IPMN releases book: ‘Why Palestine Matters, The Struggle To End Colonialism’

Group calls readers to see Palestinians ‘in the global context of other justice struggles’

IPMN Press Release

LOUISVILLE — The Israel Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) [IPMN] is pleased to announce the publication of Why Palestine Matters, The Struggle To End Colonialism, a new book contextualizing the liberation struggle of the Palestinian people within other global justice struggles, available from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) bookstore.

With a foreword by Richard Falk, former UN Special Rapporteur of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories, the book is grounded in international law and brings Palestine into focus through a lens of intersectionality.

Walter Brueggemann of Columbia Theological Seminary has praised the book, saying, “[this] wake-up call alerts us to the reality that Palestinians are real people who have real human needs and real political legitimacy, who live under an oppressive system of colonial occupying exploitation. This important book summons us to a new awareness that carries with it a mandate to policies and actions that bespeak compassion and embody restorative justice.”

In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” Why Palestine Matters approaches Palestine through this lens, calling all those who struggle for justice against oppression to consider the challenge of seeing Palestinians in the global context of other justice struggles.

“As people of good will confront rising tides of oppression ranging from fascism, racism and misogyny to homophobia and xenophobia, Why Palestine Matters helps us to build our capacity for co-resistance,” said Wendy Gichuru, program coordinator of Africa and the Middle East at the United Church of Canada. “As a study guide for individuals or groups, it is accessible, challenging and mobilizing … a must-have.”

Omar Barghouti, Palestinian human rights defender, co-founder of the BDS [boycott, sanction and divestment] movement and co-recipient of the 2017 Gandhi Peace Award, praised the book, saying, “This precious collection transcends description to offer a prescription. It offers piercing, factual analyses not just to educate but, crucially, to empower and mobilize people of conscience into morally-consistent action to stand with the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice and equality.”

The full-color 108-page publication demonstrates that the project of human emancipation is not limited to Palestine, but it also cannot proceed without Palestine.

See the website for a discussion guide, endorsements, videos and more: WhyPalestineMatters.org.

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The IPMN is a mission network of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) with a mandate from the denomination’s General Assembly (2004) to work “toward specific mission goals that will create currents of wider and deeper involvement with Israel/Palestine.” TheIPMN.org speaks TO the Church, not FOR the Church.