Review questions                                                                            Blood Brothers

Chapter 1

1. What kind of economy did the villages of Galilee have in the 1940s?  How would this put them at a disadvantage when competing with the Zionists?
2. What was the relationship between the Palestinian and Jewish villages after WWI?
3. What type of work did Michael Chacour do for a living?
4. What made Katoub Chacour so special?
5. What is Michael Chacour’s view of the visitors and why should the children be extra nice to them?
6. How does Michael Chacour exemplify the Gospel and Christ’s teachings?

Chapter 2

1. Why is Jesus such a special person in the life of Elias Chacour?
2. What are the important matters that Elias’ parents teach their children?
3. What makes Katoub Chacour such an excellent teacher of faith and culture?
4. How do Katoub’s stories increase Elias’ belief and faith in Christ?
5. What characteristic gets Elias into trouble in this chapter and in later chapters?
6. According to the Melkites, how is it that Christ bridged the gap between mankind and God?
7. Aside from the Ottoman Turks, what other groups had inhabited Palestine?
8. What evidence is given that Michael Chacour’s was a man of high regard in the village? 
9. According to Michael Chacour, why do the soldiers carry guns?
10. According to Michael Chacour, why are Palestinians and Jews blood brothers?
11. Memorize the Beatitudes (p. 36, 30 lines)

Chapter 3

1. Why were Palestinians unable to fight the Zionist “invaders?”
2. Why were Palestinians excluded from the Jewish homeland negotiations?
3. Who trained the Zionist in terrorist tactics and provided the weapons for these activities?  What was the original purpose of this endeavor?
4. What does it mean that the Zionists wanted to “purify the land of Palestinian people?”
5. Were all Jewish people Zionists and intent on purifying the land?
6. How come Michael Chacour never prayed for his family while stories flew of Zionist violence towards Palestinian villages?
7. How did the Zionists get rid of the villagers of Biram?
8. What crime against humanity does Elias uncover in Gish?
9. What evidence do we find that the persecuted had become the persecutors?  Give 4 examples.

Chapter 4

1. When the Biram men are taken by the Zionists, how does Katoub react?  Why?
2. How long were the Biram men away from their families?
3. What countries did the Chacour men walk in order to return to Gish?
4. How did the new Zionist settlements survive in the early years of occupation?
5. Upon being “pushed off” their farms, where did most Palestinian young men go in order to make a living?
6. The inability of the Biram villagers to return to their homes demonstrates what serious problem in the Israeli government?

Chapter 5

1. How does Michael Chacour guarantee that Elias will finish his education?
2. Where does Elias go to study?
3. How did Zionists guarantee that the Biram villagers would never be able to return home?

Chapter 6

1. Who became Elias’ best friend at the orphanage?
2. Because of Elias’ high grades, what did the Bishop offer him?  Where would this take him?
3. What punishment does Elias get for breaking the rules of the seminary?
4. According to the Israeli Prime Minister, Ben Gurion, why was it necessary for Israel to take possession of the Sinai peninsula in 1956?
5. What happened to the issue of the Palestinian refugees during this time?  Why?
6. Why are Elias and Faraj prevented from going to Jerusalem to continue their religious formation?  What was the good news of this situation?

Chapter 7

1. What is one of the major obstacles confronted by Elias and Faraj when they go to study in France?
2. What stereotypes do Elias and Faraj confront in France in reference to Palestinians?
3. Why are Elias and Faraj considered “good Palestinians?”
4. What is the greatest irony that Elias faces when he is invited to Christmas dinner?  Why?
5. During the Cold War how did Christian and moral nations behave towards nations that they deemed undemocratic?
6. What happened to Elias on his way to West Germany that gave him insight as to what Holocaust victims might have experienced?
7. “How had the minds of the nations been poisoned to think of Palestinians as an idle, worthless people capable of nothing but violence?”

Chapter 8

1. What is the common story Westerners learn about the creation of Israel?
2. What conference established the idea of a Jewish homeland in Palestine?  Whose idea was this originally?  Why?
3. What groups were against the Zionist goal of creating a Jewish homeland in Palestine?
4. What letter firmly establishes Britain’s support for a Jewish homeland?  Was this support given because the British loved the Jewish people?  Explain.
5. Who was Yitzhak Epstein, and what was his suggestion to resolving the Jewish-Palestinian conflict in the 1920s?
6. As Jewish immigration continued to increase in the decades of the 1920s through the 1930s, what were the actions taken by the Palestinian leadership to combat this and bring world attention to their plight?
7. How did Zionists react to Palestinian actions in the 1930s?
8. How did the British try to address the issue of Jewish immigration and land sales in 1939?  What was the Zionist response to this effort?
9. What was FDR’s plan to help the victims of the Holocaust?  Why was this plan unsuccessful?
10. What was Truman’s response to Arab and Palestinian delegations when they came to present their side of the Zionist-Palestinian conflict?  Why?
11.   Why was the Jewish community in Iraq a target of terrorist actions?  Who was responsible for this, and what was the result of these actions on the Iraqi government?
12. Why does Elias arrive at the notion that Zionists are victims too?  How do Zionists behave in order to cure themselves of this “pain?”
13. What is Faraj’s advice to Elias in regards to the Palestinian problems?
14. What does Elias get from his German friends as a going-away gift?

Chapter 9

1. Where are Elias and Faraj ordained?
2. What humiliation did Elias confront when he tried to re-enter his country?  How did his resolve this situation?
3. From what countries were the fedayeen attacking Zionist settlements?
4. How was the Israeli military dealing with the small bands of fedayeen who were attacking Jewish settlements?
5. What does Elias mean when he states, “We Gentiles had been “grafted in” among God’s chosen people of faith, just as Father had grafted six different kinds of fig trees together to make a delightful new tree.” (p. 145 & p. 150)     
6. According to Elias, what does the example of Abraham’s life in Canaan and the prophecies of Isaiah state about what Israel should be like? (pp. 146-153)
7. Upon meditating on the “prophecies” of the Beatitudes, what must Elias do first in order to reconcile Jews and Palestinians?
8. What was Elias’ first assignment as an ordained priest?

Chapter 10

1. Why was the Responsible so unfriendly to Elias?
2. How did Elias take away the Responsible’s hold over the townspeople?
3. Who did Elias get to help him with his work in Ibillin?  Was this problematic?  Why?
4. Why did the Responsible hate Habib?
5. What religious groups lived in the villages of Galilee?
6. What was the turning point for the sisters’ work in Ibillin?
7. How did the townspeople respond to Elias and the sisters in the end?
8. How did Elias manage to save his grapevine?  Why did this infuriate the Responsible?
9. How did Elias get the entire Christian community of Ibillin to reconcile? 
10. Why does Elias say that “true Christianity belongs in the streets?” (p. 179)

Chapter 11

1. How does Elias convince the sisters to work with the Muslim community?  What facilitates this calling?
2. Why does the Bishop send Elias to study at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem?  Why is this so significant?
3. What was the situation of Israel’s economy in 1967?  Why?
4. How were dark-skinned Jews from Africa and Asia being treated in Israel?  Why?
5. What did the United Nations urge Israel to do for the Palestinian refugee problem in 1967?
6. Why did Israel go to war against Egypt in 1967?  How long was this war?  Who won?  Why?
7. Why did Elias cry when he saw his Christian brothers and sisters celebrating Israel’s victory in the Six-Day war?
8. How was Elias received at the university?
9. Professor Flusser and other Jews that Elias befriended at the university proved what about Jews and Palestinians? (p. 188)
10. What was special about Bishop Joseph Raya?  How would his experiences help Elias in his efforts to reconcile Jews and Palestinians?
11. What kind of activities did Elias and Bishop Raya organize that gave Palestinians and Jews hope for peace?
12. Despite Elias’ and Bishop Raya’s efforts, Israel’s first female Prime Minister, Golda Meir, clearly demonstrated that the Zionist government still held the same view of Palestinians when she stated, “___________.” (p. 195)
13. What was special about the Jerusalem march of 1972?
14. Why did Elias and others conduct a fast at the end of the march?

Chapter 12

1. What did Muslim communities around Ibillin request from Elias?  Why?
2. What would the Christian women teach during their “Apostolic Holidays?”
3. How did Elias begin to raise the human dignity of the Palestinians in Galilee?
4. How did “some” people respond to Elias’ building efforts?
5. What help was offered to Elias upon his first trip to Europe?
6. Why was Bishop Raya reassigned to Canada?
7. What did Elias show at the inauguration of each community center?  Why?
8. What happened to the Biram planting tree project?  Why?
9. What does Elias begin to think about when the Biram project is unsuccessful?

Chapter 13

1. What happens to Elias when he goes to Beirut, Lebanon on church business in 1981?  Why?
2. What finally breaks the ice between Elias and his interrogator?
3. What is the PLO?  And what happened to the ghetto of Sabra and its people?  Why?
4. Why did Elias eventually decide not to take any of the European offers?
5. What words convince him of his calling?  Whose words were they?
6. Why does Elias compare himself to St. Paul?

EPILOGUE

1. According to Elias, what kind of people can accomplish peace?  What must these people be willing to do?
2. What truth makes the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a cruel tragedy?
3. What belief about God “justified” Hitler and others who have prescribed to the same belief?
4. What fuels the Palestinian resistance?
5. What right do we Westerners have of judging who is a terrorist and who is a freedom fighter if we are ignorant about all the sides of a conflict?  Would our American revolutionaries be judged terrorists by the British during the conflict between England and her colonists?  For that matter, would any Western pioneer be judged a terrorist by Native Americans??
6. According to our Holy Scripture and the prophet Isaiah, what two elements must be practiced in order for us to have peace?  (In other words, peace is the result of ____________ and ______________.)
7. What three kinds of people will never inherit the kingdom of heaven?  What will God do to these people?
8. What kind of people allow evil to ravage humanity?
9. “For those of you discovering Blood Brothers for the first time, I must add that it is not so much my story as my invitation—my challenge, really, my provocation—for you to get up, to go forward, to do something, to take the risk and to make a difference…for justice and peace.”  Meditate on this quote to prepare for your final exam.