Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Mideast activist to Speak In Old Lyme
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Mideast activist to Speak In Old Lyme
Palestinian Melkite Priest Invited By Church
By BETHE DUFRESNE
General Assignment Reporter/Columnist
Published on 11/8/2005
Old Lyme — Natural disasters and political intrigue may have eclipsed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since the withdrawal of Israeli settlers from Gaza, but an event being held this Sunday is a reminder that the conflict remains a flashpoint for Mideast tensions.
From 1 to 9 p.m. the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme will host a “Tree of Life Conference on Israel and Palestine.” The main event is a 7 p.m. keynote speech by Palestinian Melkite Catholic priest Elias Chacour, author of “Blood Brothers” and founder of the interfaith Mar Elias school in Ibillin, Israel.
Chacour is known as an eloquent preacher and vigorous advocate for peaceful reconciliation among Jews, Christians and Muslims in what's known as the Holy Land. He is the winner of the 1994 World Methodist Peace Award and the 2001 Niwano Peace Prize, a major Japanese award.
In April Chacour met in Ibillin with an interfaith tour group led by the Old Lyme church. The trip was followed in a series published by The Day.
This week senior minister David Good recalled Chacour's entreaty to “yes, speak on behalf of the Palestinian people who suffer from injustice, but not if you are driven by hate, for there is already more than enough hate in the Middle East.”
In the late 1940s, at the age of 8, Chacour and his family were evicted from their village in Upper Galilee to make way for Jewish settlers. In his autobiographical “Blood Brothers,” translated into 28 languages, Chacour writes that his father had told him about the Nazi horror and conditioned all to welcome the Jews as brothers, never suspecting that his own family would be displaced.
But unlike others, Chacour's father rejected violence and revenge, and the son has made reconciliation and integration his life's work. Chacour often says that “living stones,” meaning people of faith, “are more important than holy shrines,” and that no plot of land is worth taking a human life.
A program about Chacour's life, titled “A Man of Galilee,” will be aired on Eastern Connecticut Cable Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. (channel 25), Thursday at 8 p.m. (channel 24) and Saturday at 9 p.m. (channel 25).
Sunday's conference includes an overview at 1 p.m. titled “Israel/Palestine 101,” led by the Rev. Cathy Zall and Dr. Dan Bendor, and presentations on Israeli security, the separation wall and settlements, refugees, Jerusalem and the role of the United States in the conflict.
Other participants include Angela Godfrey-Goldstein, an activist with the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions; Mazim Qumsiyeh, author of “Sharing the Land of Canaan,” and Mark Rosenblum, founder and policy director of Americans for Peace Now. John Lindner of Yale Divinity School will moderate.
There will also be a presentation by the Bereaved Parents Circle, an organization of people on both sides of the conflict who have lost family members to the violence.
Registration is $25 for the whole conference and $10 just for Chacour's address. More information is available on the church's website, www.fccol.org, or by calling the church office at 434-8686.
www.theday.com
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