Bereaved Israeli mother says 7 October horror left her urgently working to end conflict
Elana Kaminka, whose son Yannai, 20 was killed by Hamas appeared at a Yachad event with Palestinian actvist Aziz Abu Sarah, whose brother Tayseer, 19, died after spending time in an Israeli jail
Lee Harpin is the Jewish News's political editor
An Israeli mother whose eldest son was murdered by Hamas on 7 October has appeared alongside a Palestinian activist who lost his brother – with both speaking of the urgent need to reject violence and seek peaceful solutions to the deadly conflict.
Elana Kaminka, whose eldest son Yannai, 20, a commander in the Home Front Command, was killed battling against Hamas at the Zikim IDF training base, paid an emotional tribute to him as she spoke at Yachad’s annual fundraising event in central London on Wednesday.
“I don’t know if it’s possible to explain the depth of shock we felt,” said Kaminka, of her family’s response to the loss of her son, and the fear that Hamas terrorists could yet storm their house, close to the Gaza border.
But she added: “I understood that there was no way we could have a safe and fair solution, unless we could all live in safety and live with a sense of dignity and justice.
“And I don’t think that I ever felt differently. I think that what changed in my mind after 7 October is that it became much more urgent than beforehand. After losing I realised we have no time to wait.
“It has to be now, and that’s the only thing I could focus my attention on since October 7th. I think that’s what’s changed the most for me, is the sense of urgency.”
Aziz Abu Sarah, who had seen his brother die of internal injuries after being released from an Israeli jail following a year-long detention for allegations of stone throwing, also told the audience that as a Palestinian peace activist the 7 October massacre only made him step up his work entering into coalitions with like-minded Israelis.
“We don’t have the luxury of saying let us weight for another generation,” he reasoned, of the need to intensify efforts to build peace in the aftermath of 7 October.
“I think nothing p***es me off more than when people say things will be better in a generation or two. I grew up in a time when people said that. Then 30 years later things only got worse.
“What do we imagine will happen if we don’t stop it? I think of the many thousands of children in Gaza now who are going through what I went through as a child.
“I think that if we are not able to stop what is happening, if we cannot reach out to them, then what do we expect the next generation to look like? It’s not going to be peace, it’s going to be worse.”
Speaking frankly, during a conversation moderated by journalist Jonathan Freedland, both Elana and Aziz were under no illusion about the scale of the task to convince large numbers of Israelis and Palestinians that peace was possible soon.
The pair were among those to have found help and support for their loss through the Parents Circle – Families Forum organisation set up to assist bereaved Israelis and Palestinians.
While advocating for a future of dignity and security for Palestinians and Israelis she is also a mother of three children, including her son, who was conscripted to a paramedics unit a mere six weeks following his older brother’s death.
Elana said she was regularly met with people attempting to remind her that efforts to find a peaceful solution had been tried and had failed in the past.
“My response is always that we have been trying war for 100 years and that hasn’t worked so well either. You know, we have the most right-wing government ever and 1200 Israelis were killed in one day.”
Pointing to the “enormous creativity” the Jewish people had shown in so many fields – whether high-tech, the arts or medicine – she said there had been “zero creativity in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.”
She added: “And we know that war and endless cycles of violence don’t lead us anywhere.”
Aziz spoke of how his initial response to his brother’s death had been one of revenge, with him joining the Fatah Youth movement.
His older brother Tayseer was arrested from home by the Israel Defence Forces on suspicion of stone throwing and detained for almost a year, before his death, aged 19.
But after meeting with Israelis who showed they wanted to reach out to him as he learned Hebrew, he set upon a path that has led to him being acclaimed as a a peace builder, cultural educator, entrepreneur, author and international speaker.
“My brother was killed, a year later, my dad’s cousin, who was our next door neighbor, was killed by a group of settlers.
“A couple of years later, another person in my family gets killed. This has happened many times after, I was furious,” he recalled of his days seeking revenge.
“When my when my parents found out my involvement in Fatah, they were devastated, angry, terrified, or afraid that I’ll end up in the same place my brother was,” added Aziz.
“And the fear of being arrested, if you grew up in any Palestinian town you have this fear of that knock in the middle of the night that you never know if you’ll ever come back from it.”
But he added: “A lot has changed since I was 18 years old. This has been what been a big focus … Israel and Palestine and other places, peace building, conflict resolution, reconciliation.
“I’ve worked in Afghanistan and Syria and Colombia and but since 7 October, my focus has been in Israel and Palestine.”
But looking at the current situation hr said that with announcements such as the recent expansion of 22 settlements in the West Bank, many Palestinians saw little chance of peace in the near future.
But he said this had made him step up efforts to maintain hope for a better future for Palestinians. He also noted how countries such as South Africa, Northern Ireland had seen bitter conflicts eventually come to an end.
Aziz also called for governments such as the one in the UK to step up sanctions against the Israel government.
“I think the whole equation needs to change,” he said, “like people who are fundraising to build settlements in Europe and in the US, that needs to change.
“There is so much that can happen to affect what the government can do. I would say it is something when we talk about equality between Israelis and Palestinians. To me, any future solution needs to be based on equality.”
Wednesday evening’s event at the British Library in Kings Cross, central London, was Yachad’s biggest fundraiser to date.
Also amongst the audience was Sharone Lifschitz, whose 84 year-old father Oded, was killed in Gaza after he and wife Yocheved were abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz by Hamas terrorists on October 7th.
Yocheved was freed a fortnight after the abduction.
Attorney General Lord Hermer also spoke at the event, as did Yachad director Hannah Weisfeld and Simon Sadie, the organisation’s chair. Lord Hermer: I refuse to accept conflict between Israel and Palestinians is zero sum game
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