Sabeel: the Way of Justice and Compassion

Naim Ateek and the birth of Palestinian Christian Liberation Theology

As a young boy of eleven, in 1948, Naim Ateek experienced Zionist soldiers taking over his Palestinian village of Beisan at gunpoint. One minute, he played outside his home. In the next moment, he witnessed the Zionists occupy his village, steal his house, end his father’s goldsmith business and family livelihood, and scatter his community. Looting residences, the soldiers forced the entire village onto busses, directing traffic one way for Muslims, toward Jordan, and one way for Christians, toward Nazareth. The boy did not know about the British’s Balfour Declaration, the 1917 edict stating that Palestine should be the home of the Jewish people. He did not know about the UN partition plan dividing up the already-populated land—but he experienced what it was like to become stripped of rights. The Zionists said the expulsion would be temporary and that the village inhabitants could return in a couple of weeks. Of course, that never happened. During the Palestinian “Nakba” or “catastrophe,” the Zionists ethnically cleansed 750,000 Palestinians from their homes, driving them out from over 500 towns or villages (Ateek 5, also Ilan Pappe). The “promised land” already had people living in it.

This week, I read Naim Ateek’s memoir Call and Commitment: A Journey of Faith from Nakba to Palestinian Liberation Theology. The title captures the arc. Ateek is a Palestinian Christian priest, theologian, and peacemaker. He’s now in his mid-eighties, retired, and living with family in Texas. He spent his entire career in Palestine, inspiring a sturdy and significant movement of Palestinian Christians and friends called Sabeel who seek peace and justice in the Holy Land. I’ve been reading theology for twenty-five years, and only this year, in the context of the Oct. 7 attack and the war in Gaza, have I discovered his longtime, courageous work.

Ateek starts the book with his harrowing account of the Zionist takeover of his village, and the rest of Call and Commitment comprises his search for a faith and vocation that takes account of the injustice his people have suffered. Ateek grew up in an Anglican Palestinian Christian church, finished high school at a Baptist school in Nazareth, received a scholarship to attend college in Texas, completed graduate study in theology in California—and returned to Palestine-Israel to lead Anglican congregations. While he studied theology in California, he began to articulate a historically informed, theological response to Palestinian suffering and injustice, which eventually became a classic work (Justice and Only Justice), launching what is known as Palestinian Liberation Theology.

Photo of an almond tree in Nablus, Palestine by nour tayeh on Unsplash

The book, published by the Maryknoll order through Orbis Books, informs a movement and organization called “Sabeel.” Sabeel, Ateek explains, is “Arabic for ‘the way,’ and it also means a spring of fresh and life-giving water (125).” Founding the organization in Tiberias in 1993 near the Sea of Galilee—where Peter and disciples encounter the Risen Christ (John 20:1-20)—Ateek and colleagues chose “the name Sabeel to walk in the way of the footsteps of Jesus Christ who said, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6),’ the way of love and compassion, justice and truth, peace and reconciliation” (Ateek, 125).

Sabeel began to hold important theological conferences taking on such topics as “Faith and the Intifada,” “Jerusalem: What Makes for Peace,” “Challenging Christian Zionism,” and more. They began facilitating a “Speaker’s Bureau” of people equipped to share the story of Palestinian Christians with Holy Land visitors. Sabeel launched a publication called Cornerstone that continues to this day. Different branches of Sabeel formed, in Nazareth and Jerusalem, along with “Friends of Sabeel” organizations in the U.S. and worldwide. Friends of Sabeel once hosted a conference in Boston, at which Desmond Tutu spoke resoundingly about the similarities of apartheid in South Africa and Israel. It’s illuminating to read of the many noted Western theological voices Ateek has encountered through his years—and to consider the very small minority who had the fortitude even to take Ateek’s perspective and experience seriously and stand with the Palestinian people. The feminist theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether is one who did so early on, writing the forward to Justice and Only Justice. (By the way, Friends of Sabeel North America is hosting Palestinian Christian pastor Munther Isaac at the Riverside Church this Wednesday, August 14^th, in what will surely be a memorable address.)

I’m sure as I continue to learn, this newsletter will occasionally delve into some of the key theological aspects that Palestinian liberation theology focuses on (land theology, Zionism and the founding of the state of Israel, Christian Zionism, the necessity of a nonviolent Christian witness, interfaith relations, and more). For now, I simply wanted to introduce readers to Naim Ateek and Sabeel.

It has taken me a long time to begin detangling myself from a culturally and religiously inherited Zionist bias and to become aware of the suffering of the Palestinians under decades of Israeli occupation. It has helped my heart to open and grieve by reading personal Palestinian Christian stories alongside theology and political history. It is hard to know what is mine to do from my simple, family-focused country life while a US-complicit genocide unfolds in real time. It is hard to know what to say since even speaking of Palestinian suffering today still stirs charges of antisemitism, not taking the Holocaust seriously, or somehow justifying terrorism. Zionism has controlled the narrative for most religious people and still does. Naim Ateek’s life work and his witness of faith have helped me encounter the headlines with prayers for peace and the desire for solidarity. Sabeel posts weekly “Waves of Prayer” on Instagram, which I have found moving and informative and have incorporated into my daily prayer. I quote from the latest:

August 5 – August 9, 2024

Last week, the head of the World Health Organization stated that the spread of polio infections amongst children in Gaza is only a matter of time if preventative measures are not quickly taken. Furthermore, there are over 100,000 cases of Hepatitis B recorded in Gaza. The detection of polio and the spread of Hepatitis B in Gaza is another reminder of the dire conditions Palestinians in Gaza are facing.

“God of hope, we come to you tired, broken, and afraid, crying out “How long, O Lord?” We are losing faith and falling into despair. Save the people of Gaza from their suffering, save us from our lack of faith, and have mercy on the wicked. Let us remember the words of the Psalmist; “But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those who hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine” (Psalm 33:18-19).