Women peace gathering

Today, Ibtisam went to her friend’s, Elana Rozenmann, where a peace women gathering took place. Ibtisam and Elana have been working together for years now, and as Ibtisam said, “we are like sisters now”. Elana is the director of Trust-Emun, an organization founded in 2006 which promotes non-violence and dialogue between different communities. She works with Israeli Jews, Muslims, Druze, Christians and Palestinians in order to achieve reconciliation and peace, through events, gatherings, workshops…Today’s gathering concerned only women, all from very different backgrounds: Palestinians, Israeli Jews, Israeli Arabs, European, Americans, among which a guest of honor: Leslie Cunningham, the American Ambassador’s wife. She met Elana at an event on Election Day, was immediately interested in her work and therefore decided to attend today’s gathering.

The activity starts after all the women sat in a circle. Elana introduces herself and the purpose of the gathering: she will speak in English and one of the women will translate into Arabic. It’s actually her birthday, and “there is no greater gift than being surrounded by women from all over the world”. Both Elana and Ibtisam insist a lot on the role of women in peace-building, because they deeply believe that women can have a huge impact on the situation and that their voices should be heard more. Then, Hilia, an Israeli young woman from Haifa, talks about her love for Jerusalem: when she first arrived, she loved seeing all the different cultures so close, but very fast she became aware of the tensions. This is why she started to work for peace resolution: she works with the youth to teach them about non-violence, she insisted on how hard it was during the Gaza war, to tell children than using violence is wrong while they were seeing it so close to them. Leslie then gives a quick speech, proudly saying that she is Catholic and therefore adds another religion.

After that, every woman is asked to introduce herself quickly. Many times, Elana has to remind the women to speak quickly because we are running short of time, but putting about twenty women in the same room and asking them to talk briefly does not make much sense! The introduction of the participants underlines the diversity of the women. Even if most of them are involved in peace-building projects, it is at different levels. Amoun works with Sunbula, an organization which promotes social justice and economic empowerment to the marginalized through support to handcrafts artisans; Tracy works with Seeds of Peace, an organization which brings together young people from different communities. Some women were also here because they heard the invitation from a friend, like the English teacher and her sister, the law teacher; or because they personally know Elana, like Sheikh Abdul Aziz Bukhari’s wife.

After a break to eat, comes the time of the prayers: Muslim prayer by Sheikh Bukhari’s wife, Jewish prayer by Ahuvah, an American women studying to be a rabbi, and Catholic prayer by Leslie. To conclude the gathering, the participants are asked to find a partner and to share some feelings with her, insisting on what we think can be our contribution to peace as women. This type of gathering is a way to bring together people from different origins and religions that is more and more used by NGOs working for peace. Indeed, it allows creating bonds between people who would never have talked to each other outside of the gathering.