The 20th Israeli-Palestinian Joint Memorial Ceremony for peace and reconciliation took place on Tuesday 28 April and contained deeply moving contributions from a number of bereaved family members from both Israeli and Arab communities, who have suffered grievous losses due to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine.
Choosing humanity, choosing hope
The ceremony was introduced by Fida Sherada, an activist and urban planner and Palestinian, and Shira Geffen, an Israeli filmmaker and writer of children’s books. It was noted that this was now the second year the ceremony was taking place during a war, with sadly no end in sight. Meanwhile, many voices were said to be opposing joint events between Israelis and Palestinians -the same voices that try to sever the possibility of shared existence in the region.
Despite intimidation, those taking part were choosing to stand together and to remain hopeful and hold on to their humanity. War is a choice not a predetermined fate.
Those hosting the event were Combatants for Peace who are a joint Israeli-Palestinian initiative.
Shira stated that the reality of the occupation and apartheid did not allow their Palestinian partners who live in the West Bank to join them in person However, she also said that the partners in a journey and in this ceremony were gathering in Beit Jala, so watching and participating remotely with Sayel Jabarin the ceremony producer from the Palestinian side also in Beit Jala.
Sayel in Beit Jala
Sayel joined them remotely saying Shalom and introducing himself as being from the Combatants for Peace movement. He said that despite the separation wall and the barriers trying to divide people, “we are here on the same land”, Sayel went on to say that, “we salute you from the Combatants for Peace movement. We are here as Palestinians watching this ceremony, with hearts burdened with pains and wounds. Pain is not new to us, it has been a companion of a long path, inhabiting our hopes and dreams, but we stand here today to affirm that our humanity is able to see the pain of the other, without turning a blind eye to our own suffering. Today we live in exceptional circumstances, for more than a year and half threatening our collective existence and ethnic cleansing. Exceptional circumstances sparing no one. However we hold to our common struggle because we have no other way. We do not forget those we have lost, we do not ignore the constant injustice, but we are opening a window of hope, towards a future built on justice, dignity and freedom for all, not on blood. Thank you to everyone who came and is watching from home. You are part of our hope and we will work together to build this future”.
Why the hosts came to the ceremony
It was then back to the two hosts, who noted that the ceremony was having to taker place in a closed hall for safety reasons, although there were hundreds of viewing points around Israel and around the world and they stated that they felt those watching with them.
Fida then talked of her decision to come there that night and how it was not a simple one, but she stood on the stage as it was the last place where she felt she could speak freely and speak of what is happening across the wall, and to transfer stories that do not reach across the wall. She commented that, “I came here because I have a deep belief that to reach a solution, peace and liberation for both sides, both sides are needed.”
Shira added to this by stating that she had come there seeking light and in these dark times, this ceremony is a source of hope, because here Jews and Arabs can hurt together. To Shira this is the key for healing and change: “I came here because both sides understand that an endless war is not the solution”.
Liel Fishbein
We then heard from Liel Fishbein, who lost his 18 year old sister Techelet, in kibbutz Be’eri on 7 October 2023. He talked of how for as long as he could remember he had wanted a sister and how it was so hard to talk about her, about his childhood prayers for a sister and how she provided a love he had never known before. She was full of life and love for people and carried a gentleness and kindness that did not discriminate between people. Liel saw the terrorists who may well have murdered Techelet, but at that moment felt compassion for them although this emotion did change at times in the coming weeks and months. Liel went on to say that, “what brought me to stand here today… is a very basic understanding that this pain does not distinguish between us. No one is born with hatred. Palestinians hurt just as I do. There needs to be acquaintance, acceptance and dialogue in order to create a reality of trust, friendship and peace.”
Children
Shira then sated that children are a hope and a promise, yet children have been killed in Israel and as many as 18 000 in Gaza. Yet a child is a child and Shira said how she grieves both equally and that “grief has no flag or nationality”
Grief has no language or borders and we were treated to the song Numi Numi, with beautiful but sad singing and oud accompaniment.
Musa Hetawi
Next we heard from Musa Hetawi who has lost as many as 28 family members in the war in Gaza. He is a member of the bereaved families forum. Although not granted permission to join in person he was able to send a video with his words.
Army Song
Then it was back to music with Dolores Weiss, Yahua Yaron and Ella Ronan singing Army Song, a song about a soldier tired and not believing in the fight he is in; it included the lyrics “one, two, three four fire, my heart is so tired”.
Liat Atsili
Liat Atsili an Israeli teacher spoke of losing her partner Aviv Atsili in the attack on kibbitz Nir Oz on 7 October 2023. She is the mother of his children and how the anchors of her life were uprooted on that day, from the soil of Negev and kibbutz Nir Oz.
She talked movingly of how Aviv loved the landscape and nature around his home area, how he was a nature artist who drew on old machine parts he found, but that his greatest love was for people. Liat was abducted on 7 October, but even in a situation where she had no control was clear that she still had the choice of what kind of person she would be.
Liat said that she finds truth and comfort in the words of Rabbi Daniel Epstein in a film, talking about the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas: “People don’t choose their others , one just accepts the others they receive. The test lies in the extent of my responsibility just as I don’t shape others according to my wishes. I also cannot change them. But perhaps by shifting my perspective, I can draw out the good inevitably within them, because they are human just like me.” That was true in captivity and true now – “looking into the face of the other, without expectations, opens the door to responsibility. A responsibility that is the very embodiment of freedom. That freedom may be a heavy burden, but it’s the only thing that can bring peace between people and help build a moral and just society”.
The hostages
Shira then made an impassioned plea for an end to the war and for the 59 remaining Israeli hostages to be brought home.
This was followed by Mary Mansa performing the song “Where are they”, with the lyrics “Where are their voices, where are their faces, where are they… they left behind their children’s laughter forgotten on the walls”. There was piano and oud accompaniment making for beautiful, haunting music.
Speaking the truth
Shira spoke of how many Israelis and Palestinians were not able to express themselves freely and how painful events across the wall in Gaza and the West Bank, do not reach Israel. She said that what was needed was a “steering hand aiming to silence the crimes happening .., we commit here to seeing and listening and making their voices heard”.
The horror of the war in Gaza
The next speech was written by a Palestinian activist in Combatants for Peace whose name could not be revealed, so a resident of El Tirah read her speech. Amani Hamden read as follows: ”I am a Palestinian living through pain and injustice, but I refuse to let it be my destiny. I was born in1993 in Gaza” . Her childhood home had been bombed three times in wars and she had been buried under rubble in 2014 for eight days. When her family and herself had waited, surrounded by sounds of bombs for a Red Cross team to rescue them. She had then spent 51 days sheltered at a school. She survived, but still had the unbearable pain of the loss of a brother and his wife who was pregnant with twins,
Following that she left for the West Bank, which was a painful parting from her family, a parting that would be forever as the distance grew. However, despite the terrible violence a belief grew in her that her future might look different. She decided to devote herself to working for peace and joined Combatants for Peace to embark on joint path of nonviolent resistance against occupation and injustice
Her family was in different places after the start of the 7 October war, while people sheltering in places such as the Baptist Hospital including family members had lost limbs or suffered serious injuries; her 13 year old niece’s leg was amputated without anaesthesia.
Then one dark day she received phone call among howls of pain and grief in the background. She was told that she had lost her mother, shot in the head by a sniper’s bullet, while trying to escape from central Gaza: “It was like lightning that pierced my soul”.
However she still said: “Our lives are not just sad stories; they are also stories of unbreakable steadfastness . Hope that has arisen from the rubble. Let’s remember that every day is ana opportunity for a new beginning, that we are able to build a better future.”
Fida then reminded us that most Palestinians have relatives in Gaza and that there is a constant rift between normal life in Israel and life of constant fear across the wall.
Shira added that although she doesn’t have family in Gaza she can’t ignore the ongoing suffering and deny it is happening.
Fida then asked people to find ways of resisting and choosing life standing side by side. Shira continued this theme by saying: “and we both know that standing together, Israeli and Arab, shoulder to shoulder and to speak with one voice in both languages is radical these days. But we will continue our struggle wherever we can until we bring forth change.”
Sayel in the West Bank expressed his gratitude for those who had attended, participated and watched, during “these honest and painful moments. We as partners have chosen to break the cycle of silence and division and come together in space of shared pain not to equate the oppressor with the oppressed but to insist on our humanity and declare that we refuse to allow this suffering to continue”.
Hoping for a better future
We then saw a film about Israelis and Palestinians sharing experiences and hoping for a better future. In the film one participant commented that, “any problem in the world can be solved through communication.”
The ceremony ended with a song – An Ode to All we have Lost – sang by Israeli and Arab singers.
Comment
This was a beautiful and moving ceremony that gives one hope that out of the rubble of Gaza and out of the ashes of people’s shattered lives, a better future can one day come to the people who share what is often called the Holy Land.
I remember being involved in peace work in Northern Ireland in the late 1980s and 1990s and learning that the only way to solve the problems in that beautiful land was for people to meet, talk and start working together. This is also surely the only way to a better future for all those in the land shared by Israelis and Arabs today.
Indeed, the real resistance is against warmongerers and those who would pursue a violent path from either side, in this terrible, but not inevitable conflict.
The 20th Israeli-Palestinian Joint Memorial Ceremony for Peace and Reconciliation can be viewed below.
There is information about Combatants here,
And here is information about the Parents Circle Families Forum and UK Friends of Standing Together.
CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO OUR CROWDFUNDER
HELP US BECOME STRONGER SO THAT WE CAN CONTINUE TO DELIVER POWERFUL CITIZEN JOURNALISM!
