Leading drive for peace in Middle East

Women--Palestinian and Jewish--have always been in the forefront of the peace movement in Israel/Palestine. They were the first to do one amazing thing: work together in the same organizations for peace. Their demands often transcend a call for peace and put forward ideas for Palestinians and Jews to live together; for women to be involved in leadership in all areas, not only creating peace and reconciliation; and for recognizing, and then working to end, the militarization of Israeli society, no matter how unpopular a stance it may be.

In the recent brutal war that Israel waged against the people of Gaza (see Lead)--for it was a war against the civilians of Gaza, not alone Hamas soldiers--women's groups were the first to call for demonstrations. On Dec. 27, the Coalition of Women for Peace, a group of seven different women's organizations, in four hours mobilized 1,500 people to march through Tel Aviv, stopping to chant at the Ministry of Defense where the outgoing Israeli Prime Minister, who is also the Defense Minister, was giving a press conference justifying the war. The women wrote: "Our voices were heard loud and clear by the government, the public and the Israeli media."

By Jan. 3, 10,000 marched against the war, including over 1,000 Arabs. The chants put succinctly a commitment to the kind of peace that means a completely different society than exists now in the region: "Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies"; "Stop the Killing! No to the siege"; "In Gaza and Sderot, kids want to live"; "Yes to life for both peoples!"; "The war belongs to Olmert--The victims belong to us!" The march was so large it surprised the organizers, who had mobilized only 1,000 demonstrators against the 2006 Israeli attack on Lebanon.

'WE REFUSE TO BE ENEMIES'

And while Arabs came to demonstrations organized by predominantly Jewish groups, Jews also joined those demonstrations called by Arabs. Thus only a few days later, Jewish protesters, including those from the Women's Coalition for Peace, joined with hundreds of Arab Israeli citizens where one of the most popular posters showed the Israel and Palestine flags next to each other; another was "Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies." The difference in the size of the demonstrations as well as the speed of their mobilizations reveals that 2009 is not 2006, and that more of the Israeli population is refusing to believe the lie that the government told again and again: that this was a "war of no choice"; "no choice" but to bomb Gaza into oblivion and willfully kill over 1,000 civilians.

Even a woman from Sderot, one of the towns most frequently hit by Hamas missiles, insisted on making her voice heard by writing on the internet. In answer to Labor Minister Benjamin Ben Eliezer, known as Fuad, who said, "The heavier the blow we deliver, the more our hearts widen," this woman of Sderot, Nomika Zion, said: "Hey Fuad, not everyone. Even if I was the only one around Sderot feeling differently--and I am not--my voice should be heard. Not in my name and not for me you went to war. The current bloodbath in Gaza is not in my name and not for my security. Destroyed homes, bombed schools, thousands of new refugees--are not in my name and not for my security."

THE OTHER ISRAEL

The statement of Isha L'Isha, a grassroots feminist organization fighting for women's rights in Israel, puts it plainly. This war is against our sisters: "The attacks of the air force are perpetrated against high-density population, including our sisters, the women and daughters of Gaza, who are imprisoned without an option to flee..." They make explicit the profound changes that war brings to society: "Deepening of violence acts to undermine the very basis of democracy as it throws society to the management of military persons. It acts to deepen societal gaps as economic life in the periphery is brought to a halt. Moreover, it causes devastating damage to the freedom struggle of women in Gaza, in Israel and everywhere violence claims governance."

We write often of the women's peace movement in Israel/Palestine because so few know that there is a second Israel, one that opposes its government, that is fighting to change society. Israeli papers and TV news refuse to report on the carnage in Gaza--for example one two-hour weekend state TV news program showed not one picture from Gaza--and too often papers in the U.S. follow suit. But delving into the specifics about the Israeli/Palestinian women's peace movement is important for all of us--not only to understand that there are two worlds in every country, the rulers and the ruled who fight against them--but because it is in the struggle to end war and to create something new that the beginnings of a new, human, society can be found.

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