The joint Memorial Day Ceremony is the annual highlight of the activities implemented by Combatants for Peace, one of forumZFD's most long-standing partner organizations. This unique ceremony provides a space of mourning and remembering loved ones from both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict while fostering optimism in a shared future.
The event will be broadcasted live and with English translations. For more information and to join the live stream, please visit the Combatants for Peace website.
About Combatants for Peace
Combatants for Peace (CfP) was founded in 2006 as a joint movement of Israeli and Palestinian former fighters, who made the conscious decision of laying down their weapons and dedicated themselves to take on the peaceful fight to end all forms of violence, including the Israeli military occupation.
The movement identifies itself as a strong Israeli-Palestinian community that serves as a model for future viable binational relations. In order to achieve this vision, Combatants for Peace rests their work upon three pillars:
- Binational groups on the ground that are implementing community activities together, for example, replanting olive tree saplings of Palestinian farmers, which were uprooted by settlers.
- Changing attitudes through public meetings by way of national and international outreach, as well as educational activities, such as weekly storytelling events. At these events, younger generations, for example, pre-army school students, learn about the personal journey of transformation by Israeli and Palestinian Combatants for Peace members.
- Effecting broad-based resistance to the occupation through nonviolent actions, for instance, demonstrations and campaigns against settlement expansion as in Khan el Ahmar.
As a longstanding partner, the forumZFD Jerusalem office supported Combatants for Peace last year on increasing its effectiveness as a peace movement by focusing on issues like trust, unity, inclusivity, and strategy. We accompanied Combatants for Peace in a process-oriented way, drawing on a variety of tools and methods relating to nonviolent communication, nonviolent action research, campaign planning, and conflict-sensitive dialogues. forumZFD’s regional program aims to strengthen coalitions that develop joint strategies to promote inclusive narratives.