On Oct. 4, 2023, 1,500 women gathered in Jerusalem and on the shores of the Dead Sea for a Mother’s Call, a rally and march co-organized by the grassroots, non-partisan Israeli movement, Women Wage Peace and the Bethlehem-based, grassroots Palestinian movement, Women of the Sun. Both movements are committed to promoting a non-violent, bilateral political solution to the protracted Israel Palestine conflict, and to the belief that women must play a critical role in negotiating that solution.
Three days after the joint event, on Oct. 7 — a date forever seared in Jewish consciousness — Hamas militants from Gaza carried out their brutal terrorist attack in southern Israel, murdering 1,200 people, including three members of Women Wage Peace. One of those members was the movement’s co-founder, former Winnipegger Vivian Silver.
Distraught, shocked and grieving, members of Women Wage Peace (WWP), which includes both Jewish and Muslim women, nonetheless vowed to continue the pursuit of their goals — a determination that was buoyed by the numerous messages of condolence and offers of assistance and support it received from around the world in the wake of the Hamas attack and the launch of Israel’s reprisal in Gaza.
A group of seven Canadian women, most of whom live in Vancouver, were among those who reached out to WWP in those anguished days to see how they could assist it in its efforts. All of the women in that group have a history of social activism, many of them have friends or family living in Israel, and two of them had known Silver personally.
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The Winnipeg group, like the rest of the Canadian support network, will be following the lead of the 44,000 WWP members in Israel.
“They will tell us what they need,” Robinson explains, “and we will see what we can do.”
Much of that need will have to do with raising awareness about the movement, its stated goals, and the plausibility of achieving those goals. It also likely will take shape as fundraising initiatives and educational and cultural events.
Women’s peace movement forms in Canada
