The Peace and Security caucus, headed by MKs Ksenia Svetlova and Michal Rozin, hosted, on July 19 2017, seven women ambassadors from Ireland, Ecuador, Malta, Slovenia, Cyprus, Croatia and France, as well as members of Women Wage Peace. We were all convened in order to discuss the caucus’s agenda. It must be mentioned that Women Wage Peace has inspired the creation of the lobby around a year ago.
MKs from all parties were invited and came to congratulate us. The following members spoke: Likud – Yehudah Glick and Nurit Korean; Mahane Hazioni – Nahman Shai, Yosi Yonah, Revital Swid, Tzipi Livni, Ayelet Nahmias-Verbin, Yael Cohen Paran; Meretz – Zehava Gal-On, Issawi Farij, Tamar Zandberg; HaReshima HaMeshutefet – Aida Touma-Suleiman; Yesh Atid – Yaakov Peri.
These MKs praised WWP for restoring hope and peace discourse to the Israeli sphere. They said WWP is a breakthrough movement, that only women can change the political reality and wished us success in our mission.
The ambassadors’ main speakers were: the Irish ambassador speaking of the experience of reconciliation between the two various factions in her country; the Slavonic ambassador speaking of the actions taken in order to involve women in government and politics in her country; and the Cypriot ambassador.
The other ambassadors spoke among other things, about the need to involve women in peace and security discussions as per UN resolution 1325 to which Israel is a signatory, although, so far, nothing has come of it.
Over a hundred members of WWP from all over the country took part in the session. Saviona Rotlevy, the co-ordinator of the WWP Government Relations Team, and Suzan Abed Al-Kadar from Tayibe spoke on behalf of our movement. Apart from Marilyn Smadja and Orna Shimoni, who spoke briefly, there was not enough time for other WWP representatives to have their say. The session, lasted over two hours, was an exhilarating and inspiring event.
Logistics on our end were handled by the Government Relations Team in together with the Collaboration Team. We thank all women who have helped to organise the event, in particular Pascal Chen (the ambassadors), Saviona Rotlevy (Knesset) and Maayan Sharvit Eliyasin who had supervised the event’s organisation.
A hearty thanks to all the others who were not mentioned and who had helped in organising and co-ordinating the event.