Joint Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day ceremony to begin shortly

The 20th annual joint Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day ceremony, organized by Combatants for Peace and the Parents Circle – Families Forum, is slated to begin shortly in Jaffa.

The ceremony has been held annually for twenty years alongside Israel’s official ceremonies on the Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terror. It is organized by the left-wing group Combatants for Peace and by the Parents Circle – Families Forum, a grassroots organization of bereaved Israelis and Palestinians who have lost family members to the conflict.

The ceremony is expected to draw a crowd of some 500, according to organizers, while a sister ceremony taking place in Beit Jala in the West Bank is expected to host 200. The event will be live-streamed to over 160 locations across Israel, the West Bank, Europe, and the US, reaching more than 200,000 people, according to the event organizers.

In previous years, the ceremony has hosted up to 15,000 people, but Israel has revoked all entry permits to Palestinians after Hamas’s mass invasion and massacre on October 7, 2023, and no West Bank residents can attend in person.

Last year, the ceremony was held entirely online as a result. This year, organizers decided to hold physical ceremonies in Jaffa and Beit Jala while simultaneously live-streaming them.

Conducted in both Hebrew and Arabic, the event is expected to feature Israeli speakers who lost loved ones to the October 7 attacks, survivors of the massacres and Hamas captivity, and Palestinian speakers who have lost family members to the war in Gaza.

The ceremony will feature musical performances by both Israeli and Palestinian artists, including the Rana Jewish-Arab Women’s Choir and the Jerusalem Arab-Jewish Youth Choir, among others. A documentary will also be screened on the journeys of bereaved Palestinian and Israeli families and how loss can fuel personal and social transformation.