Subscribe to ideas and commentary from Z + Partners!
Recommend a site or give us feedback at blog@zpluspartners.com.
Browse past postings in the Z+Blog archive
Get the RSS Feed for Z+Blog
Essential Voices:
|
Welcome to the Z+Blog!
Pointers and commentary on emerging futures issues collected by Z + Partners
1325
Terry Greenblatt and Maha Abu-Dayyeh Shamas at the UN
Photo by Alex Zolli 9.8.2005
"Borders are no obstacle for women. Led by our feelings and instincts, women will cross them. Even when we are women whose very existence contradicts each other, we will talk; we will not shoot."
-Terry Greenblatt
On October 31st, 2000, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1325, the first resolution ever passed to specifically address the impact of war on women and women's contributions to conflict resolution and sustainable peace.
Recently, at a gathering of women nominated collectively for the Nobel Peace Prize, I was able to speak about Resolution 1325 with two of the founders of The Jersulalem Link, a coordinating body of two independent women's centers: Bat Shalom-The Jerusalem Women's Action Center, located in West Jerusalem, and Marcaz al-Quds la l-Nissah-The Jerusalem Center for Women, located in East Jerusalem.
These founders, Terry Greenblatt and Maha Abu-Dayyeh Shamas, jointly named by Ms. magazine as 2002's Women of the Year, want to give Resolution 1325 some "teeth" with the formation of an International Women's Committee on peace and justice in the Middle East.
[How did the two of you first start to work together?]
Shamas: Palestinian and Israeli women worked together before anybody else, even before the men in Oslo. This was in the eighties, before there were any peace negotiations. There was underground work that was dangerous for both sides but there was communication.
Then there was an initiative that was negotiated in Europe amongst Israeli and Palestinian women that became public after Oslo and that was called The Jerusalem Link. The Israelis established a body called Bat Shalom and the Palestinians established a body that was called The Jerusalem Center for Women. Each unit has its own independent board and the main objective is to promote dialogue amongst the two nations, the two groups, women's peace talks.
During the reinvasion of the occupied territories in 2002, the whole world was watching without a word, merciless killing of civilians with impunity. Because I live in Jerusalem, I was one of the few women who had access to the world; most people were under curfew. I basically wanted to have the Palestinian voice heard, to say to everyone: 'It is not okay to kill people like that.'
A women's organization here called Equality Now said that under [Resolution] 1325, we could have access to the Security Council but they wanted me to speak with an Israeli woman. Terry was the new director at Bat Shalom at the time and, by instinct, knowing what Bat Shalom was, I said, 'We'll be fine. We'll go together.'
The first time we met was here in New York and, though we prepared our speeches separately, we could have exchanged them: we were basically saying the same thing.
After the Security Council, we wanted to write a letter of thank you. We also asked, 'What do we want them to do for us? How can we use this opportunity strategically?'The idea came to form an International Women's Commission in the Middle East.
This was a new idea. Nobody had thought of it. What is this women's commission going to be? How is it going to be different from other commissions? We had to do a lot of brainstorming, thinking, researching, strategizing, taking political opportunities to move it forward. Now we're at the stage where it's about to become public but our work dates back to the year 2000.
Greenblatt: It's a civil society attempt to take 1325 and try to give it some teeth. And so we were able to go before the Security Council and say: 'You passed this. You unanimously approved it.' Here's a bunch of women who are saying we've got an alternative joint vision at a time when the Western media is selling the story that there's nobody to talk to: These people are insane. They keep killing each other. So this is our attempt to move forward. We're working with the support of UNIFEM and we're hoping for great things.
[What will it mean when this initiative for an International Peace Committee goes public?]
Shamas: Right now we are preparing our own leaders, our official governments, so they know about it from us rather than from the rest of the world, but the word has been spreading.
Once we get past that, we will have a press conference in the separate communities and then we hope to do joint lobbying work with the various countries that have influence in Middle East policy making.
We have to work within what exists, the quartet, which is basically the United Nations, the EU, Russia and The United States. It is called the International Women's Commission because we have international women involved. This is a conflict that is strong; it has so much emotion in it. In the past, we have experienced many breakdowns because of the emotional dimension and we felt like the pro-active presence of the third party would help maintain focus.
The idea of having international women as part of the group means we're working as a team to influence the official negotiating process. For the last thirty-five years of occupation we have been doing peaceful things together.
Greenblatt: By including an international constituency, we want to communicate that the international community has responsibility inside of this. People have been calling for years for some sort of international intervention, international participation, to help to resolve the issue because we can identify the international contribution in perpetuating the situation as it has evolved. The initiative for this committee wasn't only to keep us calm and moving forward. It was also an effort to bring to the table all of the stakeholders in the resolution.
[How will the International Women's Commission be a resource for the press?]
Shamas: This body of women, they are not your typical politicians. Some of these women will say the political line, but some of them will not. Some of them will be going straight to the issues, the story of the people.
That's the whole idea: to give another resource, to give the story.
I think intelligent people need to start reading between the lines of the mainstream media. Things are getting worse and worse. Don't be misled about all the things you read about the Gaza pull-out. It is worse. It really is worse. And I think the world is allowing the seeds of the third intifada. I am just dreading what the third one will be like. Because the walls are coming up, closing in on society now. And that's why you don't have anyone, on either side, celebrating like the rest of the world.
Greenblatt: I'm thinking about what it means to ask a US person to read between the lines, to get to the heart, the facts behind the story; they don't do it here [in the United States]. It forces the mirror to be reflected back and it is often times very painful.
The last two years of being here [in the United States] has been about talking to Americans as fellow occupiers. You are no less an occupier as an American than I am as an Israeli.
