2016 March of Hope

Carol and Terry Winograd, October 2016

Last week we travelled to Israel to participate in an amazing and inspiring event called the March of Hope, organized by a grassroots women's organization, Women Wage Peace. Tens of thousands of women mostly dressed in white---Israelis of all backgrounds, as well as Palestinians---joined hands in a series of marches and rallies all over Israel during the Holiday period from October 4-19. Their declaration is:

• We demand that our leaders work with respect and courage towards a solution to the ongoing violent conflict, with the full participation of women in this process. Only an honorable political agreement will secure the future of our children and grandchildren.
• In order for things to get better here, there has to be an agreement between both sides that is not achieved through coercion or violence, but rather emerges out of mutual agreement
  • We will not stop until an agreement is reached.

Organizers of the group point to U.N. Resolution 1325, which “urges all actors to increase the participation of women and incorporate gender perspectives in all United Nations peace and security efforts.” They say that it worked in Northern Ireland and in Liberia.

Read a personal account of the activities we attended and people we got to know.

A song was written for the March by the popular Israeli singer, Yael Deckelbaum, called the "Prayer of the Mothers". You can open it and read more while it plays in the background. It is haunting and heartfelt. She said "They told me there was nobody to make peace with. Today, we proved that wrong."

You can see more information and press accounts.

The events began the day after Rosh Hashanah, in Rosh Hanikra, in the far North of Israel, with 2000 people gathered in torchlight. Several dozen women marched the 150 miles of the "Uniting Israel Trail" southward for fourteen days from there to Jerusalem, stopping along the way in Jewish and Arab towns and villages where hundreds joined them each day, including a torchlight parade, a traveling performance of “Looking Peace in the Eyes,” children’s activities, art exhibits and rallies with speeches by mayors, songs, dancing and prayers for peace. Other events were held all over the country, including marches, a bicycle ride, rallies, and theater performances.

See the full list of events.

We joined the march on Monday, October 17 at an inspiring gathering at Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam/Oasis of Peace, a bilingual, bicultural, Jewish and Arab community devoted to coexistence. The evening was headlined by Liberian Nobel peace laureate Leymah Gbowee who brought Christian and Muslim women together to end the 17 year civil war in Liberia.

The work of the Liberian women has been the inspiration for the Israeli and Palestinian women involved in Women Wage Peace. Pray the Devil Back to Hell, Abigail Disney's documentary of the Liberian peacemaking success, was shown by Women Wage Peace with Hebrew, Arabic and Russian subtitles in nearly 300 communities throughout Israel to mobilize women to participate and join the March of Hope. They worked to reach all segments of Israeli society, bringing together Jewish and Arab, Ashkenazi and Sephardic, Liberal and Orthodox, Russian, Ethiopian and more, from settlements, peripheral towns, and the cities.

To hear what diverse women are saying, in their own voices, see this engaging four minute video clip with English subtitles

Palestinian women in the West Bank supported the Israel events, participating in screening the movie for their communities and making squares for the Women Wage Peace quilt project, which is collecting squares from around the wold that they hope will stretch from Jerusalem to Ramallah.

On Tuesday, October 18, six different events were held throughout Israel, from Eilat in the South to Metula in the North. We were able to go to three of them, at Metula (on the Lebanon border), Umm al-Fahm, in the middle of the country, and Tel Aviv. See more about those in our personal account.

Wednesday, October 19 was the culmination, with two major events. In the morning at Qasr al Yahud, in the West Bank near Jericho, 3000 Israeli women and men and 1000 Palestinian women from the West Bank joined hands together, danced and sang, as they wended their way to the Jordan River, at the site of the baptism of Jesus and the crossing of the Israelites into Canaan.

Participants of the women's March of Hope walk near Qasr al-Yahud, October 19, 2016. Photo: Abbas Momani, AFP

Israeli and Palestinian women, including Hind Khoury representing the Palestinian Authority, spoke of their desire for peace, being partners for peace. Leymah Gbowee told of the challenges of waging peace and the importance of staying the course to end the conflict. She said the two days she spent marching with Israeli and Palestinian women were days of hope and of looking toward the future, and they had convinced her that peace was possible. She could hardly speak two words without the audience breaking out in rapturous applause, because everything she was saying was so poignant, expressing what many of us feel but have had a hard time articulating within our respective communities in the (oftentimes) very isolating and exhausting grind of day-to-day peace work.

From Haaretz article by Eeta Prince-Gibson:

Wednesday's events began at Qasr al-Yahud, the site where Jesus is believed to have been baptized by John the Baptist. Some 2,500 Jewish and Arab Israeli women arrived on buses from all over the country, from as far away as the Sea of Galilee and the Negev and Arava deserts. They were joined by more than 1,000 Palestinian women from the West Bank.

According to Ziad Darwish, a member of the Palestinian Committee for Interaction with the Israeli Society, which operates under the auspices of the Fatah party, the Palestinian women received political and financial support from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and the Authority itself, which paid for the chartered buses, water and hats with a dove logo that the women wore, many over their hijabs.

The atmosphere was celebratory — almost heady — despite the searing heat as a women’s drumming group set the rhythm. When the Palestinian women came off the buses, many were embraced by Israeli women; others formed impromptu dance circles.

“Today I have Israeli Jewish sisters,” said Maryam, a 35 year old teacher from “near Jenin.” Enthusiastically, she clapped along as others danced. Maryam acknowledged that she didn’t want to give her full name because “not everyone in my family agrees. Especially not the men, who don’t want women to express themselves.” She added, “I came here, even though I had to take off a day from work, because I do not want anyone to be killed — not by soldiers, not by terrorists. We women want peace and security for everyone. And I know that most people in Palestine think like me.”

Fadwa Shear from Ramallah added, “We cannot count on men to create peace. We will have to do it by ourselves.”

from a Palestinian christian:

"Despite never having taken part in a public march, this one, from the first time I heard about it seemed right. It was more than right; it was a hope inspiring journey for me. From early morning when I left my home to travel on a bus with women I’d never met to the end of the day when I arrived home near midnight on the same bus, this time with women whose names I now know and who I’ve seen both laugh and weep with happiness and hope, this was an extraordinary day.

I heard the cry of thousands of mothers for a better future, for another way, for an end to violence, bloodshed, and terror. We raised our voices in Arabic, Hebrew and English, singing "From the West to the East, from the North to the South, hear the mother’s prayer, Bring down peace, Bring down peace."

Later that day the action moved on to Jerusalem, where thousands of Israelis marched from the Knesset, passing by President Rivlin's house to Prime Minister Netanyahu's house. We were joined by thousands more, including over one hundred Druze women from the north of Israel. Many held banners reading, “Right, Center and Left are all calling for an agreement, Women Wage Peace.” Marie-Lyne Smadja, a co-founder of the group said “We are not an organization; we are a movement. We have defined goals, and when we reach those goals we will disband.”

That evening, 20,000 people gathered in front of Prime Minister Netanyahu's house. Israeli and Palestinian speakers from diverse backgrounds spoke of their desire for peace and partnership. Participants included Eshkol Regional Council Gadi Yarkoni and former mayor of the Israeli-Arab city of Sakhnin Mazen Ghanim. Several musical groups raised everyone's spirits, and we clapped and sang along.

Leymah Gbowee’s inspiring words were dynamite. She could hardly speak two words without the audience breaking out in rapturous applause, because everything she was saying was so poignant, expressing what many of us feel but have had a hard time articulating within our respective communities in the (oftentimes) very isolating and exhausting grind of day-to-day peace work. She exhorted the crowd to action, “I say to my sisters in Israel, that this is your time to stand up and say no to war and yes to peace. When you stand firm for what you believe, the men with guns are afraid of you.”

One of the rally’s most effective speakers was Michal Froman, a religious Jew from the Israeli settlement of Tekoa. She was stabbed this past January at a clothing store by a Palestinian teenager from a nearby village whom she was trying to help. Froman, the daughter-in-law of the well-known peace activist Rabbi Menachem Froman, was three months pregnant at the time. En route to the hospital that day, Michal decided that God had been “addressing me and trying to wake me up. To learn, of necessity, to defend one’s life, but also to see the distress and extend a helping hand. Life here will be possible only if we stop blaming each other and stop being victims. We all need to overcome and to take responsibility and start working hard for the sake of life here.”

“It was important for me to speak here because I want people to know that the settlements are not preventing peace. I think the opposite: that peace will come from the settlements,” said Froman, who brought her 4-month-old daughter to the rally, where Rabbi Froman's widow, Hadassah Froman also spoke.

“There is great energy here, and it can bring us to a new way, to change," said Hadassah Froman. As Hadassah rocked her infant granddaughter to sleep on the stage, Michal Froman added, “I believe that peace, as we want it to be, will come from a place where we can see what is possible and what is impossible. The right can be part of peace, too.

Alliance for Middle East Peace regional director Huda Abuarqoub also spoke to the crowd: “I came as a Palestinian woman from the Occupied Territories to say, enough is enough! It’s time for peace and security for both people... You saw this morning how many Palestinian women joined you. I am here as a Palestinian to say clear and loud — you have a partner!” I’m standing here with Women Wage Peace to say loudly and strongly on behalf of the women of the region: enough! No more war, no more bloodshed, and no more discrimination. No more separation barriers between us!

The time has come for mutual recognition of our rights to live as free people in the Holy Land. The time has come for our hope to bring us closer to a safer future, so that the next generation of Jews and Palestinians will be able to use their full potential as free people,” she continued. “I am here today to tell you that there is indeed a partner for peace. So let us be done with this myth."

Solidarity Events

Along with the march in Israel, there were solidarity events around the world, including events in Florence, Italy; Temara, Portugal; Cornwall, Britain; Tokyo, Japan; Sidney, Australia; San Francisco; Amsterdam; New Jersey; New York; Portland; Paris; Brussels; Geneva; Berlin; Seattle; Truro; Morocco; Jordan; Egypt; Cyprus.

see full list

These included a march on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco in pouring rain, organized by Israeli women living in Silicon Valley.

With the great success of the March, Women Wage Peace is launching their third and – they hope – penultimate year of existence as an apolitical movement of women who are determined to reach across all possible dividing lines – religious and secular, Jewish and Muslim, those living in the center of the country and the periphery, those who identify with the political center, right, and left-wing, those belonging to diverse ethnic groups, those living on both sides of the Green Line, etc. – in order to bring about a diplomatic agreement to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Women Wage Peace vow not to stop until there is an agreement. They will launch a serious monitoring effort by a committee of women charged with exerting ongoing pressure on the government to promote the implementation of WWP’s demands. WWP has received a two-year grant from the European Union to train 500 female peace activists.

When the Knesset began its winter session on October 31, 120 women from Women Wage Peace stood right outside holding a peace vigil. They plan to stand there every week, each one holding a sign with the photo of a single Knesset member along with the question "What are YOU doing today to advance a diplomatic agreement?". They’ll also hold pictures of former prime ministers Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Rabin, bearing the slogan “With you all the way to the Nobel Peace Prize.”