The international movement of Women in Black began in Jerusalem in
January 1988, one month after the first Palestinian intifada broke out,
with a small group of Israeli women who carried out a simple form of
protest: Once a week at the same hour and in the same location - a
major traffic intersection - they donned black clothing and raised a
black sign in the shape of a hand with white lettering that read "Stop
the Occupation".
The idea spread quickly and spontaneously to other places in
Israel. It was a simple form of protest that women could do easily. We
didn't have to get to the big city, we could bring our children, there
was no chanting or marching, and the medium was the message. Within
months, vigils sprang up throughout Israel.
Several months after the first Women in Black vigil in Israel,
"solidarity vigils" began in other countries: Initial reports came from
the United States and Canada, and these later spread to Europe and
Australia. Some vigils were primarily Jewish, while in other cities,
the groups were mixed Jewish and Palestinian.
Around 1990, Women in Black vigils took off with a life of
their own. They formed in many countries, and many of these had nothing
to do with the Israeli occupation. In Italy, Women in Black protest a
range of issues, from the Israeli occupation to the violence of the
Mafia and other organized crime. In Germany, Women in Black have
protested neo-Nazism, racism against migrant workers, and nuclear arms.
Women in Black in Belgrade and Zagreb set a profound example of
interethnic cooperation that was an inspiration to their countrywomen
and men. And, in India, Women in Black hold vigils that call for an end
to the ill treatment of women by religious fundamentalists.
Women in Black has become a movement of women of conscience of
all denominations and nationalities who hold vigils to protest violence
in their part of the world: war, interethnic conflict, militarism, the
arms industry, racism, neo-Nazism, violence against women, violence in
the neighborhoods, etc. Each vigil is autonomous, setting its own
policy and guidelines, though in all the vigils the women dress in
black, symbolizing the tragedy of the victims of violence. What unites
us all is our commitment to justice and a world free of violence.
The movement of Women in Black in Israel won the Aachen Peace
Prize (1991); the peace award of the city of San Giovanni d'Asso in
Italy (1994); and the Jewish Peace Fellowship's "Peacemaker Award"
(2001). In 2001, the international movement of Women in Black was
honored with the Millennium Peace Prize for Women, awarded by the
United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).
On June 8, 2001, over 100 groups of Women in Black from around
the world (listed in the web site below) will hold vigils to protest
Israel's ongoing occupation of the Palestinian territories.
This international protest was initiated and organized by the
Coalition of Women for a Just Peace, an umbrella organization of ten
Israeli women's peace organizations.
Web site of the Coalition of Women for a Just Peace: http://www.geocities.com/womancoalition/ --
Translated from Ma´ariv, June 15, 2001
The Pariahs Chen Kotas-Bar
Women of the Extreme Left Don't Give in to Consensus
They get threats to their lives and the lives of their families, sexist
curses, insults, and invective; some have been arrested by the police,
but they don´t give up; not even at a time when the Israeli consensus
condemns left-wingers and loses all empathy for Palestinians and those
who still care about their suffering. Brutal terrorist attacks don´t
deter them from believing in a just peace. Quite the opposite. Chen
Kotas-Bar met with 11 women, aged 28 to 72, who dare think differently.
One is a bereaved mother; one a bereaved sister; one an Arab; most were
not born in Israel. Even though what they say infuriates patriotic
Israel, no one doubts their right to say it.
**************************
Last Friday morning,
several hundred women arrived at Paris Square in Jerusalem. Most are
members of the Coalition of Women for a Just Peace, founded last
November in the wake of the al-Aqsa Intifada, by ten women´s
organizations that are active in promoting peace. They came from all
corners of Israel - Jewish and Arab women - and they dressed in black,
stood silently, and held signs with “End the Occupation” written in
three languages as well as “We Refuse to be Enemies”.
On the week that marks 34 years to the Six Day War and 8 months
to the al-Aqsa Intifada, they came to raise the almost mute voice of
the Israeli left, what they call “the voice of reason”.
Some have been demonstrating at intersections for over 20
years. The last few months have been particularly hard for them. They
were arrested, their lives and the lives of their families were
threatened, they struggled with difficult questions and the terrible
despair and crisis of faith - on both sides.
“The word ‘left-winger´ has almost become a pejorative term in
Israel,” says Molly Malekar, representing Women Engendering Peace. “On
the other side as well: Palestinian women are practically no longer
willing to cooperate. The progressive voices of reason were silenced,
both here and there.”
“The Israeli public is currently so extremist,” says Gila
Svirsky, a representative of Women in Black, “so racist, hot-headed,
and angry that the left has practically been ejected from the realm of
the legitimate. The ‘soft left´ has turned into the ‘soft right´, and
we remain a minority. I´m not even sure that the majority in Israel
today wants peace.”
In anticipation of the demonstration, I talked with 11 women,
representatives of each of the organizations that comprise the
Coalition of Women for a Just Peace - Women in Black, Bat Shalom,
Machsom Watch, Women Engendering Peace, Women and Mothers for Peace,
Noga Feminist Magazine, Neled, New Profile, TANDI, and the Israeli
branch of WILPF, as well as a representative of Women on Behalf of
Women Political Prisoners - which is not a member of the Coalition, but
took part in the demonstration.
What had been, until nine months ago, the “left” and the “peace
camp” -the consensus of half the country at least - has now become
almost illegitimate. Several days before the demonstration, the Israeli
women were notified that the international movement of Women in Black,
of which they are a part, is a candidate for this year´s Nobel Peace
Prize. Some Israeli media, they say, did not want to publicize the
nomination. “It isn´t the right time,” they were told. “Now´s the time
for the nation to unite.”
“The moment there´s fighting in Israel,” says Molly Malekar,
“we coalesce around the view that the whole world is against us, that
they want to destroy us, and that´s the end of the left. Those who had
defined themselves as left now jump ship. Everyone wants to ‘let the
army win´ and not think about the price or what we had believed a
moment earlier. The ‘I´ turns into the ‘we´, and anyone who upsets the
orgy of togetherness is considered a collaborator and enemy. Including
the left. We´re now in the midst of the orgy of ‘the people of Israel´,
and many left-wingers who had held moderate views a few months ago are
now gathered around the tribal campfire. Everyone wants to sit around
the campfire and be brothers.”
The encounter with these women was not easy: Sometimes, I
admit, it was even upsetting. Most of them, perhaps coincidentally, are
not Israeli-born and don´t view the current Israeli reality as
necessary and inevitable. Some are blunt, extremist, strong-minded, and
at times rationalize with unbearable ease, in my opinion, the deeds of
the other side. They make supreme efforts to dialogue with
Palestinians, but generally avoid contact with settlers. They believe,
broadly speaking, that the solution is a return to the 1967 border,
total evacuation of the settlements, and Jerusalem as the capital of
both Israel and a state of Palestine, when established. Regarding the
right of return, they are divided.
They are determined women, with deep social awareness, who want
peace not just for enhanced security. They want a just peace, in a just
and egalitarian society, which does not oppress its minorities - Arabs,
women, Mizrahi Jews, or foreign workers.
The Israeli consensus has grown used to thinking differently.
After long months of terrorism, fear, and a discourse of boiling blood
and hatred, it´s hard to talk about peace or consider the needs of the
other side. Nevertheless, one must admit that, at least in the short
range, history has proven that the consensus, even among the extreme
right, ultimately catches up to them - on issues such as talking with
the PLO or leaving Lebanon. Therefore, they´re worth listening to, even
if it´s hard to hear.
* * *
GILA SVIRSKY Women in Black
Women in Black (in which most of the women in the other peace
organizations are members) was founded in January 1988, one month after
the outbreak of the first Intifada, in an effort to raise a voice of
peace and in the belief that the voices of women were not being heard.
Over the years, the movement, which evolved informally and was named
after the color worn by its members at the vigils, became international
(in many cities throughout the world, Women in Black stand once a week
in protest vigils against violence, not necessarily related to the
Middle East).
Gila Svirsky joined Women in Black three weeks after its
founding. Since then, she stands with her friends every Friday at
intersections around Israel. In recent years, people have become
indifferent towards them, until the al-Aqsa Intifada began. Svirsky,
for example, was arrested three times since then. The first time was
four months ago, when she demonstrated opposite the Ministry of Defense
in Tel-Aviv. She and her friends lay down opposite the entrance to the
Ministry of Defense, to illustrate what a closure was.
“I´m a citizen who usually obeys the law,” she says, “but I
believe strongly in the need to end the injustice that is called
occupation. I do it from purely Zionist motives, to save our country
from the corruption of the occupation. I immigrated from the United
States 35 years ago. I know what Zionism is all about. I live in
Israel. I can even understand the settlers ´ fear of being uprooted,
but this doesn´t give them the right to settle in the territories,
which don´t belong to us. Israeli settlement there is wrong. We have to
get out of there.”
In recent months, Svirsky has been the brunt of harsh attacks
and threats. “The moment that the left loses its legitimacy,” she says,
“the threats begin. Someone called me up and said, ‘I´ll kill you, I´ll
hurt your children.´ We´re an island of reason. People use us to vent
their anger at the situation, and they make it legitimate to speak that
way to us.
“After the terrorist bomb in the Dolphinarium, we went out and
demonstrated, and someone said to me, ‘Traitor, how dare you
demonstrate when everybody is in mourning?´ I said to him, ‘I
demonstrate because I want to prevent the next bomb.´ I believe that
violence only begets more violence. I also mourn the terrorist attacks,
but when one happens, it only reinforces me in my beliefs. It´s clear
to me that they are trying to kill us because we have been in their
faces for 34 years.”
Q: What has happened to the left wing in recent months?
“We´re considered by some the radical left, but we´re the
minority that remains on the left. I hope that all those who once
called themselves left and now are confused or disappointed will return
to the left. I eagerly await that. I see the shift to the right since
the Intifada began. I also understand the difficulty. I know that the
leader of the other side is vile, but I also know that this is who we
have to make peace with. Our leader, Sharon, killed no fewer people
than he did.”
Q: Still, Arafat has a record of being a terrorist.
“Sharon doesn´t have to draw a gun from his pocket and shoot
someone before our eyes for him to have blood on his hands. Both Arafat
and Sharon have blood on their hands. Both are unworthy leaders for our
nation and theirs. Both nations deserve something better. And for there
to be peace, we need a fundamental change in Israeli society. It´s not
enough to divide up the land and Jerusalem. We must have social justice
in Israel. We once had a well-ordered society, rational and moral.
Today we are not a well-ordered society, we are not behaving
rationally, and we are surely not moral. Where are reason and morality,
when a small group of extremists, the settlers, dictates to me whether
my child will be killed?”
* * *
ADI KUNTSMAN Machsom Watch
Last October, when the al-Aqsa Intifada broke out, Adi Kuntsman,
a student of sociology just finishing her M.A. degree, was in Hanover,
Germany for a summer course. Kuntsman was fearful. “I was struck by the
comparison of what was happening with us and what happened to German
citizens during the period of the Holocaust,” she says. “Every time I
met Germans of the older generation and they would learn that I´m from
Israel, they would say, ‘I didn´t know´. The similarity was
frightening. Here in Israel, something inhumane is happening and we
remain silent. We see films about World War II, and don´t understand
how people continued their lives as usual, but here, too, life goes on.
“I have a friend in Ramallah who studied with me in Hanover. We
returned together, but she couldn´t reach her home because of the
closure. The house next door to hers was blown up while she was in
Germany. Later on, her own home was also blown up. She can´t conduct
her daily life anymore. Many Israelis say, ‘We didn´t know´. Just what
the Germans told me. They don´t want to know.”
Q: Are you comparing what is happening in Israel with Nazi Germany?
“We are not Germany, because we have not yet engaged in
genocide. I´m also not saying that we are waging a Holocaust against
the Palestinians, but I believe that we´re getting close. Even the
South Africans didn´t imagine separate roads for the whites and blacks,
but here we have roads for Jews and roads for Arabs, because we´re
better than South Africa.”
When she returned to Israel, Kuntsman decided, together with
Yehudit Keshet and Ronnee Jaeger, to set up Machsom [checkpoint] Watch
- women human rights activists. Today, the organization has over 30
women, all of them Jewish. Ever since last February, representatives of
Machsom Watch have been going out every day, morning and evening, to
the checkpoints in the Jerusalem region - Bethlehem, Aram, abu Dis, and
Qalandia. Their declared goal is ‘observation and documentation´. They
write down and document what happens at the checkpoint.
“We object to the occupation, and the checkpoint is one
manifestation of the occupation,” says Kuntsman. “This is not a
demonstration. We´re not there to eliminate the checkpoint, but to
safeguard the human rights that are violated there. Sometimes I see
soldiers take the papers of Palestinians for examination and hold onto
them for hours, instead of 20 minutes. In the pouring rain or blazing
sun. There is a general dehumanization of Palestinians - their bodies
are not considered bodies, their time is not respected.”
Q: How do the soldiers respond?
“Some tell us, ‘It´s good you´re here´, and some enjoy immensely
the power that the checkpoint gives them. They feel like kings out
there. They shout at us, ‘B´Tselem, whores´, because the only thing
they know about human rights is B´Tselem [an Israeli human rights
organization], or they unleash some irrelevant sexist remarks, like,
‘whores of Arafat´, ‘ugly´, or ‘fucking lesbians´. They hate us.”
Kuntsman, 28, immigrated to Israel ten years ago from St.
Petersburg. She is careful not to say she has made “aliya” [spiritual
ascent] to Israel, but simply immigrated.
“I´m not a Zionist,” she says, “I´m an Israeli. I want to live
here, but I´ m ashamed of my country. I´m ashamed because I´m an
occupier, even though I personally didn´t do anything. I´m an immigrant
and I moved here, while Palestinians were expelled from their homes.
Today, as a woman with well-formed opinions, I would not have moved
here. It´s hard for me to look Palestinians in the eye. I see entire
villages under siege, for the sake of some small settlements whose
sewage runs into them. I feel guilty.”
Q: And is it hard to look into the eyes of the families of those killed in the Dolphinarium bombing?
“I feel pain about every Israeli murdered in a terrorist attack,
and I certainly feel close to those [victims] who came from the former
Soviet Union, but my pain is no less for the Palestinian victims and
the situation in general. It bothers me when the father of a suicide
bomber says that he wishes he had another 20 children like that one,
but I am no less upset by an Israeli who demonstrates opposite the
Dolphinarium after the terrorist attack and says that if he had
explosives, he would blow up all the Arabs. As a citizen of Europe,
with the history of Europe, it doesn´t make me feel good.
“My friends who are less to the left than I am call me up after
every terrorist bomb. ‘Nu?´ they ask, ‘What do you say now?´ The
victims on our side have faces, names. The Palestinian victims have no
faces or families. Or the radio announces, ‘None of our forces were
hurt´, or ‘according to Palestinian sources, three children were
killed´. In my eyes, as a Jew, it´ s unthinkable that we have gotten to
this point.
“It´s true that I became socially active from my feminist
activism, that I oppose all forms of oppression of any human being, but
I also approach the Palestinian issue from my perspective as a Jew. I
am part of the history of the Holocaust and the Jews of Europe. In my
opinion, it´s inconceivable that we became occupiers, that Jews would
carry out inhuman acts against another people.”
* * *
ALIYA STRAUSS WILPF - Women´s International League for Peace and Freedom
Once a week, Aliya Strauss, 65, the chair of the Israeli branch
of WILPF -the Women´s International League for Peace and Freedom -
meets with a group of friends, having nothing to do with politics and
leftist activity. They are a group of seven women, one of whom is an
avowed right-winger, and all the rest are what is called today “the
disappointed left”.
“They were in favor of the peace process as long as it didn´t
hurt,” says Strauss. “When there was no price to pay, they would say,
‘Let there be peace´. Today I hear them say, ‘Let the army win´. I feel
helpless. When I talk to them about the closure, the suffering, the
starvation, they respond, ‘Starve them´. I talked about the lack of
water there, and they said, ‘So they won´t drink, let them die, what do
I care?´” And these are women who used to say, “Great, let there be
peace´.”
“The left today is less legitimate. Today, when we stand at
intersections a nd demonstrate, most of the reactions are curses. Not
long ago, a young man, a settler, approached us and asked, ‘Doesn´t it
hurt you that Jewish children are dying?´ I told him, ‘Certainly, but
Palestinians are also being killed every day, and I cry for them all.´
And he responded, ‘From the Arabs, we have to kill as many as
possible.´”
“Today there´s hatred and distrust on both sides. Those on the
left are talking to themselves, convincing the convinced. We´re not
reaching new audiences.”
Q: And you yourself have no doubts, no reservations?
Clearly the last few months were hard for me, too. There were
moments of terrible despair, moments that I expressed doubts to myself,
and I´m still asking myself questions about the refugees and the right
of return. In my organization, too, we avoided this issue for years.
Now we do ask ourselves. I agree that Israel must take responsibility
for the problem of the refugees, but I still don´t know what the
solution should be.
“I know that an enormous change has taken place recently for my
partner, and that I have to be much more frank with him. We conducted a
false peace process with the Palestinians. We also lied to ourselves.
Since Oslo, we closed our eyes to what was really happening in the
territories.”
The international organization of WILPF (Women´s International
League for Peace and Freedom) was founded in 1915 by a group of over
1,000 women who met in The Hague during World War I and demanded an end
to the war. The Israeli branch, founded in 1984, has about 20 members
who are active in promoting peace and ending globalization. The
organization also has a branch in East Jerusalem - “Palestine”, as
Strauss calls it.
She immigrated to Israel from the United States in 1958. “Right
after the war, when we in the United States heard what had happened
during the Holocaust, we were in shock,” she says. “People kept asking
the Germans, ‘How could you let this happen?´ Many Germans responded,
‘We didn´t know´; and Poles said, ‘We didn´t know´; and I, as a child,
asked how could people not see the evil around them. That did something
to me, and I have kept that inside me to this day, as I work for a
better world, for a more just society, and for integrity toward our
neighbors.
“I never want to answer someone, ‘I didn´t know´, because today
I know and I ´m angry and furious with people who ‘don´t know´. When I
speak to them about the starvation and thirst and suffering of the
Palestinians, they don´ t care and don´t want to know. They close
themselves to it. For me, it burns inside. Hunger and thirst and
suffering will never stop another person from putting on a belt full of
explosives and blowing himself up together with 20 children.”
* * *
LILY TRAUBMAN Bat Shalom
The father of Lily Traubman, 46, a member of Bat Shalom, was
murdered in Chile two days after the military coup. She moved to
Kibbutz Megiddo in Israel and lives there to this day. “My father”, she
says, “was secular, and for us being a Jew meant being a humanist. It
just could not be that a Jew would be a fascist. But it doesn´t seem to
me that we are more humanistic than other places today. On the
contrary, today people are on trial for crimes against humanity, and we
ourselves commit them. The persecution of a civilian population is
considered a crime against humanity, and so is the demolition of
homes.”
Q: And what about the murder of a civilian population in a shopping mall or discotheque?
“That´s a crime. It´s not a crime against humanity.”
Bat Shalom was established 8 years ago, following a conference
in Brussels in which Israeli women from various peace movements and
Palestinian women participated. The women reached agreement about a
number of points, including two states for two nations, a return to the
1967 borders, evacuation of the settlements, and Jerusalem as the
capital of two states. This was the basis on which Bat Shalom was
founded.
The movement deals with human rights issues, runs dialogue
groups between both peoples, and organizes demonstrations. Once a year,
on Succoth, the movement builds a Peace Succah [tent]. Last October,
they built the succah at the Megiddo junction, despite the situation.
“There was anger on both sides”, says Traubman. “We were warned that
two women from the right wing would come blow up our succah, but they
never came. Some people cursed us, ‘I hope you die, that you wear black
all your lives.´ Now, too, we get threats before every demonstration.
I´m sure that the right wing doesn´t receive such threats before their
demonstrations. The demonstrations of the left are considered less
legitimate. Perhaps it´s because we´re the ‘mothers of the nation´.
It´s not easy to listen to our views.
“I remember that in October, when the first person from Umm
al-Fahim was killed, we demonstrated at the Megiddo junction. Lots of
media came because they thought there would be violence. But they never
even glanced at us. A journalist that I know turned his back to me. The
left demonstrates, but no one reports it. They erased us. Everyone
moved to the right.”
Q: The left is being silenced?
“The left is being silenced and is silent itself. As a
left-winger, I have a hard feeling of isolation ever since October.
Large segments of the left have disappeared. After every terrorist act,
they say to me, ‘You see, those are your Arabs´. After the terrorist
bombing in the Dolphinarium, somebody came up to me and said, ‘Look
what you and your Palestinians are doing´. As if I went and did the
bombing myself or support terrorism. I didn´t sleep all night after
that bomb.
“The problem is the limited understanding by Israelis of what
democracy means. We live with the belief that we´re in a state of
emergency, and fail to understand the role of an opposition, and what
civil rights mean. We already have a state and we´re strong. We have to
move on. I hear people say that ‘we´re fighting for the existence of
the state of Israel´. Enough already. The state is a fact. We´re
talking about a whole system of values and beliefs that the time has
come to change. The time has come to think with our heads and not
through the sight of a gun.”
Q: Is there a difference in this between women and men?
“Of course. Right now, the people sitting down to make peace are
the generals who speak a language of power and war. What does it mean
to “fight for peace”? It´s absurd. Women understand the distress among
the Palestinians. The status of women in Israel is directly related to
the occupation. To win a serious role in politics, it´s enough that you
were a general. Having been a school principal is not qualification
enough. We´re a society that uses power against the weak - women and
Arabs.
“But women are able to speak in a different language - one of
compromise and understanding. Right now, most Israelis believe that
Palestinians can´t be trusted, and most Palestinians think you can´t
trust Jews. It´s as if two people are sitting back to back, and each
one is talking to himself. The time has come to turn around and start
talking to each other.”
* * *
MOLLY MALEKAR Women Engendering the Peace
The hardest moments in recent months for Molly Malekar, 39, one
of the founders of Women Engendering the Peace, a political-educational
project founded two and a half years ago with funding from the Dutch
government and scheduled to end this calendar year, were her
conversations with Palestinian friends.
The project, which involves Jewish and Arab women [from Israel]
and a parallel group of Palestinians [from the territories], tried to
bring left-wing views to audiences that were not always reached -
Mizrahi and Israeli Arab women, as well as Palestinian women from the
refugee camps, in an effort to see peace in a social-cultural context.
“I spoke with Palestinians that I work with,” says Malekar,
“and they felt that they don´t see themselves engaging in joint
activity today in areas that are not political. They don´t want to
cooperate in what they call ‘activity related to normalization´. Oslo
has become a pejorative term for them.”
Malekar was born in India and came to Israel in 1971. She sees
a way of life in her political world. Her daughter, born during the
period of the Oslo Accords, studies in a Jewish-Arab school in
Jerusalem.
“People call me naïve,” she says. “The tribal feeling is that
it´s not legitimate to be on the left today. People expect left-wingers
like me to be constantly engaged in apologetics. Prior to the recent
Intifada, this wasn´t true. Then, it flourished. I don´t deny that I am
also asking hard questions today. Today, when I talk about peace, I´m
talking more about political concessions and less about reconciliation.
Once I used to talk about reconciliation. Today I know that Oslo was a
sham. Our leadership did not translate the agreements into political
action. The settlements expanded. I also know that some slogans on the
left have to be re-examined. What does ‘end the occupation´ mean? In my
opinion, the evacuation of settlements is clearly a necessity. On the
other hand, the Palestinians also have a distance to go. If the
Palestinians talk about recognizing the state of Israel, then full
implementation of the right of return cannot take place. One
contradicts the other.”
Q: What are the toughest words you hear when you demonstrate?
“When women stand on the street and express political views,
they are always attacked sexually. There is also the popular claim that
‘you care more about Palestinians than Israelis.´ This is part of the
problem on the left, which prevents us from recruiting more people…and
that Jewish symbols have been co-opted by the right.
“In my opinion, we do not have to be apologetic. We can say
that we have an [historical] connection with Hebron, but there´s a big
difference between that and saying that we have to conquer it, as the
settlers do.”
Q: Are you in contact with settlers?
No, never. Just as I´m not in touch with fundamentalist Muslim
groups, I´m not in touch with settlers. It´s the same thing in my
opinion. The same ideological idea.”
* * *
EDNNA KLUGMAN NELED
Ednna Klugman, 71, born in Chile and one of the founders of
NELED, says that 20 years ago, in 1977, when her son was killed as part
of his army service, she stopped being a Zionist. “I decided then and
there to end my Zionism entirely,” she says, “and to become radical
left. The slogans of patriotism have no value for me, because no inch
of land is worth one drop of blood of a human being. I´m a bereaved
mother, and I know what that means. When I see the mothers of the girls
who were killed in the Dolphinarium, I want to hug them and strengthen
them, and tell them that now, more than ever, they must fight for peace
and not sacrifice their children for something that´s not worth it.
Nothing is worth the life of people.”
She founded NELED together with a group of women during the
period of the first Intifada, when the general idea was “together we´ll
give birth to [neled] peace. The organization, which included Jewish
and Arab women, including those from across the Green Line, was active
for many years. Today, only one Arab woman from Tira remains in it.
Klugman is becoming blind as a result of an illness, but
insists on standing at intersections and demonstrating almost every
Friday. “We are not a democracy”, she says. “We are a democracy only
for Jews in Israel. I say we must leave the territories, evacuate the
settlements, end the occupation, and acknowledge our responsibility on
principle for the problem of the refugees.”
Q: And if they want to exercise their right of return?
“I don´t believe that four million will come. Just like not all the Jews came from the Diaspora.”
The reactions to Klugman´s views have been harsh. “People say to
me, ‘You care more about Arabs than Jews.´ I was harassed by phone.
People say, ‘I hope all your family dies. If you have children, I hope
they all die.´ And I, who already lost a son, cried a whole day.
“One settler said to me at an intersection, “I´m even willing
to die if need be´. I asked him, ‘How can you be so full of poison and
hatred?´
“When we demonstrated in Ariel some time ago, about 50 armed
settlers showed up to attack us. Afterwards, one of our women headed
home, and they followed her and tried to run her off the road. I always
try to explain my position, but people don´t want to hear. They say,
‘Ah, you don´t feel Jewish, you care only about them.´ They don´t even
give you a chance to express your views.”
Q: The day after the terrorist bomb in the Dolphinarium, you
were one of those demonstrating for peace. You didn´t start the
demonstration with a minute of silence?
“Yes, we forgot. It was a mistake. We should have begun everything with a minute of silence.”
* * *
RELA MAZALI New Profile
“We changed from being a state that has an army to
an army that has a state,” says Rela Mazali, 53, one of the founders of
New Profile, a feminist organization in which men are also members and
whose main activity is to “civil-ize” militaristic Israeli society. The
organization, founded three years ago, also struggles for legal
recognition of conscientious objection to army service.
“A cynical manipulation of our consciousness is underway,” says
Mazali, “one which seeks to convince us that we are in danger, and
thereby makes fear our primary motivation. We are driven by this fear,
and therefore we are willing to sacrifice our children. What we need in
Israel today is a deep-seated transformation of the assumption that we
must live by the sword. The sense of existential threat is ingrained in
our consciousness, although it is not clear at all what is meant by
this existential threat to the state of Israel. Clearly the
Palestinians are not an existential threat to Israel. Although the
security of the individual has declined and civilians can be killed in
the street, this should not be confused with an existential threat to
the state.”
Q: So people should not enlist in the IDF and defend the country?
“In my opinion, people should not serve in the army at all
today. Yes. Today it is immoral to participate actively in military
service. People should be getting out and saying, ‘We refuse to
cooperate with what the army is doing today.´ If there were dozens or
hundreds of Eli Geva´s who did that - who would stop and say, ‘This I´m
unwilling to do´ - it would have an impact on the decision-making.”
Mazali claims that people on the left view the occupation as
something deeper than the issue of the territories, relating it to
racism and militarism. The state of Israel, from her perspective,
engages in discrimination and racism toward its minorities, who are not
only Arabs.
“Quite a few Israelis considered themselves left until last
October,” she says, “but their ‘left-ness´ was not authentic. All it
amounted to was drawing a border between us and the Palestinians and
saying, “Come on, let´s give back territories´. That´s considered left
in Israel, and can be summed up as, ‘Yalla, let´s get rid of the
millions of Palestinians so we can breathe more easily.´ To me, these
people, whose concern was their own security, were never ‘left´. These
people ignored the fact that within Israel, too, there are
Palestinians, and that there is racism and discrimination within
Israel, and not only toward Arabs.
“I knew from the first day of Oslo that it was not a peace
process. I saw what was happening in the territories, how the situation
there was going from bad to worse. I was surprised that the Intifada
did not break out earlier. The people who called themselves ‘left´ and
today are moaning, ‘oy vey, the sky has fallen, we´re so disappointed´,
simply refused to see it. The problem is that the majority of Israelis
are people like that and the settlers are setting the agenda.”
Q: You make a great effort to get to know Palestinians. What about dialogue with settlers, part of your own people?
“I have never made any effort to get to know settlers and talk
to them. What do you mean, ‘part of my own people´? Who decides who is
a people and what I belong to? I don´t easily agree to being put into a
group, and certainly not together with settlers. There are Palestinians
to whom I feel more connected than Jewish settlers.”
* * *
MICHAL PUNDAK Mothers and Women for Peace
Right after Ehud Barak came to power, Michal Pundak, 43, one of
the founders of Mothers and Women for Peace (formed four years ago
after the opening of the Western Wall Tunnel ), packed away her protest
signs, cleared them out of her car, and stored them in the loft. “I
thought that the left had returned to power”, she says. “We fell asleep
a little; Barak put us to sleep for a while. I didn´t believe that I´d
have to go up to the loft so fast to bring down the signs again.
“The left today,” says Pundak, “is a small, narrow band at the
margins of Israeli society. I´m practically regarded as a security risk
to Israel. Statements like “Barak was willing to give them almost
everything they wanted” reveal the trap of ignorance into which we all
fell, including me. During the Barak administration, the number of
settlements built and homes demolished increased dramatically, and yet
we lived with the bluff that somebody here was making peace for us.
“This whole Intifada did not begin because Sharon entered the
Temple Mount, but because of years of smokescreen. They brainwashed us
in a way that even made inroads into the radical left. There are women
who had once been active, and when I ask them to rejoin us, they say,
‘No, because we´re disappointed.´”.
Q: And on the other side?
“Palestinian women with whom I try to renew dialogue say that
this isn´t the right time, that we should wait for easier days, that
right now they have no real reason for dialogue, that the situation is
charged.”
Q: And in your opinion the situation is not charged?
“No. Even though I oppose Palestinian terrorism against
civilians, across the Green Line it´s easier for me to understand. Even
when it involves children, because I think that people who take risks
by living across the Green Line are consciously endangering themselves.
The children are the price that these parents are willing to pay. I get
angry about incidents inside the Green Line, because they increase the
anger and hatred among Jews, and block the option of dealing
empathetically with the Palestinians, whose terrorism is actually
justified. This is their War for Independence.”
Pundak is the mother of three, the oldest of whom is seventeen
and a half and about to be drafted, and she herself is part of a
bereaved family. Her brother was killed in the Yom Kippur War.
“A week ago at a demonstration,” she relates, “someone came
over to me and said about the terrorism at the Dolphinarium, ‘It´s too
bad those weren´t your children´. It was terrible. I know what it means
to mourn, I understand the heavy price of war, and I am coming from a
place that knows the price, and knows that it´s not worth it. So many
soldiers were killed in the Yom Kippur War, and in the end we returned
the Sinai and got peace. Couldn´t we get to peace beforehand, before my
brother was killed?”
Q: Your son is about to be drafted to the army. How do you feel?
“I try to leave his decisions to him. I recognize the right of
every person to choose. However, I would not agree to any one of my
family serving in the territories. If he decides to do that, it would
be a very hard dilemma for me.”
Q: And would you be tolerant enough to accept it, if he decides to serve there?
“I´m not sure.”
One of Pundak´s good friends is Shella Shorshan, whose husband
Doron was murdered at Kfar Darom [in Gaza], where they then lived. The
women studied together at Bar-Ilan University. At the end of their
studies, each student received a note with the name of another student.
Pundak´s note carried the name of Shorshan, and she was supposed to
bring her a gift. Michal debated with herself, and finally gave
Shorshan an olive tree.
“Shella planted the tree at her home, in Kfar Darom,” relates
Pundak, “and I said to her, ‘I want you to know that it´s not easy for
me that I gave you a tree and you´re planting it here.´ I knew she
would plant it there, but my love for her prevailed. I would be very
happy if a Palestinian family would live under that tree some day, and
Shella would go visit from time to time.”
* * *
HAVA KELLER Women on Behalf of Women Political Prisoners
On the most recent Holocaust Day, Hava Keller, 72, among the
founders of Women on Behalf of Women Political Prisoners, was injured
during a demonstration at a checkpoint in the territories. An Israeli
soldier threw a gas grenade, and she was wounded on her leg. “The
doctor in the hospital asked me, ‘What - on Holocaust Day you
demonstrate on behalf of Palestinians?´ I told him, ‘On Holocaust Day,
I´m not willing to put anyone into a ghetto.´”
Q: Are you comparing us to the Germans?
“Every violation of human rights is a human rights violation. I
was born in Poland. Most of my family was killed in the Holocaust. We
got out on time. We ran away early. I resent the comparison of us with
Nazis, but I do feel that we are creating a ghetto in the territories.
I hate ghettos, to this very day. I do not purchase German products. I
am angry with the Germans who quietly acquiesced with what was
happening, angry at the Germans who were not members of the SS, but did
nothing [to stop it]. They agreed to horrible acts being committed in
their name. I do not agree to anything being done in my name without me
being aware of it.”
Women on Behalf of Women Political Prisoners was founded during
the first Intifada, and has about ten Israeli members. It is not a
member of the Coalition of Women for a Just Peace, though Keller is
active in this organization, as well as in Women in Black. “This is my
country,” she says, “and I care about what is happening here. People
say, ‘You can´t believe them, Barak tried and they were not willing´.
If Barak had tried and Barak were on the left, then no left would
remain in Israel. Barak is a right-winger in disguise. He offered the
Palestinians a state that was not viable. Israel today does not want
peace. It wants war.”
As opposed to most of her friends who hesitate, Keller also
believes in the right of return for Palestinians. “First of all, we
have to accept the principle of the right of return. We truly expelled
them. I myself was present and took part in expelling Arabs from
Beersheba. I stood there with a rifle while they climbed into the
trucks. They didn´t resist. Had they, I would have shot them. What
awful hypocrisy it would be for us to say that we have the right of
return after 2,000 years, but they don´t after 50, when the key to
their homes is still in their pockets?”
Q: You have no criticism of the other side? We´re the only guilty party?
“Naturally I have criticism. I believe that they are waging this
war in a very illogical manner. The story of the Dolphinarium, for
example, wrought terrible harm to them.”
Q: Harm? What about the fact that this was an act of inhumanity?
“Under conditions of conquest, nobody can think about how to be
humanitarian. I don´t remember that we were terribly humane prior to
the establishment of Israel.”
* * *
MIRI KRASIN Noga Feminist Magazine
“The time has come for women to raise their voices,”
says Miri Krasin, 45, born in Romania and an editor of Noga, an
ideological feminist magazine founded to amplify the voice of women,
and whose members are active in the Coalition of Women for a Just
Peace. Krasin herself has been a peace activist for 26 years. “We´re
sick and tired of generals and the strategies of power. We view the
silencing of the Palestinians as the silencing of women - the
oppression of a political minority.”
Krasin is familiar with statements about the silent,
disappointed left. “Who´s the disappointed left - Edna Shabtai? The
story about the disappointed left began when the Palestinian citizens
of Israel demonstrated after eruption of the al-Aqsa Intifada. What
exactly are they disappointed about?…This was a rhetoric of peace that
was meaningless, even under Barak. I knew if there wouldn´t be peace
based on genuine compromise and a willingness to concede territory and
acknowledge what was done to the Palestinian people, that nothing would
happen. Disappointment? I´m disappointed that the police shot Arabs. In
the back.”
Q: There are also authentic left-wingers who were discouraged.
“Yes, many are in such despair that they really have no energy
to act. The left today is not at the height of its activity. People are
tired and afraid, the left could also get blown up, terrorism is
random. But it´s also frightening to see the rabblerousing of the
right. It´s hard to watch. I look at people in the street and everyone
looks crazed today. People are behaving as if there´s a national
psychosis - they look depressed and yell about everything. It´s hard to
figure out what´s despair and what´s a political attitude.” * * *
SAMIRA KHOURI TANDI: Movement of Democratic Women in Israel
Samira Khouri, 72, is one of the founders of TANDI: Movement of
Democratic Women in Israel, the oldest Jewish-Arab women´s organization
in Israel. Since 1949, this organizations has been active on behalf of
the rights of women, children, and a just peace. Khouri is also active
in other organizations, was a cofounder of Bat Shalom and others, and
has won many prizes for activity on behalf of women, peace, and human
rights.
“Even before the Six Day War,” she says, “women peace activists
were regarded as traitors. I was a schoolteacher. I was fired in the
1950s because of my activity. They said, ‘Why are you getting mixed up
with this? ´”
Q: What drives you?
“I have a conscience. I want to change society, to have justice and peace.”
Khouri lives in Nazareth. During last October´s events, her two
daughters were severely beaten by Jews during a demonstration. One even
lost consciousness. “Those who beat my daughters were following
orders,” she says, “It was terrible, a disgrace, after so many years of
activity on behalf of peace, to see my daughters treated like that, but
it didn´t change anything for me. It didn´t give me hate, only more
anger at the government. It doesn´t matter what government is in power,
there´s no difference between left and right. Barak did a lot, but he
wouldn´t move on the issue of right of return. People are always
talking about giving or not giving the right of return. You can´t give
something that is someone´s by right.”
Q: One has to be realistic. What will we do about those who want to return to Jaffa?
“They won´t come back. They´ll get reparations.”
Q: You have no criticism of the Palestinians?
“No. I criticize only those who commit acts of terrorism inside
Israel. These I condemn. These are done by desperate people, who don´t
understand the first thing about politics. When the father of the
terrorist from the Dolphinarium said that he would have wanted to have
20 children like that one, I spit. Really. Innocent people there just
to dance. What are they guilty of? But with regard to the struggle in
the territories, every such struggle is just.”
Q: Even injuring a five-month-old baby?
“It wasn´t intentional.”
Q: A sniper aimed directly at Shalhevet Pass, may she rest in peace.
“Perhaps. I don´t approve of the killing of small children, just
as I don´t agree to the killing of Muhammad Dura and the Israeli
snipers who aim to kill little girls.”
Among the Arabs, says Khouri, there´s disappointment with the
left that has not done much since the events of October. “There are
those who despair,” she says, “and ask me, ‘How do you work with Jews?
Don´t you feel that they hate you?´ I say, ‘Maybe I sense some hatred,
but one has to try.´ The Palestinians avoid it, they lost faith.”
For years, Khouri has taught Jewish and Arab women. “I know
that the day is yet distant when there will be peace and social
justice. When I lecture, I look at the young women sitting in front of
me, and I see how hard it is for them. I always say, so they won´t
despair, ‘Look at how old I am. Maybe you don´t think that we will have
peace in our lifetimes, but I´m already 72, an old woman, and I am
certain that there will be peace in my lifetime.´ I pray for
everybody.”
End. -- ------------------------------------------------
Bat
Shalom is a feminist peace organization working toward a just peace
between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Bat Shalom, together with The
Jerusalem Center for Women, a Palestinian women's peace organization,
comprise The Jerusalem Link. Visit their web site for more information
and our latest activities: http://www.batshalom.org
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end Bat Shalom newsletter posting
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Informational Links: (posted by adot.com)
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UK Women in Black
Minnesota Metro Univ - Women in Black
Women In Black Vigil On Serbia
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Beijing Women's Conference, Women in Black
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KPFA Flashpoints Radio Show (Middle East Children's Alliance's Barbara Lubin is a frequent guest)
Green Women and Progressive Politics (this page home)
Prayers for Peace in the Middle East