The Other Side of the Wall

I recently read Munther Isaac’s “The Other Side of the Wall”, sub-titled “A Palestinian Christian narrative of lament and hope.” It’s a fascinating and challenging read, starting from the basic presence of the Christian Palestinian presence. As Isaac points out: “Christianity in this land is as old as the Jesus movement. The first church was in Jerusalem and composed mainly of first-century Jews who believed in Jesus as the Messiah. Since then, there has always been a Christian presence in this land. Yet so often, as I already mentioned, people are surprised to know that there are Christians in Palestine. Rather, the surprise should come if we did not exist in Palestine! This is the place where it all started, after all.” He offers an entirely reasonable lament of the lack of recognition for those in his position. “Most pilgrims come to this land having only learned one narrative about this land—they see only Israel. In this version of the story, we do not exist, or maybe we do not matter. This is how the wall works; it diminishes both our history and our present.” Isaac explores the challenges facing Palestinian Christians. “We do not write theology in libraries; we write it at the checkpoint. We bring Christ in dialogue with the checkpoint. We simply ask, What would Jesus say or do if he were to stand in front of the wall today? What would he say or do if he were to stand at a checkpoint today for five or six meaningless hours? What would his message be to the Palestinian trying to cross it and to the Israeli soldiers stopping them? Answering these questions is one reason for writing this book.” He makes a fundamental point when he says: “In response to the contemporary question of whose land it is, we can say with confidence that the land does not belong to any people, nation, ethnicity, or religion. It belongs to God.” But he also says: “Remember the question, Where do I draw the lines? Jesus comes and removes the lines. There is no circle—there is no “us” and “them” when defining the neighbour! Everyone is a neighbour—and we are called by God to love them as ourselves. It is not a matter of choice. We cannot pick and choose our neighbours!” “Sharing the land is the biblical vision we see in the Hebrew Scriptures and thus must be the prophetic vision of the church in this land and all around the world. The reality on the ground is that of “walls,” yet what is needed is a vision of “bridges.” Palestinians and Israelis must think collectively in terms of a common future in which they cooperate with one another, not a divided future in which they are separate.” Of course, the book says a great deal more – and leaves one with, yes, a sense of both lament and hope. Surely there is a way to be found in which different groups can rightly be in such a special place.