If the Quaker concept of bearing witness had a poster child, it would be Max Carter, and this volume would be its living proof. Max and his lovely wife Jane have embodied their life dedication to justice by doing all that is humanly possible for individuals to educate with a purpose. If you have never witnessed the Holy Land, this volume will bring you one step closer to humanizing the people behind the news headlines.
Sam Bahour, co-founder of Americans for a Vibrant Palestinian Economy and co-editor of HOMELAND: Oral History of Palestine and Palestinians
There are very rarely people who try to tackle the long conflict between the Palestinians and Israeli Jews. There is an abundance of one-sided news for the ones against the other and generally for the Jews against the Palestinians. This book respectably acknowledges the claims of both conflicting parties. The Jews claiming the land belongs to them, the Palestinians making the identical claim, while, in fact, both belong to the land. They are sojourners. This book is a message and a call to all people to realize that there is no coin with one side because all coins have two sides.
Abuna Elias Chacour, Archbishop Emeritus of the Galilee and founder of the Mar Elias Educational Institutions
Max's Palestine and Israel: Understanding Encounters is a riveting account of his witnessing of the various developments since the Second Intifada and the struggle for peace in the Holy Land. The Carters are a very important thread of the Ramallah Friends School fabric and an integral link with Quakers in the United States. This is an important book that truly reflects Max's Quaker belief that there is that of God in everyone. Max offers a principled and superb account of the "competing narratives" that stall progress toward justice and peace in Palestine. This book challenges everyone to seek a third way in their approach to the Palestinian-Israeli struggle and contributes significantly to the narration of the Ramallah Friends School history.
Rania Maayah, head of Ramallah Friends School
Max L. Carter
is the Emeritus William R. Rogers Director of Friends Center and Quaker Studies at Guilford College. A conscientious objector during the American War in Vietnam, he performed his alternative service at the Friends Boys School in Ramallah. Max is a recorded minister in the Religious Society of Friends with a Masters of Ministry from the Earlham School of Religion and PhD in American Religious Studies from Temple University. He is a member of New Garden Friends Meeting in Greensboro, North Carolina, where he lives with his wife, Jane. Since 1997, he and Jane have led more than two dozen service-learning trips to Palestine and Israel.