While the world is following with bated breath the difficult negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza and in dozens of universities protests spread over the illegality of the occupations that have never stopped in the West Bank, we receive and gladly share, from the Israeli-Palestinian Movement of Combatants for Peace, the invitation to participate in the Joint Ceremonies to be held on May 12 and May 15, in remembrance of the fallen in war (in all wars) as well as of the Nakba.
What is it about?
These are the two most significant dates for this peace activists organization, founded some 20 years ago by a handful of former Israeli military and Palestinian militants with the goal of joining forces, hearts, narratives, resources, and creativity for a future of reconciliation.
From the few dozen that were in the early days, as we also reported in Pressenza (with two fine interviews with the co-founders and young co-directors), the number of Combatants for Peace active in the most diverse peace initiatives in both Israel and Palestine has grown into hundreds, with the growing membership of women and very young people and with ‘sister’ organizations in the United States as well. That first Joint Ceremony in remembrance of the fallen that marked the beginning of the Movement in a Tel Aviv Auditorium on May 12, 2006, has been joined over the years by the Joint Ceremony in remembrance of the Nakba, and both events last year recorded more than 15,000 attendees in a Tel Aviv park and hundreds of thousands of online views in the rest of the world.
This year, in the climate of acute tension and polarization in Israel from October 7 to the present, no ceremony in attendance in Tel Aviv, even behind closed doors, will be possible. Everything will take place online. Therefore, it will be more important than ever to respond to the invitation to participate in these events that are designed as moments of coming together and reconciliation between deeply wounded communities.
We therefore invite the large community of readers, supporters, and sister organizations of Pressenza in its various editions to register through these links:
May 12 – Joint Ceremony in Remembrance of the Fallen:
8,30pm Jerusalem / 6.30pm London / 1.30pm New York / 10.30pm Los Angeles
https://www.afcfp.org/2024-joint-memorial-day-ceremony
May 15 – Joint Commemoration of the Nakba:
https://www.afcfp.org/2024-joint-nakba-remembrance-ceremony
Both links open to various options, indicating the possibility of registering either individually, as organizations, or as small groups of sympathizers in your living room; and, if possible, of contributing (not mandatory) a donation that will go to fund the many welfare projects in the areas most massacred by the conflict. The whole thing will be conducted in Arabic and Hebrew, with simultaneous translation into English. In case of difficulties, it will not be a problem to review the ceremonies in streaming with subtitles…
And who knows, maybe it will be possible to organize something in the months to come in Italy as well, to support this peace project that, not surprisingly, has won awards several times (the last time just a few days ago in the Basque city of Guernica on the anniversary of the 1937 bombings : https://www.facebook.com/c4peace/posts/759473356338891?ref=embed_post).
To learn more, here are links to the websites: https://cfpeace.org/ + https://www.afcfp.org
+ Facebook pages:
https://www.facebook.com/c4peace + https://www.facebook.com/AFCombatantsForPeace
On this occasion we are happy to announce the upcoming release of an Instant Book on this beautiful story of the Combatants for Peace that Multimage publishing house has put in the pipeline in the Pressenza Books series and that will be presented on May 30 at Eirenefest in Rome with the participation of Luisa Morgantini, Ilaria Olimpico and Daniela Bezzi, who edited the book.
Traslation by Evelyn Tischer
