The demonstrators who took to the world’s streets yesterday saw only the black and white in this conflict. They didn't speak out about the suffering on both sides; not a word about the qassams and the tremendous psychological and physical damage they cause, only about the bombing in Gaza.
There are some people, however, who do understand only too well that beneath the simplistic black and white view, there is a more complex reality.
Yesterday evening, before the news broke about the start of the ground offensive in Gaza, a message was forwarded to me that had been written by Robi Damelin. Robi's 29-year-old son, David, was killed at an IDF roadblock north of Ofra in March 2002 while on reserve duty.
Robi belongs to the Parents Circle - Families Forum (PCFF), a grassroots organisation of bereaved Palestinians and Israelis. The PCFF promotes reconciliation as an alternative to hatred and revenge.
If bereaved people on both sides can recognise each other’s pain and communicate with one another, we can but hope that the day will come when our leaders will do the same.
"How I wish I could view life through certain eyes of black and white, but this grey picture which insists on coming up tells me I do not have the monopoly on truth,” wrote Robi Damelin.
"How I wish I could manage my life with no questions. The only thing I am certain of, is that when the media goes away all those who have lost loved ones will experience a pain so great in the heart that they feel they will surely burst. This pain has no colour, it is not predominantly green, or blue and white. This pain has no political identity and will always be with you no matter what mask you choose to wear on a particular day.
"The mother in Gaza has been filled with dread since a week or so ago when 80 rockets were fired at Israeli towns which are just a stone’s throw away from her home. She knew with certainty that she would have to pay, and pay dearly for the bravado of her leaders refusing to renew any peace agreements; she sensed that she and all her neighbors would once again be the victims of politicians from both sides who only have one way of solving conflict, no matter how right they are, and that is by violence.
"This mother, just like the one in Sderot, has no way of protecting her loved ones from the violence. Her children, just like the children of the surrounding towns, are innocent and should have the right to go to sleep at night without wetting their beds from fear, and without the dreadful nightmares they have.
"So let us look at the black and white, through the eyes of these children who for so long are the pawns of people bent on a path of revenge. They scream from their shrouds: stop the killing, but no one hears. All are busy justifying their cause, egged on by their supporters in many lands, whose children are not dressed in uniforms or suffering the daily dreadful life of the Palestinian and the children living in the Kibbutzim and towns surrounding Gaza. How easy not to compromise when you are sitting in a safe place, and have never been put to the test. How easy not to compromise when your children are not hungry, and cannot go to school, and have no future.
"There can be no winners in this war, only more broken hearts.
"So what to do, with all of this grey? One thing for sure is that we have to talk to each other, and face up to the truth, that neither nation will disappear in a puff of smoke. We have to compromise for the sake of those children screaming for safety; we must stop the method of revenge, and look for new solutions which do not involve killing. Surely with all of the great minds in this area, we can come up with a peaceful way to live with some dignity.
"I for one will continue with my work in the Parents Circle - Families Forum, bereaved Palestinian and Israeli Families for reconciliation, not with the attitude of black and white, but always with a tinge of grey, and the understanding that violence begets violence."
