With Israel’s most sacred day of remembrance as a backdrop, Israeli peace activists broadcast their annual Joint Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day Ceremony on Sunday night, with parallel events in London, New York and Los Angeles.
The ceremony, organized by Combatants for Peace and the Parents Circle — Families Forum, two peace-building organizations, was unusual in that it tried to acknowledge not only Israel’s grief, but also the extent of Palestinian suffering over the decades . This year’s event was especially poignant because it was the first since the deadly Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7 and took place amid the devastation caused by the war in Gaza.
This year the ceremony, held annually since 2006, was pre-recorded to avoid the possibility of disruption by protesters. In recent years it has drawn sharp criticism and a legal challenge in Israel, and on Sunday organizers said before the ceremony was set to be broadcast that its website had been hacked. As a result, organizers said it was not possible to watch it on YouTube as planned, and instead viewers watched it on Facebook.
The ceremony, an annual focus for peace activists in Israel, featured speeches, songs, a poem about peace and a video that showed children in Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank in question. the effect of war. A child wishes that “all the dead live.” Palestinians in the West Bank have not personally participated, as Israel stopped allowing many Palestinians to work in Israel after the October 7 attacks led by Hamas, which Israeli authorities say killed approximately about 1,200 people. There was also no direct contribution by speakers in Gaza.
“For many Israelis it seems provocative,” Yuval Rahamim said of the ceremony in a telephone interview from Tel Aviv. Mr. Rahamim, co-director of the Parents Circle — Families Forum, an Israeli-Palestinian organization of families who lost relatives in the conflict, said his father was killed in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. He acknowledged that many Israelis would find the event disturbing, given the scale of the suffering on October 7, but said it also gave it greater significance.
“Many people have woken up to the fact that this conflict cannot continue,” he said, referring to decades of violence. “People are willing to stand up.”
Her sentiments were echoed by Magen Inon, 41, whose parents were killed on October 7 and spoke in person at the start of the screening in London, held at a Jewish community center. He said, he does not want to use what happened to his family as an argument for further war. “We felt that our personal pain had been hijacked by the national cause,” said Mr. Inon, who now works as a peace activist.
Many Israelis have argued that the country is still bound by a sense of national shock and loss on October 7. and is shocked by international criticism of the war in Gaza, which they see as mostly justified.
More than 35,000 people have been killed in Gaza during the Israeli military campaign to defeat Hamas, health officials there say, and nearly everyone there has fled their homes amid a hunger crisis that officials say aid workers largely caused by Israel’s restrictions on aid delivery. in the enclave.
But the ceremony, which was screened in more than 200 venues in Israel, spoke to the diversity and complexity of opinion within Israeli society on the issue. Several speakers discussed their hope for an end to generations of bloodshed, and for peace.
Among the strongest contributions came from Palestinian speakers describing conditions in Gaza.
Ghadir Hani read a contribution from a woman in Gaza, whose name was given only as Najla, who described how she lost 20 family members in the war, including her brother, a father of two, who he said he was killed while looking for food by his parents.
“They killed him while walking on the street even though there was no threat,” Ms. Come on. “The machine of death is still ready to kill,” he added. “But I know that on the other side there are many people who believe in peace.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has repeatedly said that Israel’s war is with Hamas, rather than the people of Gaza, and that his government regrets civilian casualties.
Another contributor, Ahmed Helou, a member of Combatants for Peace, which brings together people who have fought for Israel or for Palestinian groups, suggested that the ferocity of Israel’s campaign had forced him to reevaluate his personal which is the price of his commitment to peace.
“The Israeli army is still killing without shame. Everyone in Gaza is a terrorist in their eyes,” said Mr. Helou, as he recounted a litany of deaths his family suffered in Gaza. “Does the cause of immeasurable pain promise peace for Israelis?”
Israel’s Day of Remembrance began at sundown on Sunday and ceremonies will be held until Monday afternoon.
