Anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism in Palestinian Liberation Theology

Palestinian Liberation Theology (PLT) investigates the Arab-Israeli conflict from both political

and theological perspectives. PLT borrows concepts of liberation theologies, evolved since

the late 1960s to foster a Christian response to poverty and oppression, and develops a

contextualized political theology that explores Palestinian identity, Zionism, and the

existence of the State of Israel. Political analyses of the conflict endorse the Palestinian

narrative of the Nakba, injustice, and dispossession, which are combined with theological

reflections on ideas such as the Jewish State, the Land of Israel, and liberation. By using the

Scriptures and Christian political thought, PLT endeavors to develop a narrative that

counters Zionist claims. This political-theological enterprise inevitably touches upon Israel’s

legitimacy as a Jewish State, Jewish political aspirations, and the memory of the Holocaust.

This paper investigates PLT literature produced by both Palestinian and international

activists on Zionism and Judaism and analyzes the use of theological concepts such as

justice, woe, and peace in relation to the conflict with Israel. Particularly, this paper exposes

two problematic processes: the delegitimization of Zionism and the replacement of the

biblical narrative with the Palestinian national narrative. Results of these processes include

the exaltation of the Diaspora as the truly Jewish ethical existence, the accusation of Jewish

particularism and obsoleteness, as well as the appropriation of the Holocaust narrative. This

contribution seeks to answer the question to what extent the theological endorsement of

the Palestinian narrative resonates traditional anti-Jewish and contemporary antisemitic

visions.