• Ghassan Kanafani: Men in the Sun (1962) and Returning to Haifa (1969). Kanafani was an author and activist displaced by Israel from his hometown of Acre in 1948 and assassinated by Israel in Beirut in 1972. Kanafani’s short stories are foundational reading about Palestinian experiences of displacement, identity, and the plight of refugees. 
• Susan Abulhawa: Mornings in Jenin (2010) and/or Against the Loveless World (2021). Susan Abulhawa is a contemporary author whose powerful stories show the multi-generational impact of Israel on Palestinian families in the occupied West Bank and diaspora.  

• Ilan Pappe: A very short history of the Palestine-Israeli conflict (2024). A very good, concise, and unapologetic history of the Palestine-Israel conflict beginning in the early 1900s through 2024. 
• Mohammed El Kurd: Perfect Victims and the Politics of Appeal (2025). These short essays are necessary for recognizing and unlearning the many dangerous assumptions and means of dehumanization perpetuated by the media, news, and society about Palestinians, many of which are rooted in racism and Islamophobia. 

• Edward Said: Out of Place: A Memoir (1999). Said’s personal history illustrates how Zionism and the creation of the state of Israel had devastating impacts on the people living not only on those lands, but in surrounding areas. The memoir speaks to experiences of being forced to live in a way and in a place you were not meant to live.
• Ahed Tamimi and Dena Takruri: They Called Me a Lioness (2023). Ahed Tamimi, a Palestinian girl living in the occupied West Bank, was 16 when she was arrested by Israel. It highlights life under occupation and the widespread use of imprisonment by Israel to control the Palestinian people.

• Father Elias Chacour: Blood Brothers (1984).  In this foundational memoir for Christians who are learning about the history of Palestine-Israel, Archbishop Elias Chacour tells his story of growing up as a Palestinian and Christian citizen of Israel. As a leading Palestinian Christian theologian, Chacour offers his reflections on Biblical teachings about the holy land and the need for peace and justice for all who reside there.
• Mitri Raheb: Decolonizing Palestine: The Land, the People, the Bible (2023). This prominent Palestinian pastor explains the politics of Christian Zionism, offering a broader definition than what is often understood as just being end-times theology. Raheb also shows Western Christians where and how to decolonize the way we read, study, and talk about the Bible and its teachings.
• Rev. Munther Isaac: Christ in the Rubble: Faith the Bible, and the Genocide in Gaza (2025). This book grew out of a sermon Rev. Isaac preached in Bethlehem in Advent of 2023 calling out the complicity of Western Christians and churches in the genocide and oppression of Palestinians through its unquestioning support of the state of Israel.
  Click here to see Rev Munther Isaac explain his Christ in the Rubble display

• Elias Khoury: Gate of the Sun (1998). A devastatingly beautiful story about Palestinians expelled from their homeland in 1948 and trying to return. Exiled to the refugee camps of Lebanon, the story follows the refugee experience and Israeli aggression in the Lebanese civil war, including the massacres of Sabra and Shatila. 
• Isabella Hammad: The Parisian (2019). Historical fiction that follows a Palestinian man from Nablus living in Paris during World War I through his return to Palestine during the British mandate colonial period, and rise of Zionism. Illustrates how Zionism and colonialism carved up the previously fluid borders to make the modern Middle East.
• Susan Muadi Daraj: Behind you is the Sea (2024). A contemporary novel that shows the rich diversity of the Palestinian experience in the diaspora, centered on a Palestinian American community in Baltimore. 

• Rashid Khalidi: The Hundred Years War on Palestine (2020). This history of Palestine-Israel from the early 1900s to today is concise and accessible, albeit longer than Pappe’s A very short history of the Palestine-Israeli conflict. Khalidi weaves in personal accounts from his extended family and own experience living in and being a part of this history. He includes analysis on the efforts and consequences of Arab governments and Palestinian political leaders in their resistance to Zionism. 
• Nada Elia: Greater than the Sum of our Parts: Feminism, Inter/nationalism, and Palestine (2022)
• Jehad Abusalim, Jennifer Bing, and Mike Merryman-Lotze: Light in Gaza: Writings born of fire. (2022)
• Omar El Akkad: One Day, Everyone Will Have Been Against This (2025)
• Sim Kern: Genocide, Bad (2025). Activist and social media influencer Sim Kern lays out the most common Zionist talking points and then debunks them with wit and humility. This is particularly useful for claims that wrongly equate critiques of Israel with antisemitism.
• Ta-Nehisi Coates: The Message (2024). Drawing on his experiences from travel to Senegal, South Carolina, and Palestine, Coates explores how narratives and assumptions about a people and situation become so entrenched they are easily accepted – and often are so obviously wrong. 

• Steven Salaita: An Honest Living: A Memoir of Peculiar Itineraries (2024). After being blacklisted from US academia because of statements about Palestine, researcher and professor Steven Salaita worked as a school bus driver. This memoir accounts his reflections about the ethical compromises we make when pursuing careers and professional credentials.
• Sami Hermez with Sireen Sawalha: My Brother, My Land: A Story from Palestine (2024). This memoir of the Sawalha family tells stories of resistance, from the realities of Palestinian farmers in the occupied West Bank to experiences in armed resistance during the first and second intifadas.  
• Miko Peled: The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine (2022). This memoir is by a former Israeli soldier who transformed into a critic of Zionism and advocate for justice and equality for Palestinians and Israelis.

• Kelley Nikondeha: First Advent in Palestine: Reversals, Resistance, and the Ongoing Complexity of Hope (2022). So often US Christians honor Advent without any acknowledgement of the realities of what is happening in those lands today. Read this book during Advent to connect to the land, people, and spiritual politics of the Holy Land – then and now.
• Naim Stifan Ateek: A Palestinian Cry for Reconciliation (2008). Rev. Ateek is a leading Palestinian theologian and the founder of the Palestinian Christian organization Sabeel. Here, he articulates Palestinian Christian liberation theology and lays out a path toward peace and justice. 
• Mitri Raheb: Faith in the Face of Empire: The Bible through Palestinian Eyes (Read for free here) (2024). According to Raheb, the political context of empire is critical for understanding the Bible – from the Roman Empire under which Jesus lived through the state of Israel and its backing by the US Empire today. 
• Sabeel: This is where we stand: A Sabeel reflection on antisemitism (2022). This manifesto by the Palestinian Christian liberation theology organization Sabeel explains how the fight for Palestinian liberation is grounded in the same values as the fight against antisemitism. Read this book to understand a Palestinian Christian response to antisemitism.
• Erin Grimm: Christians for a Free Palestine (2024). Using the lens of progressive Christian ethics, teacher and activist Erin Grimm introduces the concept of justicia-responsibility and a pathway for Christians to affirm both Jewish and Palestinian liberation – as well as the liberation of all peoples.

• Noura Erakat: Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine (2019). This book by legal scholar and activist Noura Erakat is for readers interested in international law. It shows how the state of Israel – with backing of the US – has managed to redefine international law to make exceptions for itself and its colonization, occupation, and ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
• Walaa Alqaisiya: Decolonial Queering in Palestine (2022). Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with queer Palestinian communities, this book combines a decolonial and queer analysis to critique Zionism and shed light on the often ignored experiences of queer Palestinians. 
• Angela Davis: Freedom is a Constant Struggle (2016). Black power icon Angela Davis shows the interconnectedness of struggles around the world, from Palestinian struggle against the Zionist state of Israel to the struggle of Black people in the United States against white supremacy and state violence. 
• Ilan Pappe: The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (2006). Israeli historian Ilan Pappe documents how Zionist militias and founders of the state of Israel systematically planned and executed an ethnic cleansing of the native peoples – Palestinians – to establish a Jewish majority state in 1948.
• Leila Farsakh: Rethinking Statehood in Palestine (2021). Palestinian statehood dominates Western policy discussions about how to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian “conflict.” This book offers a decolonial analysis to rethink these dominant paradigms and realize true self-determination.
• Bernard Regan: The Balfour Declaration: Empire, the Mandate and Resistance in Palestine (2017). For readers who want to dig deep into history, read this book to understand the depths of the colonial links to the current realities in Palestine. 

• Decolonize Palestine reading list. This comprehensive list includes books and articles on a range of categories: history, LGBTQ+ and gender; activism; autobiographies, media; myth busting; zionism; novels and fiction; culture; political economy; one state; and more. It does not include many hyperlinks.
• Palestinian Youth Movement Reading List: Our history of popular resistance. This list has links to essays, journal articles, books, films, and other websites in both English and Arabic. It is focused on Palestinian resistance, including histories of resistance, Palestinian political parties, and labor and feminist movements. 
• Teaching for Change’s booklist about Palestine. This list is unique in how it is organized by age, providing recommendations for children (elementary, middle, high school) and adults. It includes fiction, non fiction, and poetry.
• Palestinian Feminist Reading List. This is a list of books focused on both Palestine and feminism. This list includes biography/memoir, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Most resources were published between 2018-2024. It also links to other organizations and Palestine reading lists, including some of the below.
• A Radical Black Feminist Mandate: Solidarity with Palestine – A Reading List. This site has links and summaries of speeches, solidarity statements, poetry, podcasts, articles, images, and videos about Palestine by Black feminist activists, artists, and scholars. It also includes some digital archive resources like images of event posters and articles printed in newsletters by civil rights and Black feminist groups. 

• Haymarket Books Free Palestine! Reading List. In addition to political analysis, memoirs, and reflections on activism, this collection includes some poetry collections. 
• Pluto Press Free Palestine! Reading list. In addition to political analysis, memoirs, and reflections on activism, this list also includes a notable collection of books about Israel and Zionist ideology, 
• Free Palestine: A Verso Reading list. This list is organized by topics: pamphlets about the 2023-ongoing genocide in Gaza, violence of the Israeli occupation, Palestinian voices, Zionist ideology and Israeli myths, international solidarity and activism, historical analysis, reflections on anti-semitism, reflections on imperialism and settler colonialism beyond Palestine (e.g., in North Dakota), and reflections on Middle East and south Asia.  

Zinn Education Project: Teaching About Palestine-Israel and the Unfolding Genocide in Gaza. Although this is designed for educators of pre-K-12 youth, this collection of resources is also relevant to adults who are educating themselves or others in their community. It includes teaching materials, fact sheets and infographics, links to news sources, articles, films, and podcasts. It also links to Teaching for Change’s booklist about Palestine.

• Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) Movie and Reading List. The list includes 15 books, 9 of which are Christian-themed in that they are either about experiences of Palestinian Christians or Christian theology vis a vis Palestine. Most books (12 of 15) were published more than 10 years ago, i.e., before 2015.. The list also includes a few books that represent liberal Zionist and normalization views, such as a 2001 history book by Israeli Benny Morris. 
• Reading materials on Jerusalem: Friends of Sabeel (FOSNA). This reading list is provided by FOSNA to delegations that travel to Palestine. It includes links to online materials, websites, films, academic articles, books, instagram accounts, maps, and reports in the following categories: general education; Judaization of Jerusalem; settler expansion; settler and police violence; home demolitions; religious freedom; municipal discrimination.