Chacour pleads for peace
By Katie Gaab, contributing writer
Posted on October 26, 2006

More than 320 students, professors and Harrisonburg residents filled the CISAT/HHS auditorium Tuesday night to hear Archbishop Elias Chacour discuss peace in the Middle East.

His appearance at JMU was co-sponsored by the Center for Justice and Peace Building at Eastern Mennonite University and the Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence at JMU.
 
Chacour said he was “honored and privileged, but burdened to talk about the topic tonight” and that his visit was “to defend neither Jews nor Palestinians.”
 
Born to a Christian Palestinian family in Biram, Chacour was forced out by Israelis in 1947, becoming a refugee. He then served as the parish priest of Ibillin since 1965, working toward understanding diversity through educational means. He received many global awards and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three times.
 
Chacour began his speech by examining the reasons why conflict remains between Jews, Muslims and Christians in the Middle East.
“[People have] no problem with the existence of Israel, but with the qualities of that existence,” Chacour said.
 
Chacour went on to emphasize the importance of learning other languages to become stronger culturally, mentally and spiritually.
“Americans see a Muslim as a bloodthirsty man or woman inclined to violence,” he said. “We are not allowed to generalize, my friends.”

Chacour also said America is viewed by the world as trying to achieve democracy in non-democratic places.

Chacour said diverse countries like Iraq need to unite in order to bring prosperity instead of being “turned into cemeteries.”

Abdelrahman Rabie, an Egyptian-American from Harrisonburg, agreed with Chacour on the issue of American policies on the Arabic world.

“The new U.S. policy of colonization brings new deviation that cannot be the right word between the Sunnis and Shiites that never existed before now,” Rabie said. “These ‘problems’ weren’t mentioned until American people came back from visiting these countries.”

Despite his critique of U.S. foreign policy, Chacour praised the former Secretary of State James Baker for his help creating schools, summer camps and the first Christian Arab Israeli University in Galilee.
 
Freshman Ariel Brown said she found his lecture very engaging. “I thought I had some understanding of the Middle East, but now I know how different it is from the media’s portrayal,” she said.

As Chacour said, “You must go get your hands dirty. It’s your responsibility,” to bring peace to the world.