“We need to decide how to live side by side together or, unfortunately, we will continue to sacrifice our kids.”
Mrs Damelin, originally from South Africa, was convinced “that if we don’t have a reconciliation process as an integral part of any future peace agreement, we will never have peace. We will just have another ceasefire until the next time.”
After her 26-year-old son David was killed by a Palestinian sniper, she recognised she had a choice to make. “You can decide to go on the path of revenge but I knew immediately that I wanted to prevent other families, both Israeli and Palestinian, from experiencing this pain.”
She was advised to go to East Jerusalem, where she looked into the eyes of Palestinian mothers who had lost their children.
“We all shared the same pain,” she said, and “that pain could be the most effective catalyst for change”. She has travelled the world in the cause.
There was no expectation of “instant reconciliation. It is a process that can happen over years or it can never happen at all.”
