Rev. Ashraf Tannous is the Pastor of a Lutheran Church in Beit Sahour. Like many Palestinians, he is the second generation of a refugee family forced from their home at the time of the formation of the State of Israel.

With a solid grasp on his own heritage and what it means, for him, to be a Palestinian in a world of misconceptions, this brief interview shares Ashraf’s love affair with his home land.

Ashraf opens with “I am a human being … an Arab, Palestinian, Christian. I am a Semetic, from the Semites, a refugee, as well as a Lutheran Pastor” and in closing shares the story of when he was once described by a new acquaintance as “the sweetest terrorist” she had ever met, her own assumptions eroded and replaced through interaction.

This is the first in a series of films created to help bridge the cultural barrier between Palestine and the West, countries whose assumptions about this part of the world are based primarily on the limited view of the mass media.