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Palestine and Israel

From the very beginning of NOW's existence in 2002 the Arab/Israeli conflict in the Middle East has been a source of major concern to us. In September of 2003 three members of NOW, Jenny Stanton, Caroline Raine and Ag McKeith, travelled to Ramallah and Jerusalem to make contacts with women's groups in the area. The following year, Jenny returned with Niki Carter and their accounts will shortly appear on the website.

 

Extracts from a report given by NOW's delegation to Palestine Women's Organisations, September 2003

Jenny, Caroline and Ag met representatives of the Palestinian Working Women's Society (PWWS) - Fawda Qourah, Media & Public Relations Officer, and Outreach Worker Nemah Assah, who took them to meet with 30 women in Shuqba village, an hour's drive from Ramallah. Several village women complained about bright girls being denied the chance to go to university or even to complete secondary schooling (see below about Bir Zeit). PWWS runs village savings schemes which enable women to set up projects for the benefit of themselves, their families and the community. (NOW's delegation donated £300 to PWWS for its work in Shuqba).
In'ash el'Usra (=Building the Family) Director: Farida Amad, who suggested we include examples of their women's embroidery in our International Women's Day exhibition. She also stressed the Apartheid Wall which will affect 200,000 people: men, women and children losing access to school, water, property, everything.
Women's Studies Centre at Bir Zeit University. They combine community outreach with research on the effects of the Intifada, and women's organisations. What they most want from twinning: help with scholarship funds for girls; and an earmarked PhD scholarship for a women student to study abroad. (Can NOW help, here, please?).
Working Women's Association, which does similar work to PWWS in villages, but also in the refugee camps (there are three inside Ramallah; their HQ is in Qaddura camp) including work to build girls' leadership abilities, and training women with a view to getting more to stand in elections.
Also in connection with 'University' & ORFA, our delegation made contact with Munir and Hadeel Qazzaz (Munir is Dean of Students at Bir Zeit and already has links with Brookes University). Munir's wife, Hadeel, is a social scientist working with a German NGO. She is actively involved in a number of women's organisations and well respected in the Ramallah community. It is urged that NOW fundraise, please, to get Hadeel to come to Oxford to speak at our International Women's Day platform in March 04.

Jenny, Caroline & Ag also meet with Israeli peace groups, and they joined Women in Black for their weekly demonstration in Paris Square, Jerusalem, and heard how reduced and isolated they feel (WIB have to be protected by armed police due to public hostility). Jenny has suggested NOW might be interested to hear about The Coalition of Women for Peace


THE COALITION OF WOMEN FOR PEACE (www.coalitionofwomen4peace.org )
The Coalition of Women for Peace, composed of 9 Israeli women's organizations, was founded on November 8, 2000. They are a mix of Jewish and Palestinian women (all citizens of Israel), and they engage in public advocacy to call upon Israel to end the occupation and accept a just political solution.
The 9 Member Organizations of the Coalition Bat Shalom - The Israeli side of The Jerusalem Link, an Israeli-Palestinian partnership of women for peace. batshalo@netvision.net.il
Machsom-Watch : A human-rights group that monitors checkpoints and seeks to prevent abuse of Palestinians who cross these checkpoints.
NELED: An organization of 'Women for Coexistence'. New Profile - Addresses issues of militarism and supports those who refuse to do military service. www.newprofile.org
Noga Feminist Journal - News and analysis of feminist issues in Israel and abroad.
TANDI: Movement of Democratic Women for Israel - an organization of mostly Palestinian citizens of Israel that seeks equality for and empowerment of women.
WILPF: The Israeli chapter of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.
The Fifth Mother: The re-grouped Four Mothers Movement, which played a major role in ending the Israeli occupation of Lebanon.
Women in Black: Women dressed in black have stood in vigils every week for 15 years throughout Israel, calling for an end to the Israeli occupation. The Women in Black movement, represented by the Israeli and Serbian groups, was a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001 and 2003

Coalition Activities: Members of the Coalition support each other's work - by attending, publicizing, recruiting for, and otherwise being supportive of events. In addition, the Coalition itself carries out mass rallies, human rights campaigns, and advocacy.
The first activity of the Coalition was a mass vigil and march in Jerusalem, with 2,000 Israeli and Palestinian women calling for an end to the occupation and negotiation of a just peace. Subsequently, we held a series of demonstrations demanding an end to the military 'closure' of Palestinian towns and villages. In the first action, where women blocked the entrance to the Ministry of Defense in Tel-Aviv in order to illustrate the problems of closure, 17 demonstrators were arrested.
Subsequent actions, often in cooperation with mixed-gender peace organizations, involved nonviolent resistance to closure. These included the removal of blockades and filling in of trenches, both intended to be physical barriers to prevent Palestinians from entering or leaving their villages. In other actions, individual women push resistance one step further by standing in front of army bulldozers or chaining themselves to olive trees, in an effort to prevent further destruction of Palestinian homes and property.
Twice a year, the Coalition organizes mass ralllies to call for an end to the occupation, and over 150 vigils around the world have responded in solidarity. In Jerusalem, 5,000 Israeli and Palestinian women marched under the banner 'We Refuse to be Enemies'. This past May, the Coalition held a 'lie-in' of 1,000 women in a large public plaza in Tel-Aviv to mourn all the victims and call for an end to the occupation.

Principles of the Coalition

An end to the occupation.
The full involvement of women in negotiations for peace. Establishment of the state of Palestine side-by-side with the state of Israel based on the 1967 borders.
Recognition of Jerusalem as the shared capital of two states.
Israel must recognize its share of responsibility for the results of the 1948 war, and cooperate in finding a just solution for the Palestinian refugees.
Opposition to the militarism that permeates Israeli society.
Equality, inclusion and justice for Palestinian citizens of Israel.
Equal rights for women and all residents of Israel.
Social and economic justice for Israel's citizens, and integration in the region.

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