We Belong to the Land: The Story of a Palestinian Israeli Who Lives for Peace and Reconciliation

by Mary E. Jensen and Elias Chacour

Book Overview

Nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize, world-renowned Palestinian priest Elias Chacour narrates the gripping story of his life spent working to achieve peace and reconciliation among Israeli Jews, Christians, and Muslims. This peacemaker's moving story brings hope to one of the most complex struggles of our time. 8-page photo insert.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060614153
• ISBN13: 9780060614157
• Release Date: January 1992
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 0.52 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.4" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

An excellent book by a man of peace

Elias Chacour is a man of peace and a man of God. He has been awarded the World Methodist Peace Prize for his efforts, as well as many other accolades. He has brought together people of many faiths and races and broken down barriers of hate and discrimination without himself succumbing to these forces. At the same time, he has told the story of Palestine's tragedy just as it is. I am a Palestinian Christian and I can attest to the accuracy of his facts. His Web site (look under Mar Elias College) tells of the great things he and his supporters around the world have done to educate Palestinian youth who were denied the opportunity to learn by the Israeli school system. The review by Lars399 is stilted, particularly as it is influenced by Maronite Christians whose allegiance to Israel and hatred for Palestinians is a well known fact. Lars was duped. This book is a great eye-opener and a useful starting point for understanding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, especially for American Christians who are so influenced by the one-sided media blitz after 9/11 and the Iraq war.

If you want to see the Truth for what it really is.

If all people thought and lived like Abuna Chacour war would not exsist. A true follower of Jesus Christ, Abuna truly walks the walk and talks the talk. How can anyone Not read these books and how can anyone having read them not believed every word as gospel? American Christians especially supporters of Zionism need to wake up and realize what they are really supporting. How silly to think that we can hurry the return of Christ by blindly supporting Isreal (the Zionist and their supporters) and their ungodly actions. REALLY humans hurrying the RETURN of Christ? How silly. One must also know that not all Jews in the Middle East support Zionism. One question that needs to be asked is where have all the Christians gone that once lived in the land where Christ walked? People do your research. Are we not told to question/test all things?

peace

Love. If anyone can express the idea, emotion and action of the word it is Elias Chacour. I too, have had the honor of meeting this man, who is truly the most normal of peole who has mad ehis life into one giving peace and love to people through hard work. This book expresses the little hope I have to the Palestinian Israeli (pardon my spelling) conflict, and really or the people all over the worl who cannot live together in peace. Hearbreaking and vivid, meaningful more than just literature.

He Belongs to the Land

I have had the privilege of spending 10 days with Abuna Elias Chacour in Ibillin. This book tells of not only the struggle of the Palestinian people who have been robbed of their land and heritage, but also about the enduring faith and selflessness of Abuna Chacour. He has devoted his life to making a better life for Palestinians so that one day they may live side by side with the Jews. He does not preach a message of hate, but rather one of love. We are all God's children and should act like it. If one responds to violence with more violence then the ugly cycle will never end.... but, enough from me, Abuna is able to tell these messages so much better...

Gives an entirely new view of the problem in Palestine.

We Belong to the Land offers a perspective to the Palestinian situation that rarely is seen. Abuna Elias Chacour gives a first hand account of the occupation of Palestine by the Zionists from the Palestinian point of view. It was amazing to learn that the Jews were initially welcomed to Palestine by most Palestinians and were not rejected until Palestinian cities were distroyed and Palestinian communities eradicated. Chacour's personal story is the story of Biram, a small Palestinian village that was leveled by the Israeli Army. To this day (or atleast to the time of publication)the people of Biram are forced to live in exile, unable to return to there ancient home. The truely amaxing thing about this story, however, is not the way the Zionists treated the native people like Abuna Chacour, but the great work that he has done to reconcile the Jews and Palestinians. This is a truely uplifting story that shows there is hope for peace in Palestine despite the harsh rule of the Israeli government. A must read for anyone looking for the true story of the modern state of Israel.