Pain & Healing

Based on in-depth interviews with eight Israelis and eight Palestinians, all members of the Bereaved Families Forum, Avi Shahaf’s PAIN & HEALING explores the belief that it is possible to create a different life reality from one shaped by loss and violence. It focuses on individuals for whom reconciliation has become a central life commitment, pursued within an external environment often hostile to both their vision and their actions.

The vision they advance calls for ending the cycle of bloodshed and reaching a shared political and human agreement between the two peoples. Addressed to both societies, the book presents deeply personal accounts of tragedy, grief, and pain. The interviewees describe what led them to join the Forum and the meaningful activities they have experienced within it. Together, their stories form a fragmented yet coherent mosaic of individual choices made within a shared organizational framework.

PAIN & HEALING shows how participation in the Bereaved Families Forum creates a space in which bereaved individuals can reconnect with life, exercise influence, and construct meaning in the aftermath of profound loss.