Now that the immediate threat of war against Iraq seems to have passed, we are wondering what excuse Netanyahu will be using to avoid peace negotiations with the Palestinians. Lately Netanyahu seems to be pursuing peace with Lebanon (via Syria). This peace, if he could achieve it, would give him a place in history, but also allow Israel to stall on the Palestinian track. Lebanon is an attractive objective because peace could be made there without having to return any divinely promised territory. (Fortunately for us, Jehovah in His Wisdom seems to have detoured around south Lebanon.) Peace with Lebanon, reasons Netanyahu, would place him in the pantheon with Menachem Begin, another bellicose right-winger, whose peace treaty with Egypt earned him a Nobel Peace Prize and an undeserved reputation for greatness. Syria, however, is unlikely to succumb to Netanyahu’s charms without getting the Golan Heights in return, and that is definitely not on Netanyahu’s agenda. Well, we were hoping…
A report about a few matters related to Israeli women’s peace work:
Women In Black
On Friday March 6, 150 Israeli women marked the 10th anniversary of Women in Black with a vigil in Jerusalem. It was a somber event. As noted by Hagar Roublev, the “high priestess” of Women in Black in Israel, “We hope we won’t be here commemorating our 20th anniversary.” Sumaya Farhat-Naser, director of the Jerusalem Center for Women (the Palestinian side of The Jerusalem Link), spoke about the solidarity of peace work by Israeli and Palestinian women, noting that “We cannot afford the luxury of hopelessness.” Other moving speeches were made by Israeli activist Yvonne Deutsch and Luisa Morgantini, head of the Italian Association for Peace, who has been a loyal ally for women making peace in this region for years.
International Women’s Day
Bat Shalom marked International Women’s Day on March 8th with a showing of the film “Nana” at the Jerusalem Cinematheque and addresses by two courageous feminist peacemakers. Dr. Nadera Shalhoub Kevorkian, professor at Hebrew University (in 3 disciplines – law, criminology, and social work) and activist for Palestinian women’s rights, talked about the politicization of the woman’s body – the effect of the political conflict on Palestinian women’s health and very life. Nadera gave several poignant examples, such as health services denied Palestinian women who refused to pay discriminatory city taxes, or the proposed pardon of men convicted of sexual crimes when political considerations outweigh the well-being of women. Attorney Leah Zemel – a human rights advocate who has defended Palestinians for years regardless of how hopeless the case or whether they can pay – spoke of the difficulty of true solidarity between Israelis and Palestinians in light of the power imbalance, and the self-centered, unsacrificing nature of peace activism for most Israelis. She also praised the few “flowers” in the peace movement, mentioning Women in Black and the Israeli mother of the teenage girl who was killed by a terrorist bomb, but who still found the strength to publicly affirm her commitment to peace and place the blame where it belonged – on Israel’s failure to offer a fair accommodation to the Palestinian people. The film “Nana” was then shown – a moving documentary co-produced by four young women directors – Israeli, Palestinian, French, and British – offering windows of insight into the lives of the directors’ grandmothers. We were fortunate to have Suheir Isma’il, the Palestinian director, in the audience, who spoke extemporaneously, making a plea for “real peace, not just words”.
Visit To Hebron
This was a solidarity visit on February 17th that I haven’t had a chance yet to report. A group of about 10 Bat Shalom women, including Knesset Member Anat Ma’or, visited the home of a Palestinian women who has been harassed by Israeli soldiers stationed on her roof. Over a period of weeks, several soldiers, intrusively posted on the roof overhanging the balcony of her home, used abusive language, made sexual threats, urinated into the family water supply, and indecently exposed themselves to this religious woman. Two of these soldiers were finally arrested and convicted, serving a 2-week sentence all told. The women of Bat Shalom sat on the balcony with the woman and expressed our anger and sympathy. We left her copies of a letter in Arabic that we asked her to share with her neighbors. The letter read in part:
“We condemn the abuse and humiliation of the Palestinian residents of Hebron, which is a direct outcome of the Israeli occupation and the presence of fanatic Jewish settlers in the city. We believe that the only way to end this injustice is establishment of a Palestinian state alongside the state of Israel, in which Hebron will be under Palestinian sovereignty. We affirm our commitment to work tirelessly to bring about a peace between equals.”
The Jahalin Bedouin
The tribe of Bedouin known as the Jahalin had once lived in what was called southern Palestine. When the state of Israel was created, the tribe moved (not clear if this was voluntary or forced) to an area outside Israel’s borders. After the 1967 war, the Jahalin again found themselves under Israeli rule, and now Israel is demanding that they evacuate their lands. Why? To enable expansion of the Jewish settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim.
Many of the Jahalin have already been evicted and forcibly transferred, their belongings turned into garbage by Israeli army bulldozers. A group of 17 families returned to their homes, however, pending a court ruling. The Jahalin are willing to relocate, but only if a suitable site is found, and certainly not to the site they were given, which is in close proximity to a garbage dumping site and with insufficient pasture for their flocks.
Bat Shalom, together with Rabbis for Human Rights, has been organizing emergency aid to the Jahalin. If you live in Israel and can contribute blankets, warm clothes, or kitchen utensils, please deliver them to the Bat Shalom office. If you’d like to send a check, you can mail that to the office. We’ll keep you informed.
Home Demolitions
Finally, and sadly, home demolitions have been resumed at an increased pace in February and March. In recent weeks, 21 Palestinian homes were destroyed in the West Bank and Jerusalem areas. This makes a total of 560 Palestinian homes destroyed since the signing of the Oslo Accord in 1993, leaving thousands of individuals homeless.
Please take a moment to email or fax a letter to any or all of the authorities specified