Naim Stifan Ateek is a Palestinian priest and active leader in the Christian community advocating for justice in Palestine. He is a prominent figure in the religious community and is the first to articulate a Palestinian theology of liberation in his book Justice, and only justice: A Palestinian theology of liberation (1989).
Ateek was born in the Palestinian district of Beisan in 1937, prior to the end of the British mandate and the start of the U.N. partition in 1948. After his village was destroyed by Israeli forces, Ateek and his family became refugees. Ateek studied in Texas and California, eventually earning a Doctor of Divinity degree from the San Francisco Theological Seminary in California in 1985. He is ordained by the Anglican Church and founded the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem in 1991. Ateek has published several books, including Call and Commitment: A Journey of Faith from Nakba to Palestinian Liberation Theology (2023), among others. Much of his work focuses on a theological framework for addressing the Palestine conflict, encompassing political, religious, and biblical dimensions.
