Translated by Orna Raz
Description of the enterprise
Creating an immense quilt made of squares made by women from all over the world. This quilt of peace is an international art project that expresses the desire for peace in our area. It is a grand, non-verbal, visual product with a positive message: women in Israel and Palestine want peace and hope. This quilt is a symbol that collaboration of women could end the conflict.
We believe in the ability of women to change reality and to build a secure future for the children.
As women we know how to connect with one another, how to bridge gaps, how to embrace, and how to forgive.
We are skilled at the craft of joining together: we stitch, embroider, and knit.
Since so many women love to quilt, we thought that if women, from all over the world, unite in making an immense quilt we could, truly and visually, show that we wish to change our reality here in the Middle East. We decided to name the project Piece for peace. Everyone is welcome to take part: women, men, children and youth, and help us reach our goal of one million squares.
How the idea came about
Several months ago, as part of my activity in Women Wage Peace I participated in a weekend with Palestinian women who are “friends of the movement.” Since I had known ahead that the weekend would be difficult and charged, I suggested that we would incorporate some creative work into our activity. For me, as a quilter, the most natural choice was to make a quilt together.
During that weekend 24 Jewish and Palestinian women sat around the table creating a quilt of peace. Everyone decorated her own square with messages of hope and peace and I joined them together. Symbolically I felt that I was connecting, and being connected, with the Palestinian women, previously my enemies.
Here I was working on a treaty: a process that involves connecting and combining different desires, wishes, and urges in order to get to one final product. We decided to turn this idea into an international project: making an immense quilt for peace.
How do we progress?
We started a Facebook group Piece for Peace, we already have more than 1100 members. It is an active group where women post photos of their work.
So far we received more than 200 squares, most of them from Israel, but some came from Palestine, the US, South Africa, New Zealand, and even a square from Kuwait. Each day we receive more queries about the project. All around Israel groups get together for an evening of making pieces for peace. We hear about enjoyable and moving sessions.
The project is organized by Women Wage Peace and led by Aliza Erez and Barbara Bamberger. Our email is womenpeacequilt@gmail.com.
