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Book Review
Blood Brothers
Elias Chacour
(2003) Second edition, Chosen Books, 2003. 240p
Review by Jo van Leerdam
This is the intensely personal and engaging account of the life of Elias Chacour. His warm and loving family are Melkite Christians, and he spends his early years in a small village in upper Galilee in Palestine. Memories of a happy and carefree childhood in a land dotted with fig and olive orchards are in stark contrast to the terror and the struggles which follow. For the peaceful co-existence of Jews and Palestinians in the same land comes to a violent end during 1948 and 1949 when thousands of people are driven from their villages to make way for the founding of modern Israel. More than one million Palestinians find themselves refugees. Following so closely after the horrors of the Holocaust, it is ironic that the Zionists engage in the mass slaughter of whole villages.
It is a bewildering time for the young Elias as he witnesses unprovoked brutality and the suffering of his parents and relatives. As they are robbed of their homes, their land and livelihoods, he asks himself questions which are to become the focus of his life’s work: ‘How can we ever find again the peace we used to share with our Jewish neighbours? How can I help my Palestinian people?’
When he is fifteen he is sent away to school and then to a seminary in Paris. It is clear that his calling is to be a priest as well as a messenger to his people. Once in Europe, Elias becomes painfully aware of a widespread prejudice against Palestinians; his people are seen as terrorists, as ‘idle and worthless,….capable of nothing but violence.’
He explores the history and growth of Zionism, and concludes that its supporters are themselves victims of believing that might is right and that militarism can achieve justice and peace. His vocation as a priest and peacemaker is put to the test when the bishop sends him to the village of Ibullin in Galilee. He finds the people bitter and divided against each other as well as hostile towards him as their priest. For many difficult months he makes little progress. Everything then reaches a dramatic climax when he locks everyone in the church and urges them to forgive and put aside all their hatred and resentment. This becomes his first real breakthrough in reconciling people in a divided land.
Elias Chacour has been nominated four times for the Nobel peace prize. His life story not only shows that one individual can make a difference in standing up for what he believes in, but also that the Christian message of peace and love can be lived out and have a real influence in seemingly impossible circumstances.
‘Blood Brothers’ was first published in 1984 in the USA. At the time it was met with some suspicion and the truthfulness of Chacour's account of his childhood years was questioned. This expanded edition, reprinted in 2003 and now something of a best-seller, does not support the party line. Generally speaking, the USA prefers to turn a blind eye to the very real plight of the Palestinians and their right to return to their lands.
Another by-product of the support for the Israelis and the Zionists is the belief among many American Christians that the return of the Jews to Jerusalem heralds the coming of Christ’s kingdom. However, an examination of Biblical evidence for this view reveals a very weak case indeed.
The backdrop of this autobiography is teeming
with political, social and religious complexities, and Chacour provides
us with just enough outlines and facts to grasp the situation. For a
very readable, carefully researched and closely argued book which
explains the issues in more detail, I recommend J.W Deenick's ‘Not on
this Mountain: An Alternative Christian Perspective on Zionism’.
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