News from UKFBFF

Cartoons in Conflict: Many of the world’s best cartoonists contributed their work to the Forum’s international exhibition. This one is by a Palestinian, Baha Boukhari. See all the cartoons. You can also watch a film about the cartoons.

The cartoons are on show in Edinburgh this summer, with sponsorship from the Scottish Palestinian Forum and Christian Aid. The exhibition is at the World Café, St John’s Church, Princes Street from 7-15 August. Forum members Seham Abu Awwad and Robi Damelin will also be there to tell their stories, at noon on 12 August.

Robi and Seham are speaking again on 15 August at a meeting organised by Edinburgh's Orthodox and Liberal Jewish communities. For more details, please email elaine.samuel@ed.ac.uk



20-month-old Reza promotes the message of reconciliation at a meeting in the Regent’s Park Mosque, London. More details



Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, with Robi Damelin and Ali Abu Awwad. Read what the Archbishop thinks about the Forum


Site design: Davies Communications

Pro-Palestinian?
Pro-Israeli?

Just pro-peace.

More than five hundred Israeli and Palestinian families who have lost loved ones during half a century of Middle East conflict are calling for an end to violence.

As members of the Bereaved Families Forum (also known as the Parents Circle-Families Forum) they are working to build a framework for peace and reconciliation in the region. As well as supporting bereaved families, Forum members are sharing their grief, extending the hand of friendship and creating opportunities for dialogue between the two communities.

Many of them speak movingly of the moment they realised that despite their grief at the death of a child, a parent, a sister or a brother, it was better to build bridges with the other community than to search for revenge and generate more hatred.

Like them, our group – the UK Friends of the Bereaved Families Forum (FBFF) – believes that the tragic loss of life will come to an end only through both sides’ empathy and respect for each other’s pain.

We have been deeply affected by the work of the Forum and the courage of its members. We raise funds to help, offer moral support and work to increase awareness in the UK of the Forum’s activities.

Read more about the activities of the Forum’s Palestinian and Israeli members.

Encounter Point is a graphic documentary about some of the bereaved Palestinians and Israelis who have risked their own safety by pressing for an end to the conflict. You can see the trailer here.


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The Bereaved Families Forum has been awarded the prestigious Gandhi Award. The Gandhi Foundation’s trustees say the Forum has been guided by one of the highest Gandhian ideals – that of understanding the adversary’s point of view and finding common ground on which to base a solution. Read full details here.
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‘Revenge? What for? It does not bring anyone back.’ (Photo: Paul Rogers)
Ali Abu Awwad and Robi Damelin speak to The Times, November 2009.
Read the article


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Patrons of UKFBFF:
Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury • Lord Sacks, Chief Rabbi
Juliet Stevenson • Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg • Dr Amineh Hoti
Huw Irranca-Davies MP • Lord Janner of Braunstone QC • Rabbi Lionel Blue
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