Reuters article on Jerusalem Women Speak tour
20 April 2004
Reuters article on Jerusalem Women Speak tour
Three Women Seek Human Face for Mideast Crisis
Tue Apr 20, 2004 09:04 AM ET
By Andrea Shalal-Esa
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Three women from Jerusalem — a Muslim, a Jew and a Christian — headed home this month after three weeks in the United States sharing their suffering and hopes for Middle East peace. But the odds are against any kind of a reunion when they get there.
Michal Sagi, a 35-year-old Jewish Israeli, lives in West Jerusalem, but says military checkpoints will make it difficult, if not impossible, for her to visit Nuha Khoury, a 41-year-old Christian Palestinian who was born in Jerusalem but now lives in Bethlehem, just 4.9 miles [away].
The third woman, Muslim Palestinian Nahla Assali, who is 65, lives in Beit Hanina, an area north of Jerusalem that is practically impossible for Israelis like Sagi to visit.
Jewish and Palestinian peace activists do work together, but crossing the boundaries between Israel and the Occupied Territories has become increasingly difficult in the wake of suicide bombings, targeted assassinations and daily tensions.
“There is cooperation, but it is not very easy,” Sagi told the audience in Washington this month when the three women spoke at Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies. It was one of the final stops on a 17-day speaking tour that also including stops in North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland.
Jerri Bird founded the U.S. nonprofit group Partners for Peace that has brought a trio of different Jerusalem women to the United States each year since 1998 to discuss the everyday challenges of life in Israel and the West Bank.
It is a rare opportunity for Palestinian and Israeli women to spend time together in person, rather than just via e-mail.
“We are trying to bring to people the part of the story that is not covered in the media … the voices they never hear,” said Bird, who is already planning the next tour to take three more Jerusalem women to the West Coast this fall.
DIFFERENT MEANS, SAME END: PEACE
Each of the three women works for peace in her own way.
Although they didn’t know each other beforehand, their positions are remarkably similar, each condemning Palestinian suicide bombings and Israeli targeted assassinations, while working for a peaceful two-state solution. They all agree that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is about land, not religion.
Khoury, who lived in the United States for 15 years and completed a doctorate in Islamic history here, says U.S. media often focus on “big news” like bombings and missile attacks, while failing to show the harsh realities of daily life.
“Nobody is interested (in humanizing) the Palestinian story … or the Israeli story,” she says. “That is why we are here.”
For instance, she says 97 percent of Palestinian children between the ages of 10 to 19 are suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome, and 89 percent of them have personally seen a shooting. Fifty percent of children are malnourished, and 60 percent of Palestinian families lack food security, she says.
“This is a society that is economically shattered,” says Khoury, who heads the Dar al-Kalima Academy, which provides education and training to Palestinians in Bethlehem.
“Even if we get a Palestinian state, it will take two generations in order to recover,” adds Khoury, whose father died this January when he was denied passage past a checkpoint on the way to the hospital after suffering a heart attack.
Assali, recently retired after 25 years of teaching English at Bir Zeit University near Ramallah, co-founded and chairs Project Loving Care, a child-sponsorship program, as well as an informal training center for women and children in Jerusalem.
Assali and her family fled West Jerusalem in 1948 after the Deir Yassin massacre on the eve of the war, and were never allowed to return to their family home.
“I have seen enough. The cup of endurance is overflowing,” she said.
EXCLUSIVE USE OF ROAD
Assali, a petite, soft-spoken woman, grows emotional as she shows a picture of her backyard, newly dissected by a massive four-lane road being built by Israel exclusively for the use of Israeli settlers to connect East and West Jerusalem.
She warns that construction of roads like these, and the 25-foot wall being erected by Israel will displace more Palestinians from their lands, and add to the hundreds of thousands of refugees scattered throughout the Arab world.
Israel says it needs the barrier as a shield against suicide bombers, but Palestinians call it a new “Berlin Wall” and say it dims prospects for a viable Palestinian state.
Sagi, a teacher and activist with Checkpoint Watch, a group that monitors Israeli military checkpoints, says she worries about her own society growing more violent and racist as the occupation continues, noting that domestic violence is rising.
“Being an occupier does us no good,” she says.
So on her one day off each week, she rises at 6 a.m. to monitor checkpoints, monitoring human rights abuses and advocating for Palestinians who must cross the checkpoints daily to get to work, school and hospitals.
“My voice is not alone,” says Sagi. “We are a growing minority, and our voices are growing larger and larger.”
