The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation

with access to political parties and institutions, while Israeli women had
less backing from their own political structures.
In fact, following the assassination of Rabin (1995), and the coming to
power of the Likud Party in Israel, a few Palestinian women, notably lead -
ers of women’s organizations, have raised the idea that it would be
more effective to build connections with women of the Likud Party. They
assumed it would be more productive, and more of dialogue between
equals, simply because of the easier mutual access to power.
What good will this peace dialogue bring for me?
The basic clash which accompanied the entire post-Oslo process was
over the fundamental legitimacy of Israeli-Palestinian dialogue. The question:
Was dialogue still legitimate only as part of the anti-occupation
struggle for Palestinian liberation in line with the “traditional” PLO think -
ing, which saw dialogue as a tool for convincing the Israeli public and
decision-makers of the legitimacy of Palestinian rights? Or, should the
definition of “legitimate dialogue” be widened to include other issues
such as state-building, democracy, non-violence or even reconciliation?
Those supporting the first position criticized the dialogue as “apolitical”,
“identity” and “reconciliation” oriented, as a “normalization” that legitimized
Israel and provided a fig-leaf for the continuation of the occupation.
Those advocating the second position claimed that the dialogue
should be neither contingent on political agreement between the sides
nor held hostage to the peace process; i.e., that dialogue couldn’t be
postponed until such time as the occupation ended. It is also clear that
while the Palestinians involved in the dialogue were motivated largely
by the more political and collectivist agenda, Israelis were motivated
large ly by a more individualistic, “post-conflict” and “apolitical” agenda.
The controversial interdependence between the civil society engaged
in peace work and the political level has been viciously used and mis -
used by the politicians.
196