Nonviolence in the Israeli women's peace movement

Gila Svirsky

Nonviolence as a strategy hasbeen practised throughout the Israeli women's peace move-ment since the founding of Women in Black in early 1988, one month afterthe first Palestinian Intifada broke out.
The Women in Black movement beganas a small group of Israeli women carrying out a simple form of protest: once aweek at the same hour and in the same location--a major traffic intersection inJerusalem--they donned black clothing and raised a black sign in the shape of ahand with white lettering that read "End the Occupation".
From this modest beginning, women throughout Israel heard of this protest,and launched similar vigils. Throughout the north of Israel, where many Palestin-ian citizens of Israel reside, the vigils had Arab and Jewish women standing side byside. From Israel, it spread to dozens of other countries.
The strength of this movement is its clear and unchanging message presentedin a nonviolent manner: End the Occupation. The target audience for this messageis the Israeli public and leadership, the international public and leadership, andthe Palestinian people. The intent is to magnify the voice of those who object tothe occupation, but do not have political clout as individuals. Because of the persis-tence of these women and the growing number of vigils, this movement seems tohave had widespread impact.

Civil disobedience and nvda

When the al-Aqsa Intifada broke out in late September 2000, nine Israeliwomen's peace organisations joined together as the Coalition of Women forPeace and launched a series of nonviolent actions. Some of these involved actionssuch as lying down on the street to block the entrance to the Israeli Ministry ofDefence, as a way to protest at the "closure" in the territories.
    Subsequent actions, often in co-operation with mixed-gender peace organisa-tions, involved other nonviolent but illegal acts--the rebuilding of demolished homes,or the removal of blockades and filling in of trenches intended to enforce the closure.
    In other actions, individual women stood in front of army bulldozers orchained themselves to olive trees in an effort to prevent further destruction ofPalestinian homes and property. Some of these actions ended in arrests.
    This coalition of women's peace organisations has also staged mass nonviolentactions that are legal. In December 2001, 5,000 Israeli and Palestinian womenmarched together from the Israeli to the Palestinian side of Jerusalem under thetwin banners, "The Occupation is Killing Us All" and "We Refuse to be Enemies".In Jun 2003, Israeli women staged a mass "lie-in" in Tel Aviv, with 1,000 womenwearing black, stretched out on the pavement as a sign of mourning for the vic-tims of the occupation.

Checkpoint duty

Some of the member organisations of the Coalition engage in other forms of nonvi-olent resistance. The presence at checkpoints of the women in Machsom [check-point] Watch is often enough to prevent particularly cruel harassment of Palestini-ans. Recently these women prevented a soldier from firing at a child by deflectinghis gun, leading to their arrest for "interfering with the IDF".
The organisation New Profile (see p25) support conscientious objection to militaryservice, and last year launched their "Women Refuse" campaign (see PN2450,p10). What do they refuse? "To raise our children for war, to ignore war crimes com-mitted in our name, to support the occupation, to continue our normal lives whileanother nation is suffering because of us." This is a profound use of nonviolence--anattempt to change the militaristic culture of Israeli society and to instil the values ofnonviolence in Israeli children.

Applying pressure

The most successful case in Israel of the use of nonviolence in the service of peaceis the Four Mothers Movement. This group, founded in 1997 by four womenwhose sons were serving in the Israeli army, sought to mobilise the Israeli pub-lic to demand that Israel withdraw its troops from Lebanon, based on the argu-ment that Israel's prolonged presence there served no security purpose, butjeopardised the lives of soldiers.
    The movement was initially met withscorn from senior military officers ("What do women know about security?" theymocked). But at the heart of the Four Mothers' strategy was leveraging their status as mothers. This was effective in asociety that may disrespect professional women but honours its mothers.
    The Four Mothers Movement never used civil disobedience, but held smalldemonstrations and vigils that highlighted the sincerity of their plea as law-abid-ing women, not politicians. Their status as mothers who had sons serving in com-bat units gave them the right, in the eyes of the public, to challenge Israeli policyin Lebanon. They demanded--and were accorded--meetings with the highestgovernment officials, whose inadequate answers were then magnified through thewell-run media work of this group.
    The "authentic", mother-orientednature of this movement, and its dissociation from partisan politics, struck anempathetic nerve among the Israeli public. The deaths of Israeli soldiers were onthe increase in Lebanon, and the message of the Four Mothers fell on attentive ears,feeding public dismay over the seemingly endless body bags. Within three years ofthe start of the movement, the Israeli army withdrew from Lebanon.
    The women's peace movement in Israel has used nonviolence in varied and cre-ative ways. While the most dramatic actions have had civil disobedience andrisk-taking at the core, a large array of lawful actions has also been used, and noless effectively. Women demonstrators sometimes feel "protected" in the beliefthat the police and army will not harm women, although that belief has proven tobe unjustified. But the strategy of nonviolence clearly provides a greater moralstrength and persuasiveness than violent strategies. The practice of nonviolence hasalso been empowering to those who feel otherwise helpless, and results seem toconfirm its effectiveness as a strategy.

This article originally appeared at http://www.sfcg.org/
Gila Svirsky works with the Women in Black and the Women's Coalition for a Just Peace.
WCJPW, mail@coalitionofwomen4peace.org http://www.coalitionofwomen4peace.orgWWoommeenn iinn BBllaacckk WW
Women in Black (see listings p33). Nonviolence in the Israeli women's peace movement Gila Svirsky reports on the development of women's nonviolent action in Israel.