The Niwano Peace Foundation is a sign of hope for humanity. Fr Elias, aged 61 has dedicated himself totally over the last thirty-plus years to efforts for reconciliation between Jews and Palestinians in Israel. He is the founder of Mar Elias Educational Institutions which today have a combined enrolment number of 4000 pupils. These centres are seen as a kind of oasis where young people, whether Christians, Jews or Muslims, can study and work with one another to build a common future. The institutions provide a meeting ground for practical training toward peaceful coexistence based on religious pluralism and dialogue.
International agreements are only signatures on pieces of paper.
Born in 1939 at Biram, a village in Upper Galilee in Arab Palestine, to a Palestinian Christian family, members of the Melkite Catholic Church, at the age of eight he and his family suffer the trauma of being evicted by the arrival of Jewish immigrants and becoming refugees in their own homeland. Instead of growing up with a grudge on his shoulder and resorting to revenge, Elias understands the suffering of the Jews who had been the victims of the Nazi persecution, and with Jewish friends he strives to break the cycle of suspicion and brutal hatred and work for reconciliation between the two peoples. He was ordained a priest in Nazareth 1965 and in 1982 he opened a Prophet Elias School in Ibillin in Lower Galilee that started with 80 pupils. This was the beginning of Mar Elias Educational Institutions which today include schools of all grades, as well as a Technical College, a Regional Teachers Centre and a Centre for Religious Pluralism. Three missionaries in Mindanao have received the Aurora Aragon Quezon Peace Award .