GirlGI | Girl Gone International Issue 7 | Page 77

‘Perhaps the universal sisterhood is necessary before
the universal brotherhood is possible.’
Bertha von Suttner (1843 - 1914), the first woman
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Palestinian Refugee Camp, Nablus

Reading

about the Isreal Gaza conflict these
last few months, it is hard not to despair what has been happening there. As GGI Emily Castle-Dunn pointed out recently,
‘What’s so distressing about this conflict is how it’s stirring up
other hate,’ such as anti-Semitism in Europe, ‘or how people
are simply pro-Israel while [discounting] the victims in Gaza.’
With so much death and destruction, it is easy to overlook
the people, women in particular, who are working to promote peace and understanding in the region.
One such woman, Robi Damelin, heads the Women’s Group
at the Parents Circle – Families Forum (PCFF), a PalestinianIsraeli organisation of over 600 families who have lost a close
family member as a result of the conflict. It is a group that
explicitly states it does not want any new members and that
hopes to ‘prevent further bereavement through dialogue,
tolerance, peace and reconciliation.’
The Women’s Group has been meeting multiple times a year
since 2006; in recent years, it has also organised talks and
artistic exhibitions to help create reconciliation. Damelin told
GGI that she started the Women’s Group because she witnessed meetings full of men discussing issues like reconciliation while women stayed outside with their children, even
though ‘they bear the brunt of the war.’ She believes ‘women
can be an effective actor for change, even if they are not university professors’ because ‘we share the same pain.’ As she
poignantly wrote in an open letter to an Israeli newspaper,
‘We understand that the pain of a mother losing a child is the
same no matter where she comes from, what colour her skin
is and to whom she prays at night. The tears falling on the
pillow are the same colour. . . No one has the right to use our
beloved children as pawns in a battle that can never be won.’

Many of the Women’s Groups projects are aimed at bringing
Israeli and Palestinian women together at the grassroots level. This year, for example, about 50 women from the group
got together to make jams and pickles. As Damelin said, ‘You
learn a person’s history through their grandmother’s recipes.’ When cooking together, ‘tension falls away and from
the laughter comes friendship.’ The recipes from the cooking
event have been published in a book, Jam Session - Recipes
for Friendship, Jams and Remembrance, that gives not only
recipes, but also tells the women’s stories. One of the Women’s Groups Latest Projects involves creating a business that
sells a line of embroidered jewellery based on traditional
Palestinian embroidery. The money from the business will be
used for education and to support the group’s activities.
Although some NGOs have stopped trying to bring Israelis
and Palestinians together after this summer’s last round of
fighting, Damelin cautioned that ‘we can’t afford not go [go
forward].’ As she advised, ‘Don’t let the situation affect who
you are. Instead, affect the situation you are in.’
Another woman focuses her attempts to promote peace by
addressing issues that impact mothers. Ruth Hiller is a peace
activist and one of the original founders of New Profile, a
feminist group of men and women working to end Israel’s
occupation of Palestinian land. She’s written about supporting four of her sons when they refused to serve in the Israeli
military (after a six-year legal battle, her oldest son became
the first pacifist in Israel to get an exemption from military
service). She hopes her organization’s work will lead to a less
militarized Israel and a society where children are not exclusively seen as future soldiers fighting and dying for their
country.