Vigil for Israeli-Palestinian Peace

A Silent Procession for Peace: A Public Ritual took place on Sunday, February 25, 2024, in the Philadelphia neighborhood of Chestnut Hill. Beginning at the Chestnut Hill Peace Park, more than 350 Christians, Jews, Muslims, and others walked in a solemn, quiet procession for a 1-mile round trip on Germantown Avenue. Walking slowly to the beat of a hand drum, they bore images of Palestinian and Israeli children killed in the conflict and small white bundles representing infants who have died in the war. Their return to the Peace Park was marked with a ritual of connection, compassion and commitment using white carnations, led by Rabbi Malkah Binah Klein.

The procession was sponsored by the Philadelphia Chapter of American Friends of Combatants for Peace as an opportunity to transcend political divisions and to affirm their commitment to non-violent solutions to the building of a peaceful, just future. Combatants for Peace (CfP) is a grassroots movement of Palestinians and Israelis. These former fighters on both sides of the conflict have been using civil resistance, education and other creative means of activism to transform systems of oppression and build a free and peaceful future from the ground up.

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