Elias Chacour is described in the foreword to this new book as ‘a man of peace in a country at war’.  This book – based upon conversations recorded by a French journalist Alain Michel – mixes autobiographical reflections with a powerful critique of the current state of the Middle East, and the author’s own ‘road map’ for peace. This, he says, lies in the mutual recognition by Jew and Arab of the humanity of the other, and an agreement to try to move suspicion aside. However many the stumbling blocks, the author believes that ‘to achieve a truly just and fraternal peace is the one desire of the majority of both populations’.  

Here he tells the stories of many individuals working for peace and of his own work, especially among the children and students of the school and college he has founded.

Fr Elias Chacour is the Archbishop of Galilee. Seeing the lack of educational opportunities for Palestinian youth, he created a school open to all local children which opened in the early 1980s. The Mar Elias Educational Institution and now caters for 4,500 students, representing all major religions and ethnicities in Israel. Fr Chacour has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three times and has received other prestigious peace awards.