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Robi Damelin

Resisting Revenge to Embrace Humanity and Peaceful Co-existence

May 14, 2022

After a Palestinian sniper killed ten Israeli soldiers including her son, who was active in the peace movement, Robi Damelin’s first words were: “Do not take revenge in the name of my son.” Somewhere below the grief, she knew even in that moment that exacting vengeance would merely fuel the cycle of violence. In her pain, Robi couldn’t bear “business as usual” and closed down her PR office. She soon intersected with the Parents Circle-Families Forum, a grassroots group of Israeli and Palestinian families who lost loved ones to the conflict. The group became her refuge and path to self-discovery and activism through its focus on dialogue, mutual understanding, and reconciliation, and she is now PCFF's spokesperson. Robi eventually found the family of her son's sniper and wrote to them seeking dialogue, only to be rebuked. “Nothing is easy in this journey,” she says. But she remains tenacious in her pursuit of personal and societal peace. 
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