Bassam Aramin and Rami Elhanan found out in the hardest way possible how precious life is, when their lives were torn apart by the deaths of their children. Bassam’s daughter Abir was 10 when she died; Rami’s daughter Smadar was 14. The two families live in Jerusalem and their daughters died in the conflict there. Abir was shot in the head with a plastic bullet outside her school on the West Bank and Smadar was killed in a suicide bombing when she was shopping with her friends on a busy street. So the two fathers have much in common, but Bassam is Palestinian and Rami is Jewish. In their youth, each man played his part in the violence: Bassam served seven years in jail for throwing a hand-grenade at a group of Israelis; Rami was a soldier in the Israeli army. And each man lost his daughter to the violence of the other side: the bullet that killed Abir was fired by an Israeli soldier, while the suicide bomber who killed Smadar was Palestinian.
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Published: 25 May 2023
Last updated: 13 November 2025
Hundreds attend Rami and Bassam’s keynote speech at Tikkun Leil
Academics, including law professors and human rights advocates, from across Deakin University heard Bassam and Rami speak this morning.
This was followed by a huge turnout of over 250 people at Habonim Dror/Kehilat Kolenu’s Tikkun Leil for the first night of Shavuot. These inspiring peacebuilders were the keynote speakers and it was a wonderful opportunity to speak directly to so many young adults looking to deepen their understanding of the impact of the occupation in Israel and Palestine.
It’s inspiring to see how they are able to take their tragedies and turn it into a positive force.
“We have an enormous ally on our side. The power of our pain is huge. Like nuclear energy, it can be used for darkness, destruction, pain or death, or it can be used to bring warmth, light and hope.” - Rami Elhanan
