I delivered this address at the Hiroshima Day Commemoration Ceremony at the Queanbeyan Peace Park in Queanbeyan NSW on 6 August, 2002. This was the 19th Hiroshima Day ceremony organised by the Queanbeyan Peace Forum. (August 2002)


Brothers and sisters,

We are here on this freezing Queanbeyan morning to remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki and to think about peace.

The unbelievably cruel attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a product of an adversarial mindset. Adversarial ways cannot create peace no matter how world leaders choose to present it.

I am a Jew and a former Israeli. My mother grew up in the shadow of the Holocaust and I grew up in the shadow of the persecution of the Palestinian people. Standing back from these two events I cannot help but recognise the connection between them. One persecution leads to another.

I grew up in a country that talked about peace, sang about it, yearned for it. And yet almost every action that Israel has ever initiated, not only in relation to the Palestinian people, but also in relation to its Arab neighbours, has favoured the path of adversary and aggression.

Most Israelis are not peace makers. They do not know how to live in peace because as Jews they are wounded inside in a way that makes them see the world in adversarial terms. So although intellectually one might praise peace and express a yearning for it, if one also happens to have inside a festering sore wound, it is more likely that this wound would be handed down, and inflicted on someone else. This of course will only perpetuate the cycle of abuse and pain rather than lead to a life of peace and harmony.

We cannot create a just world while persecution of the most disadvantaged nations and groups by, and within the most powerful nations still goes on.

The first condition for true peace is for all forms of abuse and persecution to stop immediately wherever this is taking place.

But abuse will not stop until a large number of people around the world have achieved sufficient internal reconciliation and healing. When this happens, those who are responsible for the suffering of others will be able to take responsibility for their actions, and acknowledge the wounds that they have inflicted on their victims. This will help create the safe atmosphere necessary for the victims to begin their own journey towards healing.

When this cycle is established we can start building a peaceful world based on reconciliation and justice for all.

Perhaps because of my background in Israel I have realised that healing is a precondition for peace, and have chosen my path as a psychotherapist. On my own I can help one individual at a time. To heal whole societies and groups we must work together.

One of the first things we must do is resolve to elect healthy leaders. Our political system must encourage people who are emotionally mature, open and honest, and for whom the quality of life and dignity of all human beings is more important than holding on to power.

It breaks my heart to see the direction that our own leaders, here in Australia, have been choosing lately. I am so disappointed to see how excited they are, and lured by the prospect of war and by military things.

As a woman who has served in the Israeli army and who has lived through five wars, I want our leaders to know that war does nothing but damage. And it damages everyone without discrimination. Victims, perpetrators, bystanders and the environment all get hurt by war. New war creates new trauma and moves us further away from creating a cycle of healing and peace.

One of my favourite Israeli singers, Shlomo Artzi, once sang: "Af echad odlo nitzach beshum milchama" — "No one has ever won any war."

Reconciliation is not tolerating others and resigning ourselves to their existence. Reconciliation is a deepening of a relationship between people. It is based on listening well to another person, acknowledging and validating their pain and their experience no matter how challenging it is to the listener. Such behaviour inevitably leads to the recognition that as human beings we all share the same pain. Our customs and languages may be different but we are all one.

It is time to move away from tribal law, which does not serve us anymore towards a way of life based on compassion and love for all.

Thank you.

Page content last modified: 27 Apr 2003