Around Town

On July 4, the day that BBC Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston was released by kidnappers after 114 days in captivity, his father was greeted to a standing ovation at the Amnesty Media Awards that took place that same night. In an introduction to Johnston’s work, which won the award for best radio coverage, journalist Kate Adie said that his reports always sought to represent ‘the voices of both sides’ in the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Johnston’s release was a glimmer of light in a conflict that has claimed thousands of lives over the last 60 years. But for those ‘voices’ behind the fighting – those who have lost family members in the conflict – can there ever be any hope?
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Avraham Shomroni is an Israeli who believes that there is a way forward – but it doesn’t lie in the hands of politicians. His 20-year-old son died while on a training flight with the Israeli Air Force in 1974 but instead of seeking revenge for his young son’s death, he has put his energy into a remarkable group that brings together other bereaved parents, from both Israeli and Palestinian sides.

Shomroni is a member of The Families Forum, a network of some 400 Israeli and Palestinian families who have lost relatives in the conflict. The group has bases in Israel and the West Bank, as well as international offices. This week, Shomroni is visiting London to take part in an event set up by the Families Forum that features work from a six-month photographic project between seven Israelis and seven Palestinian teenagers who have lost family members in the fighting.

‘After my son Jonathon’s death, I felt an unending sense of grief and anger. I began to feel that people had already paid a terrible price and further bloodshed could not be the answer,’ said Shomroni, speaking from his home in Tel Aviv, about his decision to become involved in the group. Everyone in the group has a story of personal loss. ‘I grew up looking for revenge,’ said Aziz Abu Sarah, 27, a Palestinian who lives in East Jersusalem. Sarah’s 19 year old brother, Tayseer, died in 1991whilst being held in an Israeli jail, following his arrest for throwing stones at Israeli soldiers. Sarah became involved in the Forum after studying Hebrew and meeting, for the first time, Israelis who were not soldiers. ‘In the group, we are unified through our pain and loss. It gives us strength. We understand each other more than our own people,’ he says. ‘These days, I see Israelis as human beings. There are good and bad. I had 50 Jewish friends come to my wedding in the West Bank last year. It was scary, but wonderful they were there.’

Shomroni and Sarah are also involved in running Families Forum workshops in senior high schools in an attempt to talk to students before they enter the army at 18. ‘When we talk to young people , they say, “We can’t talk to the other side. There is nothing to talk about.” I have complete empathy with that. I am also afraid of what is going to happen to my family. But after they talk to us they start saying, “Well, the fighting is not helping us anyway,” and start to listen,’ says Shomroni.

Founded in 1994 by Yizhak Frankenthal, who lost his 19-year-old son, Arik, the group carries out more than 1,000 classroom visits a year to schools in Israeli and Palestinian areas, as well giving seminars in Palestinian refugee camps and running a confidential phone line, Hello Peace, which allows Palestinians and Israelis to ask each other about their lives; the only contact most Palestinians usually have with Israelis is with soldiers at checkpoints.

However, group members often face opposition from their own societies, who consider what they are doing a betrayal. ‘Once I was talking in a class and a girl got up and said, “This is left-wing brainwashing,” and urged her classmates to walk out. Thankfully, she was the only one to walk out,’ says Shomroni, who adds that the group is not party political. ‘It is not a peace camp. It is examining this issue which divides us and attempting to break down barriers,’ he says.

While Shomroni acknowledges that the recent Hamas takeover in Gaza has only increased tension on all sides, he says, ‘I feel we have a privileged position. If people like us can make a breakthrough, so can others who haven’t had our tragic experiences. We don’t have the power to sign any peace treaties but we can help change the emotional climate.’ Surely that is the most important place to start.

Delegates from The Families Forum speak at ‘PhotoVoice’s Magnum Photographers Lecture’ at the Royal Geographical Society on Wednesday.