Women's Group Calls on Knesset to Make Peace

Jerusalem, 31 October, 2016 (TPS) -- Hundreds of peace activists will march from the Prime Minister’s Office towards the Knesset on Monday, holding 120 billboards featuring each Knesset member and calling for a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“We demand that each Knesset member to give full account of what they have accomplished to promote peace,” said Yael Treidel, a march coordinator, told Tazpit Press Service (TPS).  “The goal of our recent March of Hope was to raise awareness and to put us on the map in the eyes of the media and the politicians. Since the end of Sukkot, multiple shifts of women in white have held a vigil in front of the Prime Minister’s Office, and today we are marching from there towards the Knesset, which opens its winter session,” she stated.

Last month, the movement held a two-week march from northern kibbutz Rosh Hanikra to the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem. The march included local events in Jewish and Arab-majority cities throughout the country, and a joint Israeli-Palestinian event at Qasr al-Yahud, adjacent to Jericho. The march culminated in a 20,000-person rally in front of the Prime Minister’s Office on October 19.

One of the speakers at the rally, Hadassah Froman, a peace activist from Tekoa community and mother-in-law of a terror victim, told TPS about her work within the organization:

“I live in Tekoa and I meet regularly within Palestinians and Israelis from the region in order to promote mutual cooperation in resolving difficult issues of our day to day lives such as unemployment or sick people in need,” she explained.

“A dire issue in our region is the lack of communication between Palestinian society and the army, causing those issues to not be seen or properly understood,” she stated. “My work is centered around identifying those predicaments in the regional Palestinian society and conveying them to the IDF, in order for the latter to effectively attend to those needs,” she stated.  

“We are trying to bring the Israeli and Palestinian societies together in order to produce a solid ground that will be able to support whatever type of respected political agreement is decided upon,” Froman concluded.

Women Wage Peace is a non-partisan movement which pushes for a solution to the conflict. Though political in its nature, it does not promote a particular view on any agreement. Rather, the group says it will support any deal as long as it is durable and accepted by both sides.

“This movement emerged from the will to transform feelings of desperation and helplessness following the 2014 Protective Edge war into positive energy in the service of peace through the application of significant political pressure onto Israeli officials,” said Yael Treidel to TPS.

Women Wage Peace has two missions: To end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with a non-violent and negotiated agreement, and also to involve women in the process, in keeping with Security Council Resolution 1325 which “reaffirms the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts.”

Yael Treidel told TPS said that in contrast to male leaders, who often see conflict in stark terms of winners and losers, her organization tries to bring a distinctly feminine approach to peacemaking.

“What has been made clear during our march is that, contrary to popular belief, we do have a partner and there can be a win-win solution,” she concluded.