Aa

Adjust size of text

Aa

Follow us and continue the conversation

Your saved articles

You haven't saved any articles

What are you looking for?

Two fathers united in grief, and a desire for peace

TJI Pick
Print this
6

Published: 8 September 2020

Last updated: 4 March 2024

Both Bassam Aramin, a Palestinian academic, and Rami Elhanan, an Israeli graphic designer, have lost children to violence; they now give lectures calling for peace

RAMI: I MET BASSAM for the first time in 2005 at the birth of Combatants for Peace, the organisation he co-founded with my son Elik. His story amazed me: a Palestinian freedom fighter who from the age of 17 spent seven years in an Israeli jail and became a prisoners’ leader. The most extraordinary thing for me, as the son of a Holocaust survivor, was the way he changed to non-violent resistance after watching the movie Schindler’s List in jail.

On January 16, 2007, I was driving with my wife to pick up her mom from Jerusalem’s airport when I got a phone call telling me that Bassam’s daughter Abir had been shot in the back of her head outside her school in Anata [a town in the West Bank]. We turned around and went straight to the hospital; we spent two days by her bed.

Abir was the third of his six children, and she was born in 1997, the same year my daughter Smadar was killed in a suicide bombing by Palestinian terrorists in Jerusalem. Smadar was the third of my four children. What happened to Abir, for me, was like losing my daughter a second time.

BASSAM: Rami’s family name is Elhanan; in Arabic it means “mercy” or “love”, so a special name. From the beginning I knew he was very special. I can say I fell in love with this man, very human, very noble. I knew I could work with him: he supports the Palestinian cause, he could represent my case, my people.

I will never represent his side as someone who belongs to the oppressors but I can represent him as a human being: he wants to live in a moral place, not occupying anyone. This is the importance of a personal relationship: if I know an Israeli, then I know that they are not all the same.

FULL STORY 'If he can go on, I can go on': the two fathers united in grief, and a desire for peace (Good Weekend)

READ MORE

'I waited for the bullet that would end this nightmare': Palestinians brutalised by Israeli cop gang speak out (Haaretz)
Five Border Police officers have been charged in a shocking case of violence against Palestinian workers, which included beatings, humiliation and also robbery. Testimonies of two of the victims

Palestinian governor of Jerusalem boxed in by Israeli authorities (Al-Monitor)
Since assuming his post, Palestinian Gov. of Jerusalem Adnan Ghaith has been subjected to a harassment campaign by the Israeli authorities, recently being handed a notice restricting his movement within the city of Jerusalem.

Photo: Bassam Aramin, left, and Rami Elhanan (Sarah Lee/Eyevine/AustralScope)

Keep our publication free:
Support quality journalism with your donation

Since 2015, TJI has provided an independent voice on Australia, Israel and the Jewish World at zero cost to our readers.

Your contribution — big or small — is critical in helping us create a platform for diverse content, fresh voices and regular coverage on issues that matter to you.

SELECT FREQUENCY
AUSTRALIA AU$

The Jewish Independent acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of Country throughout Australia. We pay our respects to Elders past and present, and strive to honour their rich history of storytelling in our work and mission.

Enter site