KOLOT – Voices of Hope, Post-October 7 Series
Women Wage Peace
Over the last six years, we have shared, through our “Kolot:Voices of Hope” series, dozens of profiles of remarkable Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Arabs, who have been standing up, against tough odds, for progressive values of peace, social justice, human and civil rights, and democracy.
In the coming weeks, we will be bringing you updates on the important efforts being made since the horrific events of October 7 by many of the organizations we’ve featured in “Kolot”. We begin today with “Women Wage Peace”, whose diverse, multiethnic membership includes Jews, Arabs, Druze, and Bedouin women. The organization was created following the 2014 Gaza war (“Operation Protective Edge”), and was cofounded by Vivian Silver, the Canadian-Israeli activist who was murdered on October 7 on Kibbutz Be’eri by Hamas terrorists.
Since that dark day, Women Wage Peace has doubled down on its demand for an Israeli-Palestinian political agreement as the only path forward, and has continued to ask Palestinian and Israeli women to sign its “Mothers’ Call” for a negotiated “inclusive, just peace”.
Indeed, when Prime Minister Netanyahu recently declared that he’ll settle for nothing less than “total victory”, the organization “schooled” him on what such a victory should mean – a ceasefire with security arrangements, the release of all hostages, the reconstruction of Gaza facilitated by moderate Arab states, a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and Israeli-Saudi normalization.
Women Wage Peace has also been at the forefront of efforts to protect noncombatants, cosponsoring, for example, a benefit concert featuring singers Mira Awad and Achinoam Nini (“Noa”), which called for the release of all hostages abducted from Israel into Gaza, and for the protection of the Palestinian and Israeli civilian populations.
For their indefatigable efforts “bringing communities together to build peace in the Middle East with a special focus on the role of women,” Women Wage Peace has been nominated for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. We’ll keep our fingers crossed, in hopes that they are granted this prestigious honor.
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