• by Mairead Maguire and Cindy Sheehan
• Friday, March 30, 2012
• Inter Press Service

We are two women and mothers ­one Irish and one American­ who have experienced the loss of children in our families to the senseless violence of war. We hope that none of you will experience such pain, write Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire whose sister Anne lost three of her children to the fighting in Northern Ireland and Cindy Sheehan, who lost her son, Casey to the Iraq war. Both started antiwar movements in their communities.

However, we know that our experience is hardly unique, and we have formed advocacy groups to end the violence and hold the leaders, militaries and paramilitaries of our societies accountable for robbing us of our loved ones.

Among those who know the sadness are thousands of Palestinian and Israeli mothers, many of whom we have met in person. We have made common cause with them to end the grief, which is why we both support nonviolent solutions to a conflict that has taken their sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters.

We therefore endorse and wish to encourage participation in the Global March to Jerusalem, taking place on 30th March, 2012. It is a movement to end, through nonviolent means, the expulsions and human rights violations in Jerusalem and the rest of Palestine.

* Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire’s sister Anne lost three of her children to the fighting in Northern Ireland and Cindy Sheehan lost her son, Casey to the Iraq war. Both started antiwar movements in their communities.

© Inter Press Service (2012) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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