| Background material from | |
London 8-12 September 2003
The delegation was made up of five delegates; the joint directors of Jerusalem Link, Amneh Badran and Molly Malekar; Amal Khreisheh-Barghuti who is the director of the Palestinian Working Women’s Association; Rola Abu-Zaid a Palestinian Israeli Peace activist and Naava Eisin an Israeli Peace activist member of the Israeli Labour Party. Amneh Badran is director of the Jerusalem Women’s Centre and Molly Malaker heads Bat Shalom, the two groups who have come together as Jerusalem Link.
In the course of their visit the delegation met with Baroness Symons, Minister of State for Middle East Affairs at the Foreign Office, Margaret Hodge, Minister of State for Children, Phyllis Starkey recently chair of the All Party Britain-Palestine Group, Joan Ruddock MP, Oona King MP and two members of Labour Friends of Israel: Louise Ellman MP and Linda Perham MP and another 10 Labour Party Parliamentary women. Members of the delegation also met with the PSC and with representatives of Iraq women in the UK.
At these meetings and at public meetings and receptions held at City Hall, Greater London Authority, at Portcullis House, Chatham House and School of Oriental Studies, University of London the delegation argued for more explicit and effective condemnation of Israeli military actions from the West, stressing how support for Hamas reflected despair at the double standards adopted by many western politicians. They were able to provide graphic examples of the way roadblocks and the so-called security wall impacted on women and children in their daily lives and argued that militarization of men on the one side, and humiliation on the other, has greater increased domestic violence in both societies. They also made clear how Palestinians within Israel lack civil rights and called for support against the retrospective decision to deny residence rights to Palestinians from elsewhere who marry Palestinian Israeli citizens and to their children.
Their main message was a vision of hope. Despite the differences and divisions and the physical separation from one another, they were proud to have maintained a dialogue across the conflict. They therefore argued that any effective and sustainable peace process required a much greater engagement of women. In line with this, Women in Black (London) held a well attended vigil together with the delegation in Central London.
The delegation were able to stress to the Foreign Office that it had a duty to further the implementation of the unanimously adopted UN resolution 1325 calling for greater attention to the effects of conflict on women and a much greater role for women’s representation in conflict resolution. Baroness Symons expressed support for their call for an ‘International Women’s Commission’ to be party to any future peace negotiations for the Middle East.
We were able to raise some media interest in the delegation. The support of Miriam Margolyes and Nicky Gavron of the GLA resulted in positive coverage in the Jewish Chronicle and the London Jewish News. The group did a short piece for BBC World Service which is likely to be followed up with more coverage. Thanks to support from Victoria Brittain and Patsy Robertson, the delegation got some detailed positive coverage in the Guardian. Red Pepper also covered the events.
The total cost of the delegation was just under £4,000. This money was raised largely from donations to Jews for Justice for Palestinians for this purpose from amongst the signatories and supporters. We are also grateful for the support received from the Amos Trust and Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom(WILPF). The bulk of the cost were the flights and hotel expenses because we were generously provided with meeting places and refreshments through the support of Nicky Gavron, Phyliss Starkey, Rosemary Hollis of the Royal Institute of International Affairs and Dr Lynn Welchman of SOAS. The public Meeting was supportedby Women in Black and WILPF.
The delegation is being followed up with discussions about funding possibilities for workshops from DfID and discussions through the EJJP about further lobbying in at the EU and elsewhere in Europe.
The delegation was the brain child of Ruth Cohen who worked with Marion Kozak and Irene Bruegel to organise its success.
Previous Page