What is striking about a visit to the Holy Land at present is the double layer of meaning you sense everywhere - one from Biblical times and the other from current events.

You can sit at the spot where Jesus wept over Jerusalem and then look over at the modern city, still tense and contested, still inducing tears. Stand on the Mount of Beatitudes where the world first heard "Blessed are the peacemakers", then gaze across the waters of Galilee to the Golan Heights, the volatile region disputed by Israel and Syria.

But perhaps most poignant is Bethlehem. The fields where the angels once sang of the birth of the Prince of Peace are now scarred and cut in two by the grotesque concrete "security" wall. Tragic ironies like these are found everywhere you go.

Living in the midst of this troubled situation are many thousands of Palestinian Christians. Few in the West are aware of this community, the Palestinians seen as a Muslim (and perhaps fanatical) monolith.

Palestinian believers continue their faith and witness knowing that it is this very faith that is partly to blame for their oppression. Israel's occupation is substantially paid for by America whose support is maintained partly by the Christian Zionist lobby - mostly evangelical Christians who see Israel as theologically significant. Christian Zionism believes that the promise of the Land of Israel made to Abraham gives Jews the right to the land today. Jews' role in Christian Zionist eschatology means that their state must be supported to speed the return of Christ.

One of the results of this controversial theology - popular in Northern Ireland - is the subjugation of Palestinians, the losers in the Christian Zionist prophetic vision. The clear teachings of the Old and New Testaments regarding peace, justice and the value of every human life are bypassed as the Christian faith is used to underpin a partisan political objective. This is also something Northern Ireland knows lots about.

Despite the withdrawal of troops and settlers from Gaza, there is little hope that the two sides are moving any closer to an agreed peace. The political optimism since Arafat's death does not square with the realities on the ground. The wall snakes ever onward, separating families and destroying farmland; settlements continue to be built on Palestinian land in the West Bank; Palestinians are impoverished and their rights denied. Israel's right hand appears to search for peace while its left strives to prevent it.

Palestinian Christians do not have the power to see the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth brought to bear on the politics of the land he once walked. They do their part, witnessing and serving in the harshest of situations. But their cry to us in the West is to tell their story and to strive for a just peace; not to become political in the sense of taking sides, but to seek a win-win outcome, pursuing the politics of justice, the politics of love.

David Mitchell

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The Centre for Contemporary Christianity presents: The Road to Bethlehem, A Candlelit Celebration of Christmas in St. Thomas' Parish Church, Belfast on Friday 2nd December at 7.45pm. Contact the Centre (events@contemporarychristianity.org, 028 90325258) to obtain tickets £10 (£5 students, seniors, unwaged; under 16s free).

Zero28 invites you to a very special event with John O’Donohue. The acclaimed thinker and international bestselling author of ‘Anam Cara: Spiritual Wisdom from the Celtic World’ and ‘Divine Beauty’, is coming to spend time with us in Belfast at the end of November. Zero28 are hosting three separate events on the weekend of 25th-27th November. For further details please visit the Zero28 website.

The Centre's latest resource, Power and Providence: Studies on the Book of Esther is now available online (click here) or by contacting Anna Rankin.