| THE 14th ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN MEMORIAL DAY CEREMONY IS OVER |
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"We will join hearts and join hands for the realization of an inner peace that will come out and bring peace to all of us."Fatima, 26 years old, Gaza/Ramallah |
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"The memorial service is one of the last joint, hope-inspiring events that are still held by both peoples."
(Haaretz Editorial)
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The Ceremony is over - but the work does not stop
9000 people gathered in the largest Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day Ceremony ever, on May 7th in Tel Aviv, organized by Combatants for Peace and our partners, the Parents Circle- Families Forum. This history-making event would have not been possible without your support. From the bottom of our hearts, we say thank you! Thank you, for joining our quest for peace!
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Sharing Sorrow, Bringing Hope.
Dear Friend, In the face of all the pressure, the incitement and the obstacles that tried to de-legitimate the event, we held a special Memorial Ceremony in which we remembered our loved ones, mourned their passing, and cherished the hope for a shared, peaceful future for all of us. |
| We are proud to hold this Memorial again and again, year after year. We are not deterred by the threats, curses or violence of those who do not, or will not, understand. We do this for one simple reason - this Memorial Day is exactly the answer to them; an answer to all those who believe that we are destined to live by the sword forever, who believe that our blood is somehow different from the blood of others, who refuse to make room for hope, and hope for change.
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| Confronting those who think that remembering together is wrong: we were there, Israelis and Palestinians, telling them: you are the ones who are wrong!
We were pleased that a few minutes before the start of the ceremony, some 100 Palestinians from the locked-down Westbank, some of them bereaved families themselves, made their way to Hayarkon Park in Tel Aviv to join hands with Israelis even in the face of the despair and fear that has been created all around us.
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| We would like to thank the thousands of participants who came, the tens of thousands who joined on-line, and all those who took part in the tremendous efforts invested in producing Memorial. Our coordinators, the speakers, the artists, the dozens of volunteers, the media, the laywers, the production team, and of course all of you, the supporters and donors! Together, we created something very special!
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| The budget for this year‘s Memoiral was even more than in the past - almost $240.000, to a large extent due to the need for added space and added secruity. Despite strenuous fund-raising efforts, including crowd funding, donations at the event itself, and personal contributions here and abroad, we still were not able to cover all of the costs.
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| Without your generous help we would not have been able to reach the expenses covered so far, nor, indeed, even hold the Memorial as successfully as we did. However, given the remaining gap, we are turning to you once again to ask if you can find it in your hearts, and your pocket, to help us to fully cover the remaining expenses.
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| From the stage of the Memorial Ceremony, 14 year old Mohammed Darwish, a resident of the Aida Refugee Camp in Bethlehem and the youngest member of the Combatants for Peace Theatre Group, spoke of his friend Abd al-Rahman Shadi Abdallah, aged 10, who was killed in his schoolyard in 2015 by a stray bullet fired by an Israeli soldier:
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| "I promise you that I will talk about your death in order to bring life back to a human path, and in recent years I have chosen to perpetuate you through activities for peace."
Like young Mohammed, all of us in Combatants for Peace will continue to remember, and perpetuate the memory of all of those lost in this conflict, by working, together, non-violently, for peace. This is what gives us hope for the future. And no one can persuade us that this wrong. |
| We look forward to seeing you at the Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day 2020!
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| | | Watch the Ceremony again online! |
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