Blood Brothers

Recently, I have been reading Blood Brothers, a non-fiction novel that gives the personal account of the author's life story growing up in the midst of the war in Palestine beginning in the 1940's. The story is beyond amazing but also is quite heartbreaking. It tells the history of the Zionist movement into Palestine and the underhanded theft of the Palestinian land in which they had lived for hundreds of years.

Elias Chacour, the author, has spent his life working for peace in his homeland. His father had ingrained Christian ideals of inner peace and forgiveness into his children and called their Jewish neighbors their "blood brothers" since they were both descendants of Abraham. Chacour based his life off of these beliefs and is now an Archbishop and has been nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize.

I had the honor of hearing him speak last week and meeting him after the presentation where he signed my copy of his book and took a photograph with me. I was so nervous! The meeting was very fleeting since there was a line nearly to the other end of the building but it had such a profound affect on me. He is such an inspiration and I can only wonder what he saw in me when our eyes met.

The most important lesson I have learned from this book is the misrepresentation of Palestinians and the power media holds over us. As a teacher, I vow to teach honestly and without biases as best to my ability and can only hope to also ingrain the drive for peace within my future students. I wish everyone could read this book. It seriously has changed my life.

Archbishop Elias Chacour and myself. Ahh, such an honor!
Read the book, seriously.