Shared Grief: Israeli and Palestinian Fathers United by Loss

"Both are going through the same crucifixion." Pope Francis thus presents to the faithful Mr. Rami Elhanan, Israeli, and Bassam Aramin, Palestinian, two fathers who have lost a daughter during the long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Parallel destinies and a common pain that have intertwined, dating back to events that occurred well before October 7 and the current war caused by the Hamas pogrom. Smadar, Rami's daughter, was 14 years old when she was killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber who blew himself up while shopping with friends in the center of Jerusalem. "The attackers were dressed as women, explosive belts fixed around their stomachs. They had carefully shaved and wore veils to hide their faces. They were all originally from a village in the West Bank. For two of them, it was the first time they had set foot in Jerusalem," recounted writer Colum McCann in a book titled "Apeirogon" (Feltrinelli), winner of the Terzani Prize. In those pages, one enters the heart of a story dense with pain and hope. Amir, on the other hand, was the daughter of Bassam and was fatally shot outside her school by a young Israeli soldier. "The bullet had been fired from the back of a moving jeep, through a metal slit on the rear door, ten centimeters by ten. Abir was ten years old, she was leaving the grocery store with two friends. They were returning to class for a math test, the Pythagorean theorem." On the twentieth anniversary of the death of journalist and writer Tiziano Terzani, the Anam Tiziano Terzani association, in collaboration with Assopace Palestina, in addition to having organized the audience in the Vatican (thanks to Lev and its director Lorenzo Fazzini) decided to offer the public a moment of reflection titled: "Wanting peace. Dialogue between two fathers" in Venice. Rami and Bassam will dialogue with Luisa Morgantini, former Vice President of the European Parliament, President of Assopace Palestina, and with Gad Lerner. Cardinal Parolin: "Vatican against anti-Semitic acts of 10/7 but we are outraged by the massacre in Gaza"