Despite what appears to be a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the Middle East continues to reel from the IDF's brutal war on Gaza which followed the attack by Hamas militants into southern Israel on October 7th, 2023. In recent months, the focus of the conflict seems to have transitioned in some respects from Gaza to the West Bank where Israeli settler expansion and violence against Palestinians has surged. The United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the European Union have recently issued a joint statement condemning Israel’s policies and practices in the West Bank.

It is difficult not to despair over the future of the Holy Land. Despite this, I am very grateful to Rev. Dr. Yazīd Saʿīd for agreeing to publish an interview with Dialogue Across Borders. Born into a Palestinian family in Galilee, he studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (BA) and Cambridge University (BA, MPhil, PhD). An Anglican priest, he is the author of Ghazālī’s Politics in Context (London: Routledge, 2013), co-editor of The Future of Interfaith Dialogue: Muslim-Christian Encounters through a Common Word (Cambridge: CUP, 2018), and numerous articles in Islamic studies, interfaith relations, political theology, and Christianity in the Middle East. Rev. Dr. Saʿīd is a senior lecturer at Liverpool Hope University in the United Kingdom. 

Our interview touches on his upbringing in Galilee, his experiences as a Palestinian citizen of Israel and a student at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, perspectives on October 7th and the Israeli response, and the complexities of Palestinian Christianity, among other topics. Several extended excerpts from our interview can be found here.

Matthew Anderson

Director - Center for Arab-West Understanding

Executive Editor - Dialogue Across Borders (De Gruyter Brill)

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