On the eve of Yom Hazikaron – the Israeli Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism Remembrance Day, the Combatants for Peace organization will be holding its fourth annual memorial day service in Tel Aviv.
The service stands out as an event that seeks to commemorate victims on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Combatants for Peace is an organization that firmly denounces war and believes that the best way to commemorate the victims is to work towards peace. It operates in Israel, the West Bank, and around the world to help enable reconciliation.
Combatants for peace protest house demolitions in al-Ram (Photo: Shahaf, Activestills)
The event will bring together Israeli and Palestinian families who have lost family members in the fighting.
Artists participating in the event will include singers Rona Keinan, Mira Awad, Shlomi Shaban and Ze'ev Tene, and Israel Prize laureate director J'ad Neeman. Other prominent artists, musicians, activists and intellectuals will take part in the service.
Elik Elhanan, whose sister was murdered in a Jerusalem suicide bombing, spoke at the event two years ago. Elhanan said then, "War is not predetermined. I would like this day to be a day of memory, contemplation and of reckoning. A day for us to look not only at the past, but also forward, towards the future".
Israeli coordinator Chen Alon told Ynet this week, "We decided to mark our independent memorial day, in order to create a common memory for a common future without blurring the differences, the needs and the wishes of each side.
"The quantity of pain accumulated in both societies is huge, and today we have the opportunity to see the human sides of each one's enemy."
The memorial service will be held April 27th at 9 pm at the Tmuna Theater, 8 Soncino Street, Tel Aviv. The event is free to the public.
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