Rami Elhanan

Israeli peace activist

Rami Elhanan is an Israeli peace activist. He comes from a family of Holocaust survivors, and during his military service he fought in the Yom Kippur War. In 1997 he lost his fourteen-year-old daughter Smadar in a suicide attack in Jerusalem. This painful experience led him to found Parents Circle – Families Forum, an organisation that brings together families affected by the Israel–Palestine conflict. It was there that he met Palestinian Bassam Aramin, with whom he has had an unshakable friendship ever since. The two fathers have been travelling the world together for many years, spreading the message that personal loss can lead to forgiveness, mutual respect, and the search for peace. They both appeared at the FALL festival in 2023. The story of Rami Elhanan and Bassam Aramin, united by grief and the desire for peace, was the basis for the novel Apeirogon (2023) by Irish writer Colum McCann.