The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation

The cooperation with the system and the life in the shadow of the war,
as well as the impact of tradition, encourages families to have more children
compared to other western counties, thus further increasing wom -
en’s dependence on men.
Wives of high rank officers, interviewed in the media, occasionally speak
proudly of their functioning as single mothers, freeing their husbands
from taking part in raising and educating the children, and releasing them
from any obligations as fathers or partners. The media represents these
wives as admirable women and role models.
It must be said that the conflict and war are not the only origin of gender
inequality in Israel. Nevertheless, they constitute a factor perpetuating
this inequality, and even serve to legitimize its continuation.
Peace and Reconciliation
The Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska writes in her poem “The End and
the Beginning” (1993): “Someone has to clean up when the war is over.
It is not photogenic, you know. It takes many years. The cameras have
long since wandered on to another war.”
The most ambitious attempt at reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians
was made in the so-called people-to-people processes and encounters
after the Oslo Accords (1995). The rationale behind this
people-to-people programme was to enable the individual and the collective
to get to know each other, to encourage a process of re-hu man -
iza tion, to create a greater sense of empathy, cooperation, and un derstand
ing among Israelis and Palestinians. It was assumed that this proc -
ess would ultimately lead to reconciliation, which is one of the most
meaningful conditions for a true and stable peace.
The saddest notion, retrospectively, is that no synchronization between
the political dimension and the civic-rapprochement was made.
It must be stated that neither political leadership of the two sides put
any serious effort into promoting it. Moreover, the conduct of behaviour
of the political leadership jeopardized and hampered the genuine sentiment
of both peoples to meet each other.
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