April 18, 2003 (Jerusalem).
Our team inIsrael had anticipated today’s action for weeks. The team joined Women in Black for their regular Friday vigil. Women in Black was originally founded in Israel and has become a powerful movement for nonviolence and peace around the world. Traditionally, women dress in black and stand at highly visible locations calling for an end to all violence. The original group in Jerusalem stands at a major intersection every Friday. Everyone reports that the experience was “wonderful” and “very powerful.”Sheri Wander sent an email back to the support team about the vigil, “It is Good Friday and more importantly for them Passover, so the group was a little smaller than usual. Smaller - but no less powerful! It was really an eye opening experience! I have stood with women in Black in the US but these women put up with a lot. We got yelled at, were given the finger, I got spit on... And they do this every Friday. What was eye opening was how afraid the people doing the yelling, spitting and such are. One woman screamed at us for a bit then went up to an Israeli policeman and started yelling at him "how can you let them stand here and attack Israel, attack the Jews?" As she yelled at the police I could see she was so scared she was almost in tears. She was shaking. Scared because of a group of women pledged to nonviolence standing there silently with signs in the shape of a hand signaling stop saying end the occupation. Scared. And acting so much out of that fear. I really just wanted to go up and give her a hug. To somehow reassure her.”
After the vigil, the team met with Women in Black activist Gila Svirsky. Gila shared with the team how much the group appreciated MPTTrainers Peter Dougherty and Charlotte Whitney’s work with them nearly two years ago. It is gratifying to learn our work has been useful to such amazing women. We certainly keep good company on the road to Peace! The team and Gila talked about Women in Black and also about another group with which Gila is active, the Coalition of Women for Peace (http://www.coalitionofwomen4peace.org) The Coalition consists of nine women’s peace and justice groups. Sheri Wander promises to come home with stories of their direct action work, which includes showing the film “Jenin, Jenin” in the middle of a busy downtown and enforcing “closure” on an Israeli government building. (“Closure” is the Israeli military practice of prohibiting movement in the Occupied Territories.) Gila also spoke to team about why it is in Israel’s best interest to end the occupation. She believes that it is important to speak on this as a means of finding allies. Her basic message was the Israel can not be secure without peace and there can be no peace until the occupation has ended. She also pointed to the high price Israel pays to maintain the Occupation on economic, social and democratic levels.
The team is off to a very productive beginning. MPTNews will continue to send daily reports of their activities inIsrael and in occupied Palestine.