There are two people on the Zoom screen in front of me. One, a Palestinian man in the ancient city of Jericho, in the West Bank. The other, an Israeli woman in Tel Aviv.
They’re separated, literally and metaphorically, by a wall. And they’re united in loss: specifically, the loss of a child. Something else unites them: a determination to build bridges of shared understanding at a time when the gulf between their peoples seems deeper than ever.
They’re both part of the Parents Circle – Families Forum (PCFF), membership of which has the grimmest of qualifications: that your child has been killed in the conflict. Their backgrounds could not be more different, and yet, partly because of their loss, they’ve arrived in the same place. The fighting has to end, and bereaved parents are better placed than most to achieve that.
