The most important day of the year

On Monday, April 24, for the 18th year, a joint Israeli-Palestinian memorial day ceremony was held in which more than 10,000 people participated in Tel Aviv, including 200 Palestinian families with over hundreds of thousands online from Israel, Palestine and the world at large.

The event is co-sponsored by the Bereaved Families Forum, the Parents Circle and Fighters for Peace. These are two joint Israeli-Palestinian organizations representing those who have paid the highest price in this conflict. This will be the 17th time I've attended the party. I only missed the first one, simply because I didn't know about it. Attendance and participation by Israelis and Palestinians has increased from a few dozen people to hundreds of thousands (including those who participate online). In my opinion, this is the most important and most urgent national celebration of the year in Israel and Palestine. This is perhaps the only event of the year that is equally difficult and important for Israelis and Palestinians. This is also a ceremony that brings out very strong emotional reactions - both in support of its presence and in opposition to it.

The opposition includes those (on both sides) who falsely claim that the participants commemorate the death of terrorists. It is true that Israeli soldiers killed in wars and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are commemorated in ceremonies. Their stories are told by their parents, brothers, or sons and daughters. It is also true that for many Palestinians who oppose this ceremony, they consider those Israeli soldiers killed by Palestinian terrorists sent to kill them. Many Israelis believe that every Palestinian killed by Israelis, soldiers or civilians, were "terrorists" and that their death was justified, because they also believe that the Israeli army is the most moral army in the world. In our reality, we also know that many innocent Israelis and Palestinians have fallen victim to this conflict.

Those who support this joint Day of Remembrance ceremony must believe that we are all victims of this conflict in many ways and that the best way to reach its end is to acknowledge the pain we all suffer as this conflict continues. The price paid for the death of a loved one in this conflict is very high and if we do not do everything in our power to end this conflict, we are guilty of crimes against our humanity. We Israelis and Palestinians all know personally too many people who have been killed in this conflict. We all buried our loved ones, friends and colleagues. Some of us personally know people who have been killed on the other side of the conflict as well. Some of us have attended funerals and condolence visits to the families of loved ones killed on the other side. The pain is the same on both sides. The longing and the memories are the same for an Israeli mother and a Palestinian mother. The pains of fathers, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles and grandparents do not differ in religion or nationality. Some talk about the dead, describing them as heroes or martyrs, does not hide the real pain felt by the television when it is turned off. Parents on both sides enter the bedrooms of their dead children with the same longing and pain. Suffering is suffering no matter which side of the conflict you come from.

In this joint ceremony, families tell their stories. They talk about the person they buried and the circumstances of their death. The stories are told in both Hebrew and Arabic, and the common audience of Israelis and Palestinians is touched by the humanity shown by those who have the courage to face the enemy on the other side and connect with tenderness. Their message is: enough! We don't want more killing. We don't want to bury more of our loved ones.