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ABOUT MEEI

Welcome from the President and Founder of MEEI

The Rev. Dr. Abuna Elias Chacour, President

There is no better way to build peace than on the foundations of justice and of righteousness. So far Jews and Palestinians have been getting their respective hands dirty with each other's blood. They have been meeting only on a battlefield. There have been no winners, only losers and each one's martyrs are considered terrorists by the other side.

Through Mar Elias Educational Institutions we want them to start getting their hands dirty together for good as our Compatriot taught on the Sermon on the Mount. We want to build a common future for our children. The very dearly desired independence, the peace and security constantly sought by both Palestinians and Israeli Jews will never become reality until both agree to become mutually interdependent partners, protecting each other's dignity and humanity.

International agreements, signed between governments and heads of states, have proved to be shaky, superficial and easily damaged. They lack roots in the hearts of the people. They are signed only on paper. We want through MEEI to sign agreements on the hearts of the younger generation, the leaders of tomorrow. These roots planted in the hearts of young Jews, Druze, and Palestinian Christians and Muslims cannot easily be destroyed.

We want to enable our younger generation to start today, together, to prepare for the kind of future they would want to offer their children tomorrow. MEEI has opened its doors for 20 years and wishes to open its doors even wider for more young people to receive a good education and to be educated together with other religious traditions and the full range of citizens in Israel, whether Jewish, Muslim, Druze or Christian.

We invite you our friends from the Holy Land and from countries far and wide around the world to join with us in our vision of building bridges for peace and reconciliation, for justice and righteousness. We need your friendship, your support, your presence and your prayers. It is together dear friends, and only together, that we can overcome the obstacles and create a society where it will be agreeable to live together.

Abuna Elias Chacour
Founder and President