[WCUSP] Aliyah is quoted in this good article

[Odile Hugonot Haber]

Reply to Libby and all about the 20 years of Women in Black

Yes but this was the dilemma some of us had being part of Women in Black
which is a network in which we had agree to promote Women in Black
and not WILPF or any other organizations we belonged to. If we did that
Women in Black would not have existed long, and it's beauty was that it
was gathering in an action women who were active in many women different
organizations, got to know each others and network.

I got in WILPF due to Women In Black! so eventually it helped WILPF
recruit members.

It is also due to the failure of WILPF to engage us in actions that were
outstanding as WILPF that so many WILPFers became Women in Black
the concept dressed in black, standing for one hour a week, clear direct
focus was a good one. We also met for an hour for coffee in many vigils
that created a support group for Women 'activists which is important.

Then a model for the movement now Women In Black created these actions
around the World with Women's group asking for the same thing all around the
planet: End of War, End of Militarization. Such was the Women in Black
demonstration
in Beijing at the UN Women's conference, then conferences in
Yugoslavia, in Italy,
then Jerusalem continued attracting activists from around 40 or so
different countries.

The first series of books published by Women in Black Yugoslavia
were outstanding it term of defining the feminist issues in term of
nationalism,
fundamentalism, militarization, wars, refugees, fascism, solidarity
between women across borders.

Moving into WILPF we brought some of these agenda, WILPF I think
strength was more
in depth analysis on war and disarmament, globalization, developing a
peace economy,
a women's budget.

WILPF had the strength and the infrastructure but not the will to
engage truly in these
global actions, in part, I believe because it was too US dominated and
also less focused
on activism.

  As I said i think the work and the advance WILPF has made in the larger peace
movement resides in the more intellectual approaches, setting agendas
internationally
such as on closeness to indigenous causes, deeper understanding on how
it the war system developed. This why I thought we should take on new
vision of a foreign policy.

Now with anti-militarization moving to be our prime focus
internationally and nationally we are moving closer to the European
and the Women in Black initial agenda which is very good..but I would
not want to loose the advances WILPF made as a trend-setter in
debating and writing  forward international policies.

Odile Hugonot Haber

On 1/4/08, Libby or Mort Frank <lmfrank1 at verizon.net> wrote:
> WILPF Middle East Committee
> Hi all,
>
> It's a great quote --  but I wish WILPF had been mentioned.
>
> Libby Frank
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Felicity Hill" <felicity.hill at wilpf.ch>
> To: <middle_east at wilpf.ch>
> Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2008 7:01 PM
> Subject: Aliyah is quoted in this good article
>
>
> > WILPF Middle East Committee
> >
> > "This occupation has to end because it's destroying Israel from the
> > inside," says Women in Black member Aliyah Strauss, 72, an emigre from
> > Ohio. She and her husband fulfilled a Zionist dream when they arrived in
> > Israel 50 years ago and now live in Tel Aviv. "We cannot remain a healthy
> > democratic society and at the same time have brutal control over another
> > people."
> >
> >
> >
> > Women's Mideast Peace Movement Marks 20 Long Years
> > Run Date: 12/27/07
> > By Brenda Gazzar
> > WeNews correspondent
> >
> > Women in Black have been publicly mourning Israel's military occupation of
> > the West Bank for 20 years. As members mark the anniversary amid the
> > latest peace talks, they say their message is still timely even if their
> > street protests have dwindled.
> >
> > []
> >
> > JERUSALEM (WOMENSENEWS)--As a Woman in Black, Gila Svirsky says she has
> > been pushed by passersby, called a traitor and a whore, and even targeted
> > with flyers advertising her contact information and urging harm to the
> > "black widows."
> >
> > During the last two decades, she has received telephone calls threatening
> > her children and heard gun shots echo as a warning of a caller's alleged
> > plans for her.
> >
> > But the 61-year-old Svirsky says she is no longer afraid of such "empty
> > threats," and she continues to stand every Friday in a Jerusalem
> > square--dressed in black to mourn both Israeli and Palestinian
> > victims--holding up signs that call for an end to Israel's 40-year
> > military occupation.
> >
> > Women in Black demonstrations began in Jerusalem weeks after the first
> > Palestinian uprising erupted and soon spread to dozens of locations
> > throughout the country. Dec. 28 marks two decades of weekly protest vigils
> > by a movement that has turned global, with women congregating to fight
> > violence and injustice all over the world, Svirsky says.
> >
> > The Israeli dissidents--most of them Jews, but also some Arabs--will mark
> > the 20-year anniversary with a special mass vigil in Jerusalem.
> >
> > The "damn occupation continues and we still have to go out there every
> > Friday because we are trying to remind people that it's not over," Svirsky
> > says. "A lot of people think . . . we own the West Bank and we are going
> > to keep it forever. For us, it's really important to remind people that
> > it's not ours; it's Palestinian. We are not going to get peace until we
> > give it back."
> >
> > That view is widely disputed here.
> >
> > "I think there is an occupation. I think there is an occupation by Arabs .
> > . . of the land, which belongs to the Jews, which has been (the case) for
> > thousands of years if you read the Bible," says Ruth Matar of Women in
> > Green, which formed in 1993 to oppose territorial concessions.
> >
> > Ambitious Peace Talks
> >
> > Women in Black's anniversary coincides with a new round of peace talks
> > between Israelis and Palestinians, an ambitious effort to sign a peace
> > deal that would resolve nearly 60 years of conflict before President
> > George W. Bush's term ends late next year. The last talks stalled in 2000
> > after the eruption of a second Palestinian uprising.
> >
> > Negotiations have been complicated by Israeli plans to build homes on
> > occupied land in the area of East Jerusalem--which Palestinians hope to
> > make their capital of a future state--as well as near daily rocket fire
> > that Palestinian militants launch from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and
> > Israeli retaliatory strikes and assassinations.
> >
> > Both Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud
> > Abbas are considered weak in their respective societies, affecting their
> > ability to close a deal.
> >
> > When Islamist Hamas forces violently routed rival Fatah forces from Gaza
> > in June, Israel sealed its borders with Gaza to all but humanitarian aid
> > and has imposed economic sanctions in response to rocket and mortar
> > attacks.
> >
> > At its peak, Women in Black vigils were held in more than 30 Israeli
> > cities but today vigils remain in only six.
> >
> > Jerusalem, one of the most active sites, once boasted between 100 and 120
> > members but today the city's vigils draw around 20 to 30 participants.
> > Despite the sharp drop-off, activists say their message is more important
> > than ever.
> >
> > 'Destroying Israel From Inside'
> >
> > "This occupation has to end because it's destroying Israel from the
> > inside," says Women in Black member Aliyah Strauss, 72, an emigre from
> > Ohio. She and her husband fulfilled a Zionist dream when they arrived in
> > Israel 50 years ago and now live in Tel Aviv. "We cannot remain a healthy
> > democratic society and at the same time have brutal control over another
> > people."
> >
> > Over the years, Women in Black has undergone a transformation, becoming
> > more of an international peace network focused on a range of issues
> > falling under the general anti-militarization theme, from the Arab-Israeli
> > conflict to Neo-Nazism to the Iraq War to the violence of organized crime.
> >
> > In 2005, more than 700 Women in Black members from nearly 40 countries
> > attended the movement's Jerusalem conference, said Svirsky, who is
> > originally from New Jersey.
> >
> > "I think our main achievement has been to foster a huge international
> > network of Women in Black who oppose the Israeli occupation and other
> > injustices around the world," she says. "It's important for us to help
> > people understand that conflict has to be addressed politically, not by
> > violence."
> >
> > Tactical Question
> >
> > Gadi Wolfsfeld, a political science and communications professor of Hebrew
> > University of Jerusalem, questions the group's dedication to public
> > protest.
> >
> > "These are obviously committed women and I respect that but I don't think
> > it's the most effective way of bringing about political change," he says.
> > Rather than conduct public vigils, groups that monitor and issue reports
> > on incidents of abuse or violations appear to be more effective in
> > influencing decision-makers and the public, he says.
> >
> > A sociology professor at Israeli's Ben Gurion University in Beer Sheva
> > disagrees. Sara Helman says Women in Black blazed a trail by crossing
> > national boundaries during the first Palestinian uprising and calling for
> > an end to suffering of both Israelis and Palestinians.
> >
> > "You can live in Israel your daily life as an Israeli Jew perfectly and
> > forget" about the occupation, she says. "What Women in Black did, they
> > didn't let the issue of occupation be ignored . . . They brought it to the
> > fore. They brought it to public attention."
> >
> > A 1997 study that Helman co-authored with Hebrew University of Jerusalem
> > Professor Tamar Rapoport found that Women in Black's protest methods
> > "embodied an open challenge to deeply ingrained notions of femininity in
> > Israel" and offering an alternative interpretation of a woman's place in
> > Israeli politics and society.
> >
> > Each woman, they found, created a new space that challenged and subverted
> > the political, social and cultural categories that relegated women to
> > marginality.
> >
> > "They brought women's bodies into the public sphere," Helman says. "They
> > stood there in the public sphere outside, quietly, silently with only
> > signs that said 'Stop the Occupation.' The only means to protest was their
> > bodies. That was also path breaking."
> >
> > On Dec. 21, Efrat Halper, 31, participated in the Women in Black vigil
> > near downtown Jerusalem with her mother and 3-year-old daughter.
> >
> > Her mother, Shoshana, joined Women in Black shortly after the group was
> > established and Halper, a nurse, started coming to the square while she
> > was in high school. The weekly vigils are for her, she said, a way to
> > relieve her own conscience as someone who resists her government's
> > military occupation of the West Bank.
> >
> > Halper, who also volunteers with Physicians for Human Rights, never
> > expected that there would be a need for Women in Black to exist in Israel
> > for 20 years.
> >
> > After Israeli and Palestinian leaders signed the 1993 Oslo Peace
> > Accords--which outlined principles for an interim period of Palestinian
> > self-rule and a timeline for permanent status negotiations--she and others
> > in the group stopped protesting, thinking that peace was on the horizon.
> >
> > But nearly 15 years later, she is still waiting for resolution of the
> > Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She hopes her daughter, Zohar, won't
> > participate in the same vigil her mother and grandmother have long
> > attended. "But I'm not optimistic," she says. "I see what's going on."
> >
> >
> > Brenda Gazzar is a freelance journalist based in Jerusalem.
> >
> > Women's eNews welcomes your comments. E-mail us at
> > editors at womensenews.org.
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> >
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>
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