To mark the 25th anniversary of the Oslo Accords, BICOM has published a paper examining how to rebuild the peace camp in Israel. The opening essay by peace activist Noam Shuster-Eliassi, argues that the traditional Israeli peace camp needs to break out of its comfort zone and reach out into new communities such as the ultra-Orthodox, National-Religious, Russian Israelis and Palestinian Israelis. The second part of the report examines the work of a number of successful grassroots organisations engaging in peacemaking and asks what they need to expand their work, among them is WWP.
Case study 2 | Women Wage Peace
(WWP): Working to put women at the forefront of politics and national security
What do you do and what are the achievements of your work to date?
Our goal is to reach an honourable and bilaterally acceptable political agreement to
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We focus on three objectives: to increase our numbers
through reaching as diverse a group of women as possible; to pressure our elected leaders to
prioritise diplomacy over military options; and to increase women’s participation in all aspects of
national security and peacemaking, as mandated by UN Security Council Resolution 1325 – to
which Israel was an early signatory in 2005.
While we are political, we remain nonpartisan, unaffiliated, and by design, uncommitted to any
particular peace plan, thus enabling us to reach out to a diverse population of women – Right,
Centre, Left, religious and secular, Jewish and Arab – in at least 85 different geographical
regions throughout Israel, including the Palestinian territories.
What first comes to mind in terms of those activities we feel have been most impactful,
are our two mass marches: the 2016 March of Hope, which drew 30,000; and the 2017
Journey to Peace, which drew even larger crowds over two weeks, including 3,000 Palestinian women from the West Bank. Both these activities far exceeded our expectations in
terms of attendance (including the participation of Palestinian women at a time of increased
violence), domestic and international media exposure, and an increase in our membership.
This year, the first of four integrated activities has already proven successful beyond anyone’s
expectation. What we call the Mothers’ Tent (which we named in part to honour our
predecessors, the Four Mothers movement, [an Israeli protest movement founded in 1997 by four
mothers of soldiers serving in southern Lebanon which pushed for an Israeli withdrawal]) is a
“soft place for round discussions” as one of our members aptly put it. It was pitched in
the Wohl Rose Garden opposite the Knesset at the opening of the legislature’s summer
session. Our skepticism about its somewhat out-of-the-way location gave way during its
first week of operation. From 9 May until 20 June we had over 6,000 visitors including
Members of Knesset, school children and their teachers, tourists visiting the Knesset, as well
as ordinary people and distinguished leaders from all over the country and abroad. In fact, a
number of religious youth groups were actually meeting Arab women for the very first time in
the Mothers’ Tent. This pop-up project has also dovetailed nicely with our weekly presence in
the Knesset plenum and our consistent presence in relevant Knesset committee meetings.
Through all three of these endeavours, we have established high visibility in a relatively short
time and, several MKs have already returned the word “hope” and the notion that “peace is
possible” to the political arena
What are the greatest barriers to implementing your goals?
We cannot implement major projects without raising a large amount of money. Yet, given our
innovative, non-protest-oriented, non-hierarchical approach, we can never be sure in the planning
stages if we’re going to succeed. All non-profits are limited in their risk-taking and WWP is also
a volunteer movement, which further limits our fundraising capacity since we are dependent
on members finding the time and sometimes resources to reach out to their contacts. We
are always pleased to share that half of our funding comes from Israel and half from abroad,
reflecting a very high ratio of domestic giving.
In order to remain politically non-affiliated, we do not solicit funds from foreign governments or
politically-identified foundations or other groups.
Another challenge is one of perception. We are a movement that draws women from the
Left, Right and Centre. Yet part of our challenge is that peace is associated with the Left while
security is associated with the Right. We are working to change the paradigm and create
an inclusive culture of discourse that respects people from across the religious or political
spectrum. We also face challenges with trying to increase our membership is dealing with the
sense of despair and a lack of belief that change is possible.
We are criticised, sometimes strongly, by the Left because we do not condemn or even speak
about the occupation as such. Instead we use a different language, one based on the principle of
“no shaming and no blaming.” We have friends who say they will not join WWP until we call
out the occupation. Our response is that by falling into the trap of a 51-year-old zero-sum
mentality that relies on binaries such as usversus-them and peace-versus-security, as well
as on language such as “there’s no partner for peace on the other side”, all of which have split
the country, we are in fact preventing progress from being made to resolve the conflict, which
by definition will end occupation. We, the 40,000 members of WWP, understand that we have to
break this ineffective paradigm and its binary language and that it can only be done effectively
with the support of a critical mass of Israelis. To reach that critical mass, we speak of the intrinsic
and existential needs of all people for freedom, dignity, and opportunity, without saying that the
occupation is preventing that from happening.
How do you scale up? What else do you need in
order to achieve more of your objectives?
We need more resources to scale up and we need to sharpen our skills in branding,
messaging, and engaging with decision makers and opinion shapers.
