Bereaved Families’ Forum sets up hotline
by Robert Hirschfield

Three members of the Bereaved Families’ Forum (BFF), representing nearly 400 Israeli and Palestinian families whose relatives have been killed by Israeli soldiers, Jewish settlers, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Fatah militants, addressed a large crowd at the Society for the Advancement of Judaism in New York this past October to pitch the group’s new toll-free hotline, where Israelis are given Palestinians to speak to, and Palestinians Israelis. (Over 22,000 callers have so far used the hot line.) Each BFF speaker told of personal loss because of the conflict. Amiram Goldin’s son, Omri, a soldier, was blown up by a suicide bomber on a bus in the Galilee. Yitzhak Frankenthal’s son, Arik, also a soldier, was kidnapped and killed by Hamas militants in 1995. Dr. Rahib Essawi lost her brother to an Israeli bomb in Southern Lebanon ("they had to collect him from all over the place") and her mother to an Israeli soldier’s bullet on the West Bank.

The three spoke of the more than 1,000 coffins draped in Israeli and Palestinian flags that have been displayed in Tel Aviv, Washington and New York. They spoke of the blood that nine Israelis gave to the Arab Red Crescent, and nine Palestinians gave to the Red Star of David. Frankenthal told a heckler, "I am angry. We were unable to make peace with the Palestinians, so my son was killed."