Veronika Cohen was born in 1944 in the ghetto in Budapest, where nearly 80,000 Jews were killed, often shot and dumped into the Danube River. Cohen was one of the few Jewish children to survive, which she credits to a “series of miracles.” Both of her parents were sent to labor camps. Cohen moved to Israel in 1979, where she is now professor emeritus at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, and is a co-founder of the Rapprochement Group for Israeli-Palestinian dialogue.
On Sept. 20 Cohen spent her 80th birthday protesting Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, according to The Guardian. Her protest took place in front of Neve Tirtza women’s prison in Ramla where inmates can be held indefinitely in “administrative detention,” without being charged or going to trial. In particular Cohen wanted to highlight the case of Khalida Jarrar who has served in the Palestinian assembly since 2006 and is a prominent figure in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Jarrar has been held in solitary confinement with no lights or windows for over 10 months and no charges ever brought against her.
