Rami Elhanan, the son of a Holocaust survivor, is an Israeli peace activist who lost his daughter to a terrorist suicide bomber when she was just 14.  And yet instead of allowing this incredible tragedy to entrench his hatred for his enemies, Rami did something remarkable – he and his wife joined Bereaved Families for Peace, an organization which brings together Israelis and Palestinians who have lost loved ones to the conflict (including the relatives of suicide bombers).  This group protest for peace, they have given thousands of lectures in school, they have established a hotline whereby Israelis can call and talk to Palestinians (and vice versa — enabling well over 500,000 such conversations to take place to date), and they even donate blood for the victims of “the other side” (stating calmly to their critics and detractors that “it is far less painful to donate blood to the needy than to spill it unnecessarily as though it was water”) … Rami is still regularly persecuted in Israel for his amazing sense of compassion and his courageous willingness to speak the Truth – namely, that all lives are sacred, and that the only way to peace is by choosing to act peace-fully.

So much more could be said about this wonderful man and this wonderful organization, and yet I will allow the words of Rami Elhanan say what needs to be said …

 

“When someone murders your 14 year old daughter, the one and only thing you have in your head is unlimited anger and an urge for revenge that is stronger than death. This is a natural feeling, it’s only human. Most people feel that way, it’s understandable, it’s clear and it’s predictable. However, we are human beings and have a head on our shoulders, and inside that head we have a brain, and when the first madness of anger passes, you begin to ask yourself penetrating questions:  If I kill someone in revenge, will that bring my baby back to me? If I cause someone else pain, will that ease my own pain? And the answer to both these questions is absolutely ‘No’ … Thereafter, during a slow and difficult and painful process, you gradually reach the other road – the road of peace, and you try to understand:  What occurred here? What can drive someone to such anger and despair as to be willing to blow himself up together with little girls? And most importantly: What can you, personally, do to prevent this intolerable suffering from happening others? … This is the message that, together, my Palestinian brothers and sisters here beside me, we are putting across.  And we, the bereaved families of both sides, together from the depth of our mutual pain, are saying to you today: Our blood is the same red color, our suffering is identical, and all of us have the exact same bitter tears. So, if we, who have paid the highest price possible, can carry on a dialog, then everyone can! … There is no moral difference between the Israeli soldier at a checkpoint who prevents a Palestinian woman who is having a baby from going through, causing her to lose her baby, and the man who killed my daughter.  Just as my daughter was a victim of the Israeli occupation, so was the bomber … The only way forward is to talk to one another, to understand one another’s point of view – and to make concessions – to make Peace.” ~ via Rami Elhanan

Filed under: In LOVE with Humanity by Scaughdt