Parents Circle—Families Forum Dialogue Event

Good evening. Thank you all for your presence tonight. I have the privilege of being with you to introduce an organization that—for more than two decades¹—has sought to build a foundation for peace and reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians.

The Parents Circle—Families Forum is a group of more than 700 families, Palestinian and Israeli. Each member of the Forum has lost a close family member to the conflict.

Robi Damelin and Mohamed Abu Jafar are here with us, representing the Parents Circle. Robi lost her son; Mohamed lost his brother.

Over the course of our time together this evening, they will each share their personal stories of loss and grief…and their journey toward reconciliation.

I first met Robi over 15 years ago while I was traveling in Jerusalem, and I learned of the work of the Parents Circle. Soon after, a delegation came to Georgetown to work with some of our colleagues who focus on conflict resolution and organization building.

Over the years, the Parents Circle has been asked to speak at the United Nations, they have conducted summer camps for Israeli and Palestinian children, and they have shared their personal stories, jointly—always speaking together, one Israeli and one Palestinian—in thousands of different settings, seeking to promote dialogue, empathy, and reconciliation.

The Parents Circle has persisted in its mission in the midst of this ongoing conflict. The difficulty…and the importance…of their work has only grown.

The horrible violence and destruction of these past few months—the assault of October 7, hostages taken, the attacks in Gaza and rising violence against Palestinians in the West Bank…this escalation of a decades-long conflict—may seem to make conversations about reconciliation impossible.

As Robi and Mohamed will share, these conversations can be challenging.

In these moments, when dialogue seems difficult, we are reminded of two fundamental commitments: our belief in the inherent dignity of each person…and our pursuit of the common good—a transformative idea—the understanding that there is something we can achieve together that we could never possibly achieve alone.

There is no more urgent time for us to recognize the inherent dignity, the humanity of each person, each Israeli and each Palestinian, each member of our global community. There is no more important moment for us to reaffirm a commitment to the common good—sustained by the possibilities that can only be realized when we work together.

I hope that, in sharing this time together, here, in this sacred space, with the support of our Campus Ministry, our Chaplains, and so many colleagues and peers, these commitments come alive for us in new ways, so that we may experience, more deeply and more clearly, the bonds that unite us and the world that we share. From the depths of despair and grief, let us find hope in one another.

Thank you for your presence this evening.

It is now my pleasure to welcome Shiri Ourian who is the executive director of the American Friends of the Parents Circle to introduce our dialogue program tonight.

1. Founded in 1995, first joint meeting in 1998.