by daniel estrin
jta
jerusalem | As they usually do, Israeli radio stations marked this year’s Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism by switching their playlists to somber tunes.
But Radio All For Peace, a Jerusalem-based, Israeli-Palestinian station whose listeners are split about evenly between Israel and the Palestinian territories, extended its Memorial Day commemoration across borders: It broadcast a daylong marathon of interviews with bereaved families on both sides of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
The interviews were taken from the station’s weekly show “New Direction,” hosted in Hebrew and Arabic by Israeli Sharon Mishiker and Palestinian Aziz Abu Sarah, who each lost a brother in the conflict.
The hosts belong to the Bereaved Families Forum, an organization of Israeli and Palestinian families who lost a loved one and now work toward reconciliation between the two peoples.
In each hourlong program, the “New Direction” hosts interview a Palestinian and an Israeli from the forum about why they chose dialogue over revenge.
In introducing the daylong marathon in Hebrew and Arabic on Monday April 23, Mishiker and Abu Sarah said, “To honor both peoples and their emotions, and with a deep commitment to forwarding peace and reconciliation, Radio All For Peace decided to dedicate this day to the bereaved on both sides who chose a pathway of reconciliation and peace building, and not a pathway of revenge and killing.”
The 12-hour marathon ended in time for the start of Israeli Independence Day.
Among those interviewed was Robi Damelin, an Israeli activist in the Bereaved Families Forum whose son David was killed by a Palestinian sniper during military service. Damelin wrote a letter of reconciliation to the sniper, which was delivered to the sniper’s family by two Palestinian members of the forum.
Others interviewed included Arnona Weiler, an Israeli who lost two siblings in the conflict; Naila Daruza, a Palestinian whose photojournalist husband was killed while on assignment; Yuval Rot, an Israeli whose brother was kidnapped and killed by Hamas; Aisha il-Khatib, a Palestinian whose brother was wounded on his way to visit his uncle and who died years later from his wounds; and Nadia Kadur, a Druse whose son died in a suicide bombing.
The interviewers are no strangers to bereavement themselves: Abu Sarah’s older brother, Tayseer, died as a result of Israeli jail beatings and interrogations 18 years ago. And 10 years ago Mishiker’s younger brother, Gilad, was one of 73 soldiers who died in a large-scale helicopter crash en route to army service in Israel’s southern Lebanon security zone.
“When you lose someone, no matter if you are Palestinian or Israeli, you feel the same,” Mishiker said.“The process of reconciliation is a very, very slow process. It’s not a fast-food counter.”
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California