Kingston Quakers promote dialogue
Dialogue is being used to seek peace and reconciliation
The Kingston Quaker and Jewish Dialogue Group is continuing its work to promote dialogue and reconciliation. A UK Friends of the Bereaved Families Forum, hosted by the Dialogue Group, will be held on 19 June in Kingston Liberal Synagogue. Seham Abu Awad, a Palestinian who has lost a brother, and Robi Damelin, an Israeli who has lost a son, will speak about the pain they share and about their search for reconciliation.
Eric Bramsted, a local Friend and a member of the Kingston Quaker and Jewish Dialogue Group, said: ‘The event is based on our belief in dialogue. Progress can only be made when people genuinely understand the “other side” better. Dialogue is vital to this.’
The group emerged in reaction to Britain Yearly Meeting’s 2011 decision to ‘boycott products from Israeli settlements in the West Bank’ because ‘it would be wrong to support the illegal settlements by purchasing their goods’.
At the time some Jewish representatives on the Kingston Inter Faith Forum voiced a strong concern about the decision. This prompted the setting up of a local dialogue group. The group brought together local Friends and representatives from both an Orthodox and a Liberal Synagogue in the area.
Eric said: ‘We hope that the event at Kingston will be stimulating and moving. The Bereaved Families Forum is an inspiring organization. In the present situation in the Middle East Israelis and Palestinians who have lost loved ones in the conflict have paid the highest price of all; but the six hundred families of the Bereaved Families Forum do not seek to avenge these deaths.’
‘Instead they believe it is time to seek peace and reconciliation through dialogue, understanding and finding nonviolent solutions’.
