Recently, I watched a documentary entitled
Another Side of Peace.
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"If we, who have paid the highest price ever, can talk to each other, then anyone can."
-- Roni Hirshenzon, Israeli, in
Another Side of Peace"To talk about peace, I need a permit. But to kill someone, I don't need a permit."
-- Ghazi Briegieth, Palestinian, in
Another Side of PeaceAnother Side of Peace is a very powerful story, a sad, joyous, beautiful inspiration.
This documentary movie is about the triumph of hope over despair, and how (once again) the personal connections between people at the lowest levels make all the difference.
On the one hand,
Another Side of Peace gives us a quick glimpse at the
complete cost of war. Not the immediate cost -- the dead and wounded -- but the extended, TOTAL annihilation of any chance for a normal life, a normal society, that war always brings. The crushing, never ending grief, of parents for their children, brothers for their brothers. This is a very, very powerful statement all by itself.
But
Another Side of Peace also tells the story of two men who could be sworn enemies. One man loses one son to the violence, and a second to despair -- and still embraces his Palestinian brothers and sisters. Another loses his brother to the violence, and yet still decides to work for peace with his Israeli neighbors.
Both men become friends with each other, and spend their days trying to build other little bridges between Israeli and Palestinian families -- bridges born out of a common loss, but sustained through their common humanity.
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It's very interesting to me that in
Another Side of Peace Roni Hirshenzon talks of reconciliation without forgiveness. So often I've seen the two linked as if they were inseparable parts of a complete whole. They may be for many, but not for this bereaved father, who disagrees with the desire for revenge expressed in the writings on the memorial at the site where his son Amir died, and yet cannot bring himself to forgive.
You know, he was probably asked that question. Everyone
always asks this question:
"Have you forgiven those who have wronged you?"
Roni Hirshenzon answered by saying he's not forgiving God, and he's not forgiving the Arabs, but he still wants reconciliation -- coexistence
without violence -- because that is the only way to a true peace.
Perhaps a better question to ask someone who's been done a great wrong might be:
"Have you found a way to move on, to continue
living?"
...and Roni Hirshenzon's answer is clearly "Yes. And this is how."
Roni Hirshenzon worked through the pain of his loss and chose to embrace life, not revenge. He helped found Parents Circle, a group of Israeli and Palestinian families who gather to acknowledge their common humanity, their shared experience of love, and the loss of loved ones to the senseless violence of armed conflict -- occupation, and resistance; death, and still more death.
These Palestinian and Israeli families gather to acknowledge a simple truth: peace is love.
Ghazi Briegieth is a Palestinian who lost his brother to the conflict, a Parents Circle member who makes things happen in the West Bank. He works around all the obstacles, the occupation, the curfews, the reluctance of some Palestinians, including some bereaved families, to embrace the concept of reconciliation with similar families on the other side. He brings the Israeli bereaved into the West Bank to meet with their bereaved Palestinian brothers and sisters. And he gets some of these newly bereaved Palestinians to the Parents Circle seminars in east Jerusalem.
Ghazi Briegieth threw rocks at Israeli soldiers during the first Intifada, but now, in his 40s with a family of his own, he's looking beyond himself, beyond the conflict, to a better life for his children, and perhaps their children.
A better life for his young son, named for the uncle he will never meet.
Ghazi Briegieth guides his friend Roni Hirshenzon into the West Bank to meet with the Albatniej family. He works as a go-between between this strange Israeli, who wants to embrace his "enemies", and this suspicious family, still sick with grief after the recent death of their son, their brother.
During Roni Hirshenzon's visit, the Albatniej family recalls a time when they worked with Israelis, when they slept at each other's homes. Both sides acknowledge the pain they feel when they see children on the other side killed by the violence. Ultimately two Albatniej brothers become members of Parents Circle.
An important moment for me was Roni Hirshhenzon's visit to Kamal and Saelma Zeidan, Arab Druze parents whose two sons were killed one year apart. This meeting showed the essence of the Parents Circle concept -- two families, one Arab, one Israeli, both bearing the hammer blows of losing sons, first one, then the other, and both sharing a way to cope with their losses.
Roni Hirshenzon and Ghazi Briegieth have no illusions about what they're trying to accomplish. They only know that to do nothing, to NOT work for peace, would be a crime. And so they do what they can, one person, one family at a time.
That should be a lesson for all of us.
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For more information on this documentary movie, please see
http://www.anothersideofpeace.orgFred
