Greetings from Ibillin, Israel! We're here in the Galilee visiting the Mar Elias Educational Institution as well as various holy sites in the region. Just today we went to the Mount of the Beatitudes, Capernaum, and the Sea of Galilee. As with so many things on this trip, only photos will do justice to what I have seen here; however, in Capernaum, we saw Peter's mother's house as well as the foundation blocks of the synagogue in which Jesus taught. Staring at those stones, I was brought to tears.
Our first stop today was the destroyed Palestinian village of Biram, where Father Elias Chacour spent the first years of his life. (Father Chacour is the former Archbishop of the Melkite Catholic Church here, has been nominated numerous times for the Nobel Peace Prize, and his autobiography, Blood Brothers, is worth a read.) Like 300 other Palestinian villages, Biram was destroyed soon after the state of Israel was created. All that is left are the ruins of the homes, school, and church; the area is now a national park.
One of Abuna ("father") Chacour's friends was with us as well, and as they showed us around, I could not stop thinking about what a strange and tragic situation this is for them. Imagine it: your family has lived in this land practically forever, been followers of Jesus since He walked around here, and upon the creation of a new country on the land of your family, you are all forced to flee, while many of your compatriots are systematically murdered. That is exactly what happened in this land in 1948.
The Galilee, where we are right now, was not intended to become Israeli territory according to the UN partition plan, which divided up this region in 1948 for both an Israeli and a Palestinian state. It was, like a lot of other land, taken by force. And then in 1967, Israel took over the remainder of historic Palestine- Gaza and the West Bank, which it occupies to this day. There is another small piece (or not so small) to this story...
This afternoon, after spending time at the Sea of Galilee, we headed back towards Ibillin. Or so I thought. We drove west rather than east, and all of a sudden, the bus pulled over, and we were told that we were in Syria. No checkpoint. No passport control. Nothing. We simply crossed the Jordan River. "How can this be?" you may ask. Well, in 1967, Israel annexed the Golan Heights from Syria, and to this day, it maintains a military occupation there.
This whole situation is, in my mind, absurd. I feel sorrow for those wronged. And anger towards those who perpetrated these injustices (as well as those who continue to do so today). But Abuna Chacour said to me today "We must not hate." If a man who lost his home due to no fault of his own can say those words as he stands next to the ruins of that home, I too can choose to not hate.
It may sound cheesy, but my Palestinian Christian brothers and sisters are teaching me what it truly means to follow Jesus- to forgive, persevere, and love your enemy.
Our first stop today was the destroyed Palestinian village of Biram, where Father Elias Chacour spent the first years of his life. (Father Chacour is the former Archbishop of the Melkite Catholic Church here, has been nominated numerous times for the Nobel Peace Prize, and his autobiography, Blood Brothers, is worth a read.) Like 300 other Palestinian villages, Biram was destroyed soon after the state of Israel was created. All that is left are the ruins of the homes, school, and church; the area is now a national park.
One of Abuna ("father") Chacour's friends was with us as well, and as they showed us around, I could not stop thinking about what a strange and tragic situation this is for them. Imagine it: your family has lived in this land practically forever, been followers of Jesus since He walked around here, and upon the creation of a new country on the land of your family, you are all forced to flee, while many of your compatriots are systematically murdered. That is exactly what happened in this land in 1948.
The Galilee, where we are right now, was not intended to become Israeli territory according to the UN partition plan, which divided up this region in 1948 for both an Israeli and a Palestinian state. It was, like a lot of other land, taken by force. And then in 1967, Israel took over the remainder of historic Palestine- Gaza and the West Bank, which it occupies to this day. There is another small piece (or not so small) to this story...
This afternoon, after spending time at the Sea of Galilee, we headed back towards Ibillin. Or so I thought. We drove west rather than east, and all of a sudden, the bus pulled over, and we were told that we were in Syria. No checkpoint. No passport control. Nothing. We simply crossed the Jordan River. "How can this be?" you may ask. Well, in 1967, Israel annexed the Golan Heights from Syria, and to this day, it maintains a military occupation there.
This whole situation is, in my mind, absurd. I feel sorrow for those wronged. And anger towards those who perpetrated these injustices (as well as those who continue to do so today). But Abuna Chacour said to me today "We must not hate." If a man who lost his home due to no fault of his own can say those words as he stands next to the ruins of that home, I too can choose to not hate.
It may sound cheesy, but my Palestinian Christian brothers and sisters are teaching me what it truly means to follow Jesus- to forgive, persevere, and love your enemy.
Not cheesy at all, Fran. That is the most important lesson we have to learn from our Palestinian Christian brothers and sisters...how to love your brother even when he is trying so hard to make you hate him.
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