He has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three times already. Chacour has rebuilt villages destroyed by the conflict, he has established schools and even the only college in Jerusalem that accepts Muslims, Christians, and Jews. ![]() But his stand for a peaceful reconciliation trumps all anger. He is angry at the world’s indifference to the Palestinian situation to be sure. Machiavelli made a pretty compelling case for this option in The Prince.Ĭhacour however argues for a different approach, one based on forgiveness, compassion, and cooperation. Might equals right is always available to us as an option it has certainly proven its effectiveness throughout history. One friend even angrily exclaimed to me one day that the Israelis should simply kill every Palestinian. Everything we read and hear has to to with framing them all as terrorists. I myself am disgusted and feel betrayed by my own culture that has left the Palestinian story so untold. It is hard to write about this subject without being drawn to take a angry stand on one side or the other. ![]() No wonder Palestinian militants are blowing themselves up. What most Americans do not know is that in the late 40s the Israeli zionists forced the Palestinians off of the land on which they and their ancestors had lived for hundreds of years, thus setting off the division and conflict that we live with today. What is so striking to me is the absence of a balanced view of the Israeli Palestinian conflict in what we Americans have been told over the last several decades by our government and the press. The title comes from Elias recalling his father inviting Jewish neighbors in for tea when Elias was a young boy, explaining to the children that the Jews and the Palestinians were “Blood Brothers” as they shared the same father Abraham. ![]() It is a simple, beautiful, and deeply moving story of one man’s work to heal the conflict in his homeland. Blood Brothers is at once the story of Elias’ life growing up by the Sea of Galilee and an impassioned plea for reconciliation between the forces that have torn that area apart during this last century. Elias Chacourt is a Melkite Catholic priest and a Palestinian.
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