SHARING GRIEF AMID WAR

Spring and early summer are difficult times for both Israelis and Palestinians. Israeli Jews move from Passover, the holiday of freedom, to Holocaust Memorial Day, to Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terror, to the triumphant celebrations of Independence Day. The days pass with rituals intended to give us a shared meaning as a society and to inculcate and frame Israel's official narrative.

- EETTA PRINCE-GIBSON

That narrative runs from slavery to freedom, from victimhood to victory, from powerlessness to sovereignty.

For Palestinian citizens of Israel and those living in Gaza and the occupied territories, the same season is marked by memories of the Nakba, the Catastrophe, where at least 700,000 Palestinians were forced from their homes during the State of Israel's creation, and the ongoing occupation and dispossession of their land and property. Observances and rituals mark their narrative of tragedy and victimization.

These narratives anchor us in our worlds. And like all ethnic and religious narratives, they are inherently political, intended to filter out any inconvenient truth, to bind us to loyalty to our own, and to deny the humanity of the other. They cauterize pain and loss into divisions between us and them.