also a Palestinian living under an occupation."  (p. 11)

More here: Justice, Peace and Education in Rev. Naim Ateek's "A Palestinian Christian Cry for Reconciliation"