To restore a light unto the nations: Israel, Palestine, Scotland and the charter of the land

This paper extends but retains its original form as a verbal delivery to a conference, ‘Land, Nature, Justice’, convened by the solidarity group ‘Highland-Palestine’, at which the author shared a platform with the Palestinian natural historian, Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh of Bethlehem University. It compares the historical loss of biodiversity and culture (including linguistic) in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland with biblical prophetic exposition from the Holy Land. It treasures how, ranging from Gaelic bardic laments of the Highland Clearances to modern Scottish land reform, a biblically-inspired indigenous liberation theology has widened the aperture of imagination and strengthened political legitimacy. And it asks whether, in discipleship to the Jewish ethos of tikkun olam, the same theology might minister as ‘a light to the nations’ in such as Gaza too.