Who we are
Founded in the aftermath of the 50-day Gaza War/Operation Protective Edge of 2014, Women Wage Peace (WWP) has grown to 50,000 Israeli members, the largest grassroots peace movement in Israel today.
WWP’s theory of change refracts the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and its resolution, through a gendered lens. In the words of former US Ambassador Swanee Hunt, “Women tend to have a more holistic view of security, which embraces not just political sovereignty and military strength, but also economic security, education, and personal safety.” The movement is non-partisan and does not support any one specific solution to the conflict. Instead, it empowers women from diverse communities to build trust across divides, leading in turn to a unified demand for diplomatic negotiation, with full representation of women, to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
WWP enables women to unite and take the future of this small place into our own hands –from the political left, center and right, younger and older women, those from the center of the country and its periphery, religious and secular, Jewish, Arab, Druze and Bedouin. The movement continues to refine its non-hierarchical structure, distributing its work among thousands of volunteers who serve on regional and/or mission-specific teams including Government Engagement, Foreign Affairs, Digital Communication, Special Projects, and Strategy.
What we’ve done and continue to do
2024 Both WWP and WOS were nominated for the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize, acknowledging the impact of our collective efforts towards peace and reconciliation.
• Dr. Yael Admi and Reem Hajajre, representatives of our movements, were honored in Time Magazine’s 2024 Women of the Year list, highlighting their significant contributions to peace-building.
2023 Dr. Yael Braudo-Bahat, Co-Director of Women Wage Peace, represented WWP in the BBC’s esteemed 100 Women of the Year list for 2023, showcasing our movement’s global recognition.
• With WOS, we were granted a MEPPA grant and began implementing our joint project Women Building Bridges, in partnership with USAID.
2022. Most recently WWP began a robust collaboration with Women of the Sun (WOS), the Palestinian women’s peace movement established in 2021. In March 2022 our historic partnership was officially launched in a festive gathering at the Dead Sea with the signing of The Mothers’ Call.
2021. WWP mounted its first UN-sponsored event as part of the 65th Commission on the Status of Women and also raised over a million shekels, overwhelmingly from Israeli donors, in its first online fundraising campaign.
2020. WWP was granted NGO consultancy status within the United Nation’s EcoSoc division and collaborated with Women Lawyers for Social Justice to mark the 20th anniversary of UN Resolution 1325.
2019. With advice from security experts and public figures across the political spectrum, WWP launched its first legislative initiative, the Political Alternatives First Bill, requiring national decision-makers both on a regular basis and during emergencies to
(1) examine political alternatives for resolving conflicts, in coordination with representatives from civil society, before resorting to military options and
(2) to allocate time, funds and personnel for detailed examination of political/diplomatic solutions to conflicts.
The bill’s sponsors are Labor Party leader Merav Michaeli and MK Emilie Moatti.
2018. WWP held its First International Congress specifically targeted to younger women.
2017. WWP’s Journey to Peace attracted worldwide attention as well as ongoing support from ambassadors and diplomatic staff stationed in Israel.
2016. Over 30,000 women, men and children joined segments of WWP’s first large-scale event, the March of Hope, including 3,000 Palestinian women from the West Bank, with solidarity events held worldwide. WWP’s first major collaboration began with Knesset members to establish the Women’s Caucus for Peace and Security.
2015. WWP organizeda fifty-day fast outside the Prime Minister’s Residence to commemorate the previous summer’s largely unacknowledged war.
2014. Just after that summer’s 50-day war, a thousand women from all over Israel gathered in Sderot, a city often targeted by rockets from Gaza, saying with one voice enough! to the failed paradigm of endless managed conflict.