Robi Damelin and Layla Alsheikh, who each lost a son in the decades’ long conflict, are involved with Parents Circle, a joint Israeli-Palestinian organization made up of more than 700 bereaved families.
In the face of deep-seated conflict, particularly one as longstanding and bitter as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, many would assume that reconciliation is a distant hope, if not entirely impossible. But there exists a beacon of hope in the form of the Parents Circle.
It’s one thing for Jews and Palestinians who have lost loved ones at each other’s hands to come together and seek a path to peace when things are relatively quiet, but it’s a much more difficult exercise during wartime.
“When you lose a child, at the same time, you also lose your fear. You no longer fear anything.”
The man has the right to defend himself, not to occupy, says Palestinian Basam Aramin, a Muslim and a Peace activist in the Peace Fighters Movement , the main character in two documentaries and a novel.
This week, we hear from our dear friend Robi Damelin, who is a peacemaker, internationally renowned speaker, and mother.
It would be a good idea to award the prize to an organization or person who, despite current developments, is working towards understanding between Israelis and Palestinians.
Amid the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Parent Circle NGO unites bereaved families from both sides, fostering reconciliation through shared grief.
Magen Inon’s world turned upside down when both his parents were killed by Hamas in the horrific October 7 attack. Now, he’s focused on changing reality and calling for an imminent ceasefire.
I’ve found a political reawakening, and learned that the only way this will end is if we turn our enemies into our partners
As conflict escalates across the Middle East, I met two Londoners – one Israeli and one Palestinian – who shared with me their grief and trauma and thoughts for the future, one year on.
“Palestinians and Jews who want peace, security, freedom, justice, and self-determination, who are fighting for a better life and for peace. We need to listen to their voices. These are our allies. They have shown us a path forward.”
Yonatan Zeigen has taken up his mother’s cause of ending conflict between Israelis and Palestinians
author Colum McCann speaks to friends from two sides of the bitter Israeli-Palestinian divide
With the dark plumes of war sweeping across the region, it is hard to find any daylight for dialogue where people dare to reach out across the divide and talk about peace.
Bereaved Israelis and Palestinians discussed the path to embracing their shared humanity at the semester’s first NYU in Dialogue event
As New York City’s college campuses brace for protests marking the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel and the ongoing war, administrators are hosting events modeling “respectful, open dialogue.”
Bereaved Israelis and Palestinians Use Their Grief to Advocate for Reconciliation and Peace Together
Two of his close friends, one Israeli, one Palestinian, both lost daughters to violence years ago and have bonded together in their shared pain and desire to help create positive change.
The son of a peace activist brutally killed on Oct. 7 is determined to make sure that her dream for Israel does not die with her.
With conflict seeming more inexorable than ever, victims from both sides tell US audiences understanding and willpower can keep future generations from paying the price they’ve borne
Georgetown has partnered with an organization of bereaved Israelis and Palestinian families to produce a program that fosters meaningful dialogue about the human side of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Two bereaved mothers who know price of war work for peace | Harvard Gazette Layla Alsheikh, Robi Damelin argue path to Mideast reconciliation begins with acknowledging common humanity
On Tuesday, Sept. 17, NYU in Dialogue hosted “Shared Grief, Shared Hope: Holding Onto Humanity” in collaboration with the Parents Circle Families Forum
Bereaved Palestinian and Israeli mothers visit Harvard.
Words of peace echoed throughout the Hastings High School auditorium on Sept. 16, as bereaved Palestinians and Israelis discussed their paths toward reconciliation.
Magen Inon lost both his parents Bilha and Yakov in the Oct 7th massacre, and was given a standing ovation after speaking at the conference in Brighton
‘It’s really difficult to talk to your occupier, or your enemy, or your jailer’, says a Palestinian member of the Parents Circle-Families Forum; ‘I am here to learn,’ says an Israeli teen
Join us to hear from a group of individuals profoundly affected by the conflict as they share their stories of loss and their unwavering belief in our shared humanity.
The photos of Abir and Smadar are projected on the stage at the Rimini Meeting. These two young girls resemble each other in the freshness of their youth, both with tied back hair and deep gazes.
In defiance of a Jerusalem District Court order, Israel’s Education Ministry has frozen a ‘Dialogue Encounters’ program run by an organization that brings together bereaved Palestinian and Israeli families
Two daughters die in the Middle East conflict. Their fathers Bassam Aramin and Rami Elhanan are examples of how to find a future perspective. They speak with Udy Levy at the Goetheanum about conflict, grief, solidarity and peace.
As the Rimini Meeting draws to a close, Rami Elhanan, an Israeli, and Bassam Aramin, a Palestinian, share their stories of losing their daughters in the decades-long conflict in the Holy Land, calling for reconciliation to transcend the war between Israel and Hamas.
The Irish author Colum McCann participated in the meeting together with the protagonists of his book “Apeirogon”
Yasmeen Eshtaya is a Palestinian teacher whose life has been deeply affected by the brutal violence of the Israeli state. But she is committed to reconciliation and forming bonds through teaching Arabic
Despite opposition, a group of Palestinian and Israeli teens have recently come together in Cyprus on a mission for peace and reconciliation.
The AFT has partnered with Parents Circle to launch the program, which will be available for free to all public school educators.
It is not naive to know that the only route to justice and equality is peace.
Eetta Prince-Gibson explores how Combatants for Peace and the Parents’ Circle are mourning for Israelis and Palestinians amid the war.
More than 4,000 young people and families have joined the March for Peace, 1,500 people participated in the three-day event, 400 attended panels and workshops, and 200 children took part in the Peace Citadel.
Sunday May 12 from Jerusalem a sliver of hope streamed through the world from the U.S.to Australia even Afghanistan–who knew there were Jews there?
As the conflict in Gaza continues, reconciliation may seem a distant dream, but on both sides there are those working for peace
The common stage for the re-telling of their stories is the 19th annual joint Israeli-Palestinian memorial ceremony. The ceremony consists of story-telling and singing in Hebrew and Arabic.
The 19th annual joint Memorial Day ceremony, presented Sunday at the start of Israel’s national day of honoring fallen Israeli soldiers and victims of attacks, offered an alternative commemoration of both Israeli and Palestinian victims.
Last month, the Jerusalem District Court ordered the Israeli government to allow the ‘Parents Circle – Families Forum’ to continue holding meetings between students and Israeli and Palestinian bereaved families, but the Education Ministry refrained from doing so until now
Bereaved Israelis and Palestinians have come together to hold a joint Memorial Day ceremony and call for a “different future” for those in the region.
A memorial event that was a narrow glimpse through a window that needs to be opened, to a different reality for the people of both Israel and Palestine
In a day of great pain, and for many more than ever before, of personal grief, hundreds of Israelis, Jews and Palestinians, and others touched by the conflict across the world, attended a joint ceremony from Combatants for Peace and the Parents Circle — Families Forum.
Amid war and lack of entry permits for Palestinians, controversial annual event is pre-recorded and livestreamed; Gazan who lost 60 relatives says all wanted to ‘live in freedom’
“Many people have woken up to the reality that this conflict cannot go on,” said a director of one Israeli peace-building group, referring to the decades of violence.
Immediately following the Yom Hazikaron ceremony in Israel two men who have recently lost family members to violence speak of the need for reconciliation rather than revenge
Relatives of Israeli and Palestinian civilians killed since October 7 speak as rights groups call for an end to violence
A number of bereaved Israelis and Palestinians have chosen to join the Parents Circle – Families Forum since October 7. Six of them tell Haaretz about their choice to stand together, with very little support from their society around them
Since Israelis’ lives were engulfed in horror on October 7, a catastrophe that has yet to end for Palestinians in Gaza, we bereaved families from both sides of the conflict are coming together to remember the innocent children whose only crime was being Palestinian or Israeli
We are dedicating the ceremony to children in war. Their only crime is being Palestinian or Israeli.
While a ceasefire agreement is once again on hold, dividing Israeli society, some families of hostages say they are victims of intimidation by a government prioritizing its ongoing operation in Rafah.
Jerusalem District Court judge Avraham Rubin criticized the education ministry for banning the Parents Circle – Families Forum from operating in Israeli schools, despite not conducting a ‘proper factual examination of the allegations’ made against it by right-wing organizations
“The whole world has to come and force Israel and Palestine to come to the table to talk, because we cannot go on killing each other.” Robi Damelin, whose son was killed by a Palestinian sniper, calls for an end to bloodshed in the Israel-Hamas war.
In the city of Haifa, in northwest Israel, the sounds of Arabic, Hebrew and Russian chatter fill the streets. In the Arab-Christian neighbourhood of Wadi Nisnas lies Beit Hagefen, an Arab-Jewish cultural centre set in gleaming white stone.
Bassam Aramin and Rami Elhanan — they are two fathers, Palestinian and Israeli respectively, who at different times lost a daughter, still a child
