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Palestinian, Israeli, Arab & Jewish Women speak and act for peace while men make war. [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-12-04
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The physical and psychological toll of war is immense, and for women and girls, the impact is compounded by the gender inequalities that already exist in society. Here are the voices of young Palestinian and Israeli women on the ground about what life is like today, trying to retain their humanity against the backdrop of ceaseless violence….
The war has left thousands of Palestinian children fatherless, propelling many women into the role of breadwinner—a position that comes with its own set of challenges in a society with a 19% female labor force participation rate, among the world’s lowest. The loss of a father can be especially detrimental for young girls, as financial strain may push them into early marriages. According to the Global Partnership for Education , girls in conflict zones are 2.5 times more likely to be out of school than boys and are less likely to return after a ceasefire.
..UN Women reports approximately 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza are without access to essential health services and 5,522 women are expected to give birth this month, all in the absence of adequate medical facilities.
<big> The patriarchal violence and militarism </big> [of] these conflicts and wars are fuelled by the production, sale and trafficking of weapons by various governments and companies, undermining peace and violating human rights and humanitarian laws. Women In Black maintains that only dialogue, diplomacy and political solutions can bring sustainable security, with justice and peace.
Carola Addington, London — Remona Aly’s observations on the [safe-space meeting] of Jewish and Muslim women ... highlights the [urgency] to reach out and feel the hurt of others during this time of heightened fury and tension. Women’s courage in taking a stand against violence, militarism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, misogyny and racism of all kinds has been evident for many decades, for example in the [South African] Black Sash movement … and the Women In Black international network founded by Jewish and Palestinian women in Jerusalem and Haifa in 1988 [to this day] in the UK and internationally, holding one-hour women-only silent vigils calling for peace, justice and sustainable security in the Middle East, Ukraine, Yemen, Sudan and beyond.
Have we learned nothing from all the terrible wars of the last century, and the colonial wars that went before them?
I commend Julie Siddiqi’ s bridge-building efforts with the Nisa-Nisham network too. I also have friends and relatives who are Jews and Muslims, and don’t wish to see any of them get dragged into racist warfare.
Harfiyah Ball Haleem London — I would like to endorse Remona Aly’s article [calling for involvement of women] in peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine, as they were in the Good Friday agreement in Ireland … In fact, I seem to remember Irish women taking the initiative and insisting on stopping the war.
[Among] examples of women “coming from a place of genuine empathy and demonstrating authentic leadership,” [she cited] “ the Good Friday agreement , or <big> Women Wage Peace , a grassroots initiative in Israel and Palestine comprising thousands of Palestinian and Israeli women, who even now continue to work for peace on the ground. In the UK, there is also Nisa-Nashim , a Muslim/Jewish women’s network, who have worked to build enduring friendships.”... </big>
<big> The empathy I saw is a precondition of the kind of wise, pragmatic leadership we are all desperate for – yet women’s voices are woefully nearly always absent from the decision-making. </big> One participant, Elizabeth, a veteran peace activist and faith relations expert [says although] between 1992 and 2019, women constituted only 13% of negotiators, 6% of mediators and 6% of signatories in peace processes around the world [women still are powerful] “agents for social change and conflict resolution the world over”.
..Last week, I was invited to a safe space ... private gathering co-hosted by a Jewish woman and a Muslim woman [for others equally determined to resist fatalism and violence —] Julie Siddiqi [co-organised with] Dr Lindsay Simmonds, who researches women of faith and peacebuilding, [considered crucial a third space outside religious and political institutions, to escape] barriers to communication such as increased sense of danger, people fearing that officially speaking out or showing sympathy will draw backlash from their own communities. “But it is precisely now we need to show friendship, solidarity and trust.”...
Remona Aly cited the global surge in antisemitism and Islamophobia , in London alone the first half of October a spike of antisemitic attacks up 1,350% and Islamophobic offences 140% , embattling both communities with extremism and hatred from all directions. Yet she is inspired by how women of these communities are determined to salvage their hard-won relationships, and together withstand all assaults.
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by Marcia G. Yerman, DK community , Nov 11, 2023
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In 2016, [they] organized a mass March of Hope — which included 30,000 people in Israel and 3,000 Palestinians from the West Bank — carrying a message of peace in the wake of violence and death ….
Both Women Wage Peace and Women of the Sun were founded after the 2014 Gaza War, a 50-day conflict that caused mass displacement and injury and left more than 2,250 Palestinian [men, women and children] dead ...Women of the Sun was founded in Bethlehem by Palestinians living under occupation, to empower Palestinian women and call for peace.
undoubtedly a difficult statement to write through their grief and anguish. Veteran Canadian-Israeli activist Vivian Silver, a founding member of Women Wage Peace, [was among those lost.] But [this is] emblematic of the power and resolve of feminist anti-war collective action.
“Every mother, Jewish and Arab, gives birth to her children to see them grow and flourish and not to bury them. That’s why, even today, amid the pain and the feeling that the belief in peace has collapsed, we extend a hand in peace to the mothers of Gaza and the West Bank.”
Representing Israeli-based Women Wage Peace and Palestinian-based Women of the Sun, this feminist peace coalition called on political leaders to negotiate an end to the bloodshed and resolve the conflict between Israel and Palestine.
On Oct. 4, 2023, just days before the Hamas attacks on Israel and the retaliatory Israeli aerial bombardment and siege on Gaza, thousands of Israeli and Palestinian feminist peace activists gathered in Jerusalem and near the Dead Sea .
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Ha'Aretz — Nov 16 Thousands attend memorial for slain peace activist Vivian Silver
On the wide, grassy field by the [kibbutz] dining hall, where the ceremony was to take place, a microcosm of Israeli society — kibbutznik men in sandals, women in hijabs, tattooed and pierced youngsters, ultra-Orthodox men in white button-downs and religious Zionist women in colorful headwraps. A man in a keffiyeh and a t-shirt reading “looking the occupation in the eye” stood a few meters from a woman in a lieutenant colonel’s uniform. ...And, of course, there were the members of Women Wage Peace, who came in white shirts and billowing sky-blue scarves. Silver was one of the Arab-Jewish movement’s founders. “Vivian was an activist for equality, peace, justice for years, even before Women Wage Peace,” said Haya Abbo, a friend of Silver’s from the organization… ...“She was a very clear and strong voice – making peace isn’t ‘lovey-dovey,’ there are all these fantasies around it, but Vivian was very grounded. She knew that there was simply no other option, that this is the only way to live here. She worked with the Bedouin in the Negev – she started a nonprofit there (that empowers Arab youth through higher education, employment and informal education programs) – and she knew how to speak to everyone in their own metaphorical language.” ...Ilan Amit, the co-CEO of the organization [said] “Her spirit is in all of our programs … When Vivian started the organization, it was a little local program in the Negev. Now, we’re a national group that operates in almost every Arab town in Israel.” Until a couple days earlier, the members of the organization – like the rest of Israel – believed that Silver had been taken hostage by Hamas. “It was a major driving force for us to continue doing, to continue working, so that she’d see that even when she was in captivity, we didn’t stop,” Amit said. “We’re really hurting from her death –… but Arabs and Jews, we must, more than ever, continue her work,” he said, gesturing to the members of both peoples who came to honor her. “Vivian went through very tough times in her life: rounds of fighting with Gaza as a resident of the border area, violence between Arabs and Jews, periods of difficulty in the coexistence world… and she never stopped. She never stopped and she never paused her work in these organizations, in driving Gazans from the border to Israeli hospitals, no matter what was happening in the country.” Longtime Haaretz columnist Bradley Burston, a friend of Silver ... said: “I’ve never met anyone who touched so many hearts so deeply. I’ve never met anyone who inspired so many people to work for peace, for equality, and for Arab-Jewish reconciliation and cooperation.” In an era when the Israeli government obstinately opposed peace, “Vivian was everything the government is not – immensely capable, tirelessly proactive, and a force like no one else, for peace, equality and a shared future.” ...Fellow peace activist <big>Ghadir Hani,</big> from Hura, read a letter she wrote to Silver. “For 38 days, we clung to the hope that you’re over there in Gaza, not far from us. We knew you would survive the inferno. We knew you would tell us about how even in the dark tunnels, you continued to smile… ‘You cannot dispel evil with darkness,’ you always said. ‘Evil is dispelled with more and more light. … “Vivian, you were a beacon for all of us… you taught us the most important lesson: How to be human, how to see the other, the disenfranchised, those whose voices are unheard.” Everyone, she said, is in shock. “How do we continue on from here?” ...If Silver could hear them, Hani said,<big><big> “You would want to know that Hamas hasn’t murdered your vision. You cannot kill compassion, humanity, solidarity, the yearning for a safe life. We must continue your journey, the journey toward everyone living a good and safe life in this homeland,...</big></big>
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■ from 2018, and the world still hasn’t caught up: DK post Foreignpolicy.com: "Women are the Key to Peace "
Melanne Verveer —executive director of the Institute for Women, Peace, and Security at Georgetown University — and Anjali Dayal —an assistant professor of international politics at Fordham University, and research fellow at she Georgetowns IWPS
“Cease-fire negotiations that exclude women are more likely to fall apart. Talks are more effective with women involved. ....To date, women are vastly underrepresented in formal peace negotiations... That’s a major problem. Beyond the fact that women deserve an equal hand in shaping their societies... their participation leads to better outcomes. Studies find that when civil society groups and women’s groups are included ... resulting peace agreements are 35 percent more likely to last at least 15 years. That is huge, considering that settlements break down more often than not. A more gender-balanced process enhances local trust and buy-in, injects legitimacy into the process, and increases the chances that problematic social norms and power imbalances that contributed to the conflict will be rectified. [But although women are largely excluded from formal negotiations, they are not] passive observers of men’s efforts to resolve conflict. Rather, they’ve actively engaged in what negotiators call Track II processes … In Liberia in the early 2000s, for example, formal [Track I] negotiations were bolstered by Track II efforts by women, who launched mass campaigns and sit-ins to demand peace; organized consultations among warring parties, negotiators, and regional actors; and legitimized formal negotiations by calling for rebels and the government to sit down together…. [This is] not unique. In the first systematic study of women’s involvement in informal peace processes, the [GIWPS] found that, of 63 such negotiations in the post-Cold War era, 38 involved informal initiatives. In a majority of those, women’s groups were actively involved….
Read the full original article HERE.
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[Why did Hallet say “women are the ‘silent heroines’?” They’re NOT. It’s men refusing to hear, in another war of men, by men, on everyone else, on women most of all.] Jpost - Oct 4, 2023
Israeli and Palestinian women are the “silent heroines” of the quest for peace, United States Chargé d’Affaires Stephanie Hallett told hundreds of female activists from Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, and abroad who [marched] in Jerusalem on Wednesday[, members of the Israeli group Women Wage Peace and the Palestinian Women of the Sun, and their advocates.] “You are not only stakeholders in the quest for peace, but you’re often working tirelessly behind the scenes to build bridges, as you are doing here today with each other, fostering understanding, and promoting reconciliation,” [Hallett] said. [After Jerusalem, the marchers] traveled by bus to Neveh Midbar beach at the Dead Sea [where protests included] a peace quilt and [Sigalit Landau’s art installation], an empty peace table. [Foreign diplomats and politician participating included Irish ambassador-designate] Sonya McGuinness [and] and Viviane Teitelbaum, a member of Belgium’s regional parliament and vice-president of European Women’s Lobby [and] Eva Biaudet, a Finnish member of Parliament [who came to Israel specifically for this demonstration]. “In Finland, my generation has not experienced war” although they have seen “violence in the private sphere. .. Now [with] Russia’s war against Ukraine you see how fragile peace is … [a reminder that women’s presence is needed] in decision-making.” Yael Admi, [a Women Wage Peace c-founder/co-leader] told the media, “It is time for courageous leaders to generate hope for a better future for our children.” Reem Hajajr, a founder of Women of the Sun, said “more and more women join the movement, women who want to protect their children and prevent them from being the next victim....We started out as a [few lone voices] and now we are thousands from the West Bank and Gaza. … We no longer take the back seat and are determined to act persistently to end the cycle of bloodshed and to achieve freedom and a just, honorable life for Palestinian and Israeli children,”
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Three days before Hamas committed the bloodiest attack on Israeli civilians in that country’s history, four days before the Israel Defense Forces responded with the most devastating collective punishment of Palestinian civilians in a long history of it, Palestinian and Israeli feminists gathered in Jerusalem to demand peace. Intercept — Oct 26
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h/t Marcia G. Yerman
MsMagazine - Oct 23 Women Speak Out for Pathway to Peace
There are times throughout recorded history when women have stepped up, spoken up, and taken action to resolve border and boundary disputes, to protect their cities, communities and families, and to demand and negotiate peaceful resolutions of long-term conflicts. I am reflecting on those times today as the suffering, death and destruction in Ukraine, Israel and Gaza, and the violent oppression in Iran and Afghanistan, seem beyond our ability to do anything that would mediate the violence or end the suffering. Yet, sometimes, women have come together and accomplished just that. Let’s remember just a few examples: In Liberia, where the nonviolent movement, led by activist Leymah Gbowee, brought together Christian and Muslim women to end the 14-year civil war there, as documented in Abby Disney’s award winning film, Pray the Devil Back to Hell. In Latin America, where I documented the civil wars in Nicaragua and El Salvador, I witnessed the women on both sides, in government and in the rebel forces, come together to end the violence and to demand a voice in the peace negotiations. And today, reflecting on the violence in Israel and Gaza, I am remembering—and honoring—the women who have been tirelessly working for a sustainable peace in the region for decades, some of whom I met and interviewed while making the 1991 documentary, Women In War: Voices From the Frontlines. In 1989, Belgian activist Simone Susskind helped convene a conference of Israeli and Palestinian women—the first-ever Women’s Peace Conference—in Brussels, called “Give Peace a Chance: Women Speak Out.” I was there, deeply inspired by the many Arab and Jewish women leaders who came from many countries to show support and solidarity and to work together on a peace agreement. I’ll never forget the opening remarks from the presiding leaders to the hundreds of women present: “We have no time for grievances; We have three days to shape a peace agreement and get back to our families and our work.” I watched and listened with deep admiration as these women put aside their differences to draft a seven point agreement that would have provided a plan for a peaceful, secure future for Israel and the Palestinians. But regrettably, without enough women in either the Knesset or in the Palestinian Authority leadership at the time, the agreement was never given serious consideration. That was more than 30 years ago and today, we watch with deepest empathy and growing fears as the violence escalates and a pathway to peace seems more blocked than ever. Yet, a new generation of women continue to work together for peace.
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