Whose side does Jesus take?

On Israel-Palestine

Abstract

After October 7, 2023, I wrote a column about offering empathy to both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Some who likely had not read my book beyond the title Jesus Takes a Side asked me why I wasn’t taking a side in this conflict. Instinctually, and as a matter of my heritage, my heart is with the Arabs and with Palestinians. And by many measures, it is true that the Palestinians are oppressed by Israeli occupation and Western backing. My natural allegiance toward this particular group is based on their material reality as well as my own heritage. But as I will outline in this article, both groups are categorically oppressed, challenging the thesis of my own book, at least applied simplistically.