Ihsan Mohammed Turkieh
Comedy writer and actress
A checkpoint is a horrible scene, but as a comedian, I like to play the simple Palestinian lady. She says to the soldier, “Please, my daughter, she is in the hospital, let me go to see my daughter.” He barks, “Do you have a permit? If you don’t have a permit, you will not pass.” She pleads, “Let me go, let me go.” He yells, “Yallah, get away from here!” She curses the Wall and yells back, “I wish a tsunami takes the Wall, takes you. Then both of us will be at rest at the end!” The Israelis laugh, but it is very black comedy. [..]
Inbal Avnon
Sergeant with Israeli Defense Force
To serve as a woman in a combat position is a big honor. Military service has always been important to me. Even at an early age I knew I wanted to join a combat unit. I had to cope with people asking, “Why?” and making fun of me because women weren’t in combat units then. But it is one of the most challenging things open to women in the army, and has given me a lot.
Amira Dotan
Member of Knesset and retired Brigadier-General
Feminism is the ability to do what you want to do. It must be on the table immediately that there are two different genders. Women need to believe that men are who they are and we are who we are, and to be proud of who we are instead of spending so much energy imitating men. Then we will have more energy to do what we want to do, and questions of harassment and violence lessen because men see you as equal. [...]
Ester Golan
Sociologist and Holocaust educator
What was your childhood like in Nazi Germany?
My mother was a Zionist since the Balfour Declaration. So, I grew up in the belief that the ancient dream would be fulfilled one day and we would come to Palestine. I was ten years old when Hitler came. In Catholic school, the teacher came in and said: “You are Jewish? Get up and sit at the back.” From that day on nobody talked to me any more. Nobody played with me any more. [...]
