The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a national-political one, as it is mainly
carried through political instruments (occupation, war, economic and military
control, etc), yet religion plays its part.
The struggle, from my point of view, is a political national struggle be -
tween two national movements, who both wish to fulfil their aspirations
of control over one land.
The social elements of war and conflict: Patriarchy,
militarism, unhealed traumas, and the culture of victimhood
In 1996, following another phase of violence between the Israelis and
the Palestinians, Bat Shalom issued an advertisement in the newspaper,
titled “Every human being has a name” (a title from a famous poem by
the Israeli-Jewish poet, dedicating it to the victims of the Holocaust dur -
ing the Second World War), including an alphabetic list of the Israeli and
Palestinian victims of these clashes. The next day, the office phone was
flooded with angry phone calls from both Israelis and Palestinians, all
offended by the notion that the victims received the same attention and
were mentioned in one list. Israelis were not used to seeing the names
and faces of the Palestinian victims, and the Palestinians were offended
by the fact that the “aggressors” received the same space as the “real”
victims – the oppressed Palestinians.
The collective trauma and the epidemic of violence were dictating the
environment and reproducing more violence and trauma, and prevented
people from perceiving the other’s victimhood as well. The symptoms
of the traumatized society are:
Israeli society is made up of immigrants and refugees. The majority
of Israelis have experienced the fragility of their existence in their
new land, although spiritually and religiously, they do not doubt
their connection to the land.
The long and endless state of war has created emotional numbness.
Lack of sensitivity to pain of the other is essential for existence
and functioning.
Agony, and anger, which are unmanageable, obvious block the option
of seeing the other’s pain and anger.
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