Narrow Gate Churches: The Christian Presence in the Holy Land Under Muslim and Jewish Rule

by Atallah Mansour

To protect their ancient churches from desecrating marauders on horseback, worshipers in the Holy Lands centuries ago sealed off most of their doors to keep the invaders outside their sacred halls, so the term, "narrow gate churches" began to be used to describe Christian churches in the land of our savior’s birth. This history of how Christians have survived for two millennia under stressful conditions is a tribute to the faith of the remnant community which has rather miraculously survived under hostile regimes and straitened conditions. Noam Chomsky has noted "the unusual, perhaps unique credibility" of Oxford-educated Atallah Mansour’s account, "given his reputation, background and access to sources." Filled with fascinating anecdotes and informed analysis, this timely history is an important contribution to the discussion of how Christians and Arabs should be treated in the land of their birth.

327 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2004

About the author

Atallah Mansour is a veteran Israeli author who is a Palestinian Christian. He was 14 years old when his country changed its name from Palestine to Israel. His family was lucky not to turn refugees like most of the Palestinians, but had to suffer a bitter treatment ; a mixture of revenge and suspicion at the hands of Jewish survivors from brutal German Nazi criminals.

Mansour was one of the first Palestinian Arabs to live on a Jewish Kibbutz (Israeli collective village), and the first one to become an Israeli journalist and staff member for Haaretz, Israel's elite newspaper. During his career , he covered all major events in Israel, from his special point of view, as an Israeli Arab living in Nazareth. He covered Israel's occupation of the West Bank (1967), Yum Kippur war (1973) and Lebanon (1982) and also covered Israel's peace with Egypt (1977) and Jordan (1994).

In 1962, Mansour was the first known non-Jew to write a novel in Hebrew. He is graduate of Ruskin College, Oxford (1973).

While writing in the media, locally and also Internationally, Mansour managed to keep involved with his own people, the Palestinian Arabs in Israel, and contributed in literature and public life. He published novels and political and non-fiction books in Arabic, Hebrew and English. He writes a weekly column for Al-Quds, in Jerusalem.

His autobiography "Still Waiting For the Dawn" published 2013, is an attempt to share with the universal readers his personal experience and observations of the human suffering and politics of the Israel-Arab conflict.