“The Other Side of the Wall” a New Book by Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac

Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac, our Academic dean released his new book “The Other Side of the Wall”, last week, and it is available now at Amazon and other online bookshops.

This book provides an opportunity to hear the realities of life on the ground from a leading Palestinian pastor and theologian. Munther Isaac gives the perspective of Palestinian Christians on the other side of the separation wall surrounding most Palestinian West Bank cities today. Isaac laments the injustices suffered by the Palestinian people but holds out hope for a just peace and ways to befriend and love his Jewish and Muslim neighbors.

About his book, Rev. Isaac said:

“The Other Side of the Wall will show that walls are more than just the physical ones. Walls have long existed among communities for the purpose of dividing people into “us” versus “them” and then exploiting them.

There was no physical, concrete wall in apartheid South Africa, but there was separation and division; people were not treated as equals.

Similarly, Palestinian citizens of Israel are treated as second-class citizens in their own homeland; they, too, are on the “other side of the wall.” We, the Palestinians, including Palestinian Christians, have always been on the “other side of the wall,” in both the perspectives of the occupying powers and the theology of the West—long before the physical wall that exists today was built. And in the same way in which we are almost invisible on the other side of the wall for the millions of pilgrims who visit the Holy Land every year, we have been invisible when it comes to Western Christian attitudes toward our land. This book gives voice to the Palestinian community through my own personal journey in the shadow of the wall.”

About the book, Colin Chapman, author of Whose Promised Land and Cross and Crescent said:

“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.”