By Arlene Bridges Samuels, CBN Israel—
Peace between Jews and Palestinian Arabs seems as distant as the earth from the moon. Ancients and moderns worldwide have been fascinated by this celestial body, and the Jewish community sets its time by the lunar clock. But no one imagined going to the moon until the last century. On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced the goal of a United States moon landing. Eight years later it became a reality, when Neil Armstrong took the first step on the lunar surface and exclaimed, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
After decades of enmity between Jews and Palestinians, is it possible that improved, strong steps from these two communities will finally land on a bigger planet of cooperation? Trying to solve entrenched disputes between Jews and Palestinians has exasperated presidents, prime ministers, pacifists, and prognosticators for decades.
However, the filmmakers saw another possibility. Hope in the Holy Land, an ambitious film, is co-produced and directed by Justin Kron and Todd Morehead. A pastor and California film producer/director, Morehead traveled all over Israel, listening to and recording the sentiments of everyday Jews and Palestinians. In the film, the two perspectives are skillfully produced. Representatively, the film was released on May 14, 2021, Israel’s Independence Day and what Palestinians call the Naqba (catastrophe). The film explores the possibilities of achieving harmony—not by presenting briefings from experts, negotiators, polling, or statistics—but by broadening the perspective to the man in the street and offering a balanced, compassionate examination of the conflict.
I viewed Hope in the Holy Land last October at Restoration Church in Alpharetta, Georgia.
I enjoyed meeting and talking with Justin Kron when I attended the film’s showing. For this column I asked Justin, co-creator and producer, to email me a quote. His response expresses the goal of the film. “In this world where agenda-driven narratives are pushed at the expense of truth and the well-being of humanity, we set out to do the opposite for the sake of our own integrity as filmmakers and for the benefit of the viewers, especially those who want to understand the conflict through a biblical worldview.” Kron goes on to articulate the balance they sought to “not only honor Israel’s right to exist as a sovereign Jewish state, but also to uphold the dignity of Arabs living in the land. What we discovered is that there are Jews and Arabs on both sides who also embrace that worldview, and we’re grateful that we got to help share their stories.” Continue Reading…
