Sakharov Network

An Israeli born in 1949, Nurit Peled-Elhanan is a university professor of comparative literature. She represents all Israelis who are committed to a negotiated solution to the conflict and who clearly acknowledge the right of two peoples and two States to exist side by side on an equal footing. Her father is the famous General Matti Peled, who is renowned for his efforts to foster peace and progress.

Her 14-year-old daughter, Smadar, was killed in an attack carried out in West Jerusalem by a Palestinian suicide bomber. When her daughter was killed, Nurit did not give in to despair but made speeches which focused on the responsibility borne by those who implement a short-sighted policy which refuses to acknowledge the rights of others and fuels hatred and conflict. Nurit Peled-Elhanan founded the Israeli-Palestinian Bereaved Families Forum.

Speaking to secondary school pupils in Rimini on 4 February 2004, Nurit Peled-Elhanan said «It is high time that we define what is happening in the Middle East in terms of criminality rather than in political and military terms... It is time to teach how to recognise false ideals and how to oppose the terrible misuse of ideals... It is high time ... for us to became individuals again instead of nations, individuals instead of troops, and to work together to save those children who are still alive by saying 'enough is enough'».

Through their lives and their commitment, Izzat Ghazzawi and Nurit Peled-Elhanan embody the hope of a negotiated, peaceful solution to the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis. Their personal tragedies have not turned them into enemies; their pain has not been transformed into hatred, but instead into the energy required to find ways of respecting the rights of individual citizens.