Ep. 75-Mothers Building Bridges: Israel, Palestine and The Path to Unity

TRANSCRIPT

Interview with Parent’s Circle Forum

Gissele: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the Love and Compassion podcast with Gissele. We believe that love and compassion have the power to heal our lives and our world. Don’t forget to like and subscribe for more amazing content.

Today we’re talking about reconciliation in the face of deep conflict, and we’ll be talking with Robi Damelin. Spokesperson and director of International Relations for the Parents Circle Families Forum joined the organization after her son was killed by a Palestinian sniper.

All her work on the ground in Palestine, Israel, and internationally is geared towards non-violence and reconciliation Robbie was named as a 2015 Woman of Impact by women in the world, Layla Alsheikh. lives in Bethlehem in the West Bank in 2002. Her six month old son.

 Sai became ill and Israeli soldiers prevented Lila from taking him to the hospital for more than five [00:01:00] hours. Sai soon died from the lack of timely treatment. Lila joined the Parents’ Circle in 2016 following her son’s death. She never thought about revenge, but rather has devoted her time and energy to ensuring a better, more peaceful future for her children.

The Parents Circle Families Forum is a joint Israeli Palestinian organization made up of over 800 bereaved families. Their common bond is that they have lost a close family member to conflict, but instead of choosing revenge, they have chosen the path of reconciliation. Through their educational activities.

These bereaved members have joined together to take tens of thousands of Palestinians and Israelis on journeys of reconciliation. it is often raw and always emotional, but out of these interaction comes change. Not the kind of change that makes headlines, but a more [00:02:00] personal and profound shift in perspective.

As a joint Palestine and Israeli peace organization, the PCFF models, constructive dialogue around shared values. Even since October 7th, 2023, its staff members and thousands of participants are still committed to peace in a way forward that centers around empathy and humanization. The PCFF focuses on the shared value of the sanctity of human life.

This conversation brings our attention to the values that Palestinians and Israelis can agree upon, even in the darkness of times. Please join me in welcoming Robi and Layla. Hello. Hi.

Robi: Thank you for Yes.

Gissele: Oh, no. Thank, thank you so much for being on the show. Your message right now is, is so, so important. I wanna to start by giving each of you an opportunity to share your [00:03:00] stories.

Layla: Thank you. First of all, we are so honored to be with you today. my name is Layla. Alsheikh, I live in Bethlehem, but I was born and raised in Jordan. ’cause my family, they are originally from Bethlehem, but they went to Jordan ’cause my father was a teacher and he went there to teach the children in the refugees camps.

But after that war started in 1967, so, The government during that time, take a decision not to allow the Palestinian to return back. So they lost their citizenship and they become, Jordanian. I didn’t visit Palestine before that, but my father have thousands of stories about Palestine.

Layla: So I love Palestine from what I hear from my father. And for me, it’s become like a dream to return back and to, to visit all the places, all the people that my father talk about. And that dream come true in [00:04:00] 1999 after I met my husband, he’s originally from Bethlehem too. And, I returned back, after we engaged to get married and to start our new life.

And I was really being so happy to be here to, to return back to my roots and, That happiness become much more after one year when we have our first dau