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Let the Women Talk!
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Men have been at war in Palestine for fifty years. Isn't it finally time to try something different? By Haggith Gor Ziv
We know that two peoples CAN live in this land. WE know that our children deserve a life of dignity and peace. We don't want our children to be killed, we do not want them to be killers. Stop this craziness. Stop this show of brute force. Let the women talk Help us by calling, shouting, demonstrating, writing e-mail letters, telegrams, demanding That Palestinians and Israeli women lead the way. It was women who led the way to end the terible and pointless war in Lebanon We the women can find an end to this terrible cycle of violence too... Let the women talk. The men tell us not to be scared. They all tell us to be strong. We are scared, we want them to be scared too. We do not want to be strong. We don't want them to think that they are strong enough to make the other people disappear, or be defeated and live in disgrace. We want each and every person to have rights, to have the right to be heard, to choose how to live in peace, and dignity. We want to share the resources of this land, its water, its vines, its holy places. Jerusalem can be shared, this whole area can be shared between two independent proud, equal peoples. Israel should not rule the lives of Palestinians. Israel should not believe that in might, and force, and bombs and guns, it will bring peace. Palestinian and Israeli women have been talking for years about their future here. Thousands of women from around the world have been supporting this vision of making peace. Let the women talk. Let the women try to make sense where men did not. Call on your government, your friends, your leaders, yourself to stop the violence immediately, and reorganize all negotiating teams so that at least 50% of them are women - at the leadership level of the UN, all the governments involved in the escalation, the Palestinian and Israeli leadership. The women will talk - not shoot. There are too many men with too many egos involved in burning this piece of land - demand that all parties include at least as many women as men. Let the women talk- we can bring peace. Let the international community form a group of women from all around the world to become the Women Peace Corps - an international meditating [sic - perhaps the word mediating was intended] body of women friends who will listen, facilitate, help us save ourselves. Let the women talk. Move the men aside. They did a bad job here. They talk of power, force, and security - we know that our security is to be good neighbors. Without forgetting the wrongs of the past, nor the unequal distribution of power, we will focus on how we LIVE here in peace. We do not want to raise our children to war. We do not want them to wear unifroms. We don't want them to fight. We want them to have their state, their dignity, their rights, not to fight for them. Let the women talk. We feel the pain, we feel the anger. We are scared. Before it is too late - let the women talk. _____
Haggith Gor Ziv, Kibbutzim College of Education, 149 namir rd., Tel Aviv 62507 <mailto:haggith__gor@smkb.ac.il>
Haggith is co-founder of the "dialogue of the deaf" project of Internews Middle East. |