About the Event
The lives of everyone connected to Israel and Palestine will never be the same since October 7th 2023. With tens of thousands of lives cut short, families torn apart, children traumatised, now more than ever we need to continue to show up for one another to mourn and remember. And, as we do every year, call for an end to the violence and demand a political solution that brings freedom, justice and safety for all. With all eyes of the international community on Israel and Palestine, now more than ever, we need to unite around our sorrow and stay strong in building hope that another way is not only possible but imperative.
This year will be the 19th annual joint Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day ceremony organised by Combatants for Peace and the Parents Circle Family Forum. It is the only one of its kind and it is the largest Israeli-Palestinian jointly organised peace event. Last year over 15,000 people were in attendance physically and around 200,000 virtually from all around the world. The event is held every year on “Yom HaZikaron” (Israeli Memorial Day), a national day of mourning for Israelis. Our ceremony is radically different from the typical ceremonies that promote a narrative that war and death are inevitable and necessary. Instead, the joint memorial event is a unique opportunity for Israelis and Palestinians to grieve together and stand united in demanding an end to the bloodshed. In mourning together, we seek not to equate experiences, but rather transform despair into hope and build compassion around our shared humanity. We remind ourselves and the world that occupation, oppression, and conflict are not inevitable.
This year, we will centre the ceremony around the stories of children, whose only crime was being born Palestinian or Israeli. What will be the future of the next generation? How can we bring hope amidst so much tragedy?
Please note that while the organisers of this event are grantees of NIF internationally, they are not a grantee of NIF Australia. Nevertheless, we are proud to partner on this important event and invite you to make a direct contribution at the information below.
About Combatants for Peace
Combatants for Peace is a grassroots movement of Israelis and Palestinians, working together to end the occupation and bring peace, equality and freedom to our homeland. Committed to joint nonviolence since our inception, we use civil resistance, education and other creative means of activism to transform systems of oppression and build a free and peaceful future from the ground up. Launched in 2006, we are the only movement worldwide that was founded by former fighters on both sides of an active conflict. As a result, we were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017 and 2018.
About the Bereaved Families Forum
The Parents Circle-Families Forum (PCFF) is a joint Israeli-Palestinian organisation of over 600 families, all of whom have lost an immediate family member to the ongoing conflict. Moreover, the PCFF has concluded that the process of reconciliation between nations is a prerequisite to achieving a sustainable peace. The organisation thus utilises all resources available in education, public meetings and the media, to spread these ideas. The Parents Circle-Families Forum was created in 1995 by Mr. Yitzhak Frankenthal and a few Israeli families. The first meeting between bereaved Palestinians from Gaza and Israeli families took place in 1998.
