Dima Aweidah-Nashashibi
Deputy Director of Women’s Center for Legal Aid and Counseling
Women suffer. There’s an increase in domestic violence because of the political violence and poverty. And women cannot come to our Centers because of checkpoints. The Jerusalem area is completely closed off by the Wall, and the villages around are isolated so women cannot move easily from one place to another. [..]
Tal Kramer
Former Executive Director of Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel
Working with women who have been raped or sexually abused, you must listen to hear their particular needs, desires, and voices. They are so varied and so different from each other. Everyone reacts differently in the world of sexual abuse, and each person has a different way of coping. [..]
Rachel Aspir
Chair of NAAMAT for the Jerusalem area
I was born in Iraq, and arrived here at age four or five. It was traumatic, my parents fled from Iraq secretly. If I have a recollection of that aliyah, of that journey to Israel, it is of my father being separated from my mother. The men had to leave on their own, and my mother stayed behind with my brother and me. My brother was a baby in her arms. My parents never spoke badly of Arabs. Abdullah—I remember him as a nice uncle who brought us sweets—helped my mother cross the border to get my brother and me where we needed to go. [..]
Sarai Aharoni
Facilitator with Isha L’Isha-Haifa Feminist Center
Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security was accepted by the United Nations Security Council in October 2000 and is seen by the international women’s movement as one of the biggest achievements of the movement during the last decade. It officially recognizes the need to incorporate women in all peace negotiations and everything to do with conflicts—prevention, management, and resolution. [...]
Salwa Abu Lebdeh
Camerawoman and documentary filmmaker
I am a director. I try to show a picture that’s different from the one you see on television that depicts a nation being killed, a nation that lacks life—with only funerals and flags. I show our life: a people with a history, civilization, and heritage. [...]
Khawla Dawoud Ahmad Alazraq
Director of Psycho-Social Counseling Women’s Center
The occupation puts immense pressure on women. The men used to earn incomes by working in Israel, now they cannot go to Israel. They are frustrated, cannot feed their kids, and do not feel like real fathers who can support their families. This expresses itself in violence against women and children. [...]
Michal Cafrey
Lawyer and Senior Advisor to Ministers in the Knesset
I am Israeli, a right-winger, and a feminist. I am not for the building of the Wall, I think Jews and Arabs should co-exist. I don’t see an end or solution right now, but I know my policies. Menachem Begin, a right-wing president, brokered the first peace treaty with an Arab country, Egypt, and it continues to this day. Maybe it’s a cold peace, but it’s a peace for 30 years. [...]
Galia Golan
Commentator, author, professor, and co-founder of Peace Now
People aren’t afraid to use the word occupation today. I think people who don’t use the word are blind or unjust. I can’t understand them. There are, of course, people on the far Right who believe we liberated these territories in 1967—that the West Bank, Golan Heights, maybe even the Gaza Strip are God-given territories promised to Abraham. They would reject the word occupation. [...]
Rula: Thursday
My day started at 6:00 am, like every day, and everything went well and smooth today. Memo went to school at 7:30 and then I return back home to prepare breakfast for my parents and myself, and then hurry to AL-Ram to attend my second day of the workshop that Fakhira my friend and [...]
Molly Malekar
Director of Bat Shalom of The Jerusalem Link
As a peace activist, you have chances every day to feel angry. You deal with peace, but you deal with violations of peace and human rights. I’ve tried to build an internal discipline not to be angry. One thing that relieves me is—maybe it’s age—knowing that peace will not be achieved within my lifetime. We have a long way to go and will not necessarily see the fruits of our work. It’s a marathon—and anger destroys energy.
