In the months since 7 October, when Hamas launched a deadly assault on Israel, the ensuing conflict has dominated the news cycle. Each day brings more details about the needlessly horrific realities of war, specifically how it impacts women, from the use of rape as a weapon of war to the impossibility of giving birth in a warzone.
Less is known about the women in Israel and Palestine who are working together to bring an end to the violence.
Here, GLAMOUR's Lucy Morgan speaks with two of those women, Yael Braudo-Bahat, co-director of Women Wage Peace, and Reem Hajajreh, director of Women of the Sun, about how they are uniting women across Israel and Palestine (and the rest of the world) in their call for peace.
On 4 October, around 1500 Palestinian and Israeli women met in Jerusalem, where they marched together on behalf of all mothers desperate to raise their children in peace. Yael Braudo-Bahat, a lawyer and co-director of Women Wage Peace (WWP), who attended the demonstration, described the day as ending with “so much hope and joy.” Reem Hajajreh, director of Women of the Sun, echoes this sentiment, describing the event as “hopeful”. That was on Wednesday. Two-and-a-half days later, as Yael describes, “hell broke out.”
On 7 October, Hamas – the militant group that governs Gaza – launched an assault on Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 240 hostages, according to BBC News. Israeli authorities have opened an investigation into the allegations and eyewitness testimonies of sexual violence during this attack. The Israeli military responded to the attack with air strikes on Gaza; the death toll is estimated to be over 17,000, and over 1.8 million Gaza residents have been displaced.
WWP is a women-led NGO with over 50,000 members, which has been campaigning for a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for nine years. The organisation was established in the aftermath of the 2014 Gaza War, also known as Operation Protective Edge, during which over 2,200 Palestinians and 73 Israelis were killed, per the UN. For many women, it was a turning point. “Dozens of women – diverse women from across the Israeli political map, religious and secular, right, left and the centre – decided enough is enough,” Yael says.
For the past two years, WWP has had a “sister movement” in Women of the Sun (WoS), which is dedicated to empowering and educating Palestinian women. As Reem tells GLAMOUR, “We raise their voices in our community and help them to take some awareness and empowerment in political and economic dependency. We believe that we live in a conflict zone, and it's really one of our needs in our community to have educated women in politics so they can educate their families and their children.”
Since 7 October, Reem and Yael have continued working together – often speaking every day. “Even during those horrific times, we maintain our connections and contact all the time,” says Yael. “We continue, and we proceed forward together because it's not that the war weakens our partnership. On the contrary, it makes it more urgent, more important, and more crucial, so we continue.”
“Before anything, we are humans," Reem adds. “We not only work together, we are like sisters; we have empathy between each other. And I think the feeling of being mothers, of caring about families, is a thing that brings us all together.”
Prior to her work with WWP, Yael didn't consider herself an activist or a political person. “I knew that if I raised my head, I would see all the despair, and I wouldn't be able to bear it.” Then, in October 2016, WWP organised the ‘March of Hope’, a two-week march from the northern border with Lebanon to Jerusalem, going through many cities and towns in Israel. “And I said, ‘Okay, I will join. I will join.’” Yael joined the march in Tel Aviv; the next day, she saw a photo of Israeli and Palestinian women marching together near the Dead Sea in Qasr al-Yahud.
“I saw this photo of thousands of women, Israeli and Palestinian, marching together in the desert. I looked at this photo, and I knew that I had to be a part of it.”
The next day, Yael joined WWP as a member of the digital team. Five years later, she was appointed as co-director of the organisation. “What's common for all of us is that we want to raise our children in security,” she tells me. “And the current events only prove that we cannot continue managing the conflict. This notion of managing the conflict just collapsed, and the resolution, a political resolution, should be achieved.”
“Devastated, angry, grieving, worried, and still determined and hopeful because we know that there is no option to give up – this is our current situation.”
When we spoke over Zoom in early November, Yael explained the personal losses she has suffered during the conflict. “I think there's no one in Israel who hasn't lost anyone, even not in the first circle, but in the second and third circle. Personally, I lost two relatives. They were murdered in Be'eri on Saturday morning,” she tells me. “It's funny to say ‘lucky’ in this situation,” she continues, “but luckily, they have four children and 10 grandchildren all residing in the San Kibbutz, and they all survived. So I find comfort in this, but I'm grieving them.”
“We are also very, very worried about the hostages,” she adds. “Among the hostages, I know two people, one of whom is Vivian Silver, one of the co-founders of WWP.”
“She is one of my mentors. For the past five weeks, I have found myself thinking all the time, 'I must consult with Vivian.' And then, I try to consult with her in my mind. What would she have said?”
Two days after our interview, Yael emails me to share the devastating news that Vivian is dead. While it was assumed Vivian had been taken hostage by Hamas, her remains were found in the safe room of her house in Be'eri, which was attacked by Hamas on 7th October. She was 74.
Vivian was a lifelong peace activist who emigrated from Canada to Israel in 1974. She spent much of her life in the Kibbutz Be'eri, where she raised her two sons and co-founded the Arab-Jewish Center for Equality, Empowerment and Cooperation, which focused on promoting equal rights for Jewish and Muslim communities in the Negev. Yael tells me that as part of her work with WWP, Vivian would volunteer to drive sick people from Gaza to receive medical treatment in Israeli hospitals.
Yael also thinks a lot about the people of Gaza: “Of course, we are also very worried about the Palestinian side. What's happening with Gaza is awful. Civilians, including women and children, are dead, and this is unbearable. We say it all the time. We know that in the West Bank as well, there is tension. People are also being killed there.”
“Devastated, angry, grieving, worried, and still determined and hopeful because we know that there is no option to give up – this is our current situation,” Yael continues. “If we give up, if we don't resolve this conflict by a peaceful resolution, a political resolution, it is not going to end in the next round. It's going to be even more violent, even more bloody, and we cannot bear this thought.”
The same morning of our interview, Yael has been speaking with Reem Hajajreh, director of Women of the Sun, who lives in Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank with her four children. Yael tells me that the conversations between Women Wage Peace and Women of the Sun are examples of how women can promote peaceful solutions. She recalls Reem's powerful words, “I don't feel like we're Israelis or Palestinians; we're just sisters.”
“We just listened to each other; we cried together.”
According to Yael, WWP and WoS “take those features that are considered feminine and utilise them to promote peace – not because we are women or because we are ‘delicate’ but because we know how it can be done. We know it's possible because we do it every day.”
She continues, "We acknowledge the pains and the horrors on both sides. On the second week of the war, [WWP] had a conversation with [WoS], where each woman wanted to speak, tell her story and explain how she felt.
“We just listened to each other, we cried together. We shared our pain, and we shared our hope, and I think that this is something that is much easier for women to do than men.”
Yael is full of admiration for Reem, who, prior to the 7th of October, went to Israel several times to share her story. “She met hundreds of people each time,” says Yael. “Each event, she said, ‘Look at me. I have so many like me who want peace. Look at me. Humanise me. Talk to me', and she told them about the Women of the Sun, about their challenges, their aspirations, and our partnership.”
A month after I spoke to Yael, I managed to speak to Reem on the phone. Her day-to-day life in Bethlehem depends heavily on the political situation, she tells me. “Sometimes it's calm, but on the other hand, sometimes we have a lot of soldiers coming to the town, arresting, throwing gas bombs. The situation is insecure and unsafe. From the 7th of October until now, we haven't been able to move from one city to another. And if we move, it's very dangerous.”
For example, she explains, “There are many settlements between the roads because there are many settlers that are around Bethlehem, and now they give them more guns. So anybody can take out his gun and shoot any Palestinian people on the road, even if they do no harm. And I think that with all the anger from what is going on and all this hate, I think this has become more dangerous for us.”
“We want to continue in a peaceful world with dignity and equality between the two communities.”
At the onset of the October conflict, there were around 300 women in Gaza who were members of Women of the Sun. In the face of Israel's bombardment of the area, communication with these women has largely been lost. Reem says, “For us, we lose some women in Gaza and many of our members in Gaza; many have lost their lives, their families, their homes.”
“We lost connection with some of our women, and because they left their homes, there is sometimes no access to the internet or even to mobile, so it's hard,” Reem explains. In the past two weeks, WoS has helped 50 families of their members in Gaza, sending them food, supplies for children, and feminine products. For the time being, however, these vital relief efforts aren't possible: “There are no supplies in the markets. So we wait until the ceasefire comes back, and then we can move forward and continue with this emergency plan.”
The situation for women in the West Bank is also dire, Reem tells me. Many of their husbands who previously worked in Israel have lost their jobs, plunging their families into economic uncertainty. She adds, “Many villages have been surrounded by settlements, so people can't go outside their homes.” WoS has been coordinating sending blankets to families that cannot keep warm in the winter, as well as creating a trauma-healing program for women affected by the war, with a WhatsApp group where they can express their feelings and grief.
Reem's work with Women of the Sun stems from her belief that “You can't just sit and say, 'No, it's not my responsibility' because everyone in the community has their own responsibility – I want to do that maybe for the future of my family.”
She continues, "Maybe the change in our community and situation will not be now, but in the future, I can say, “Okay, I helped to change this conflict or this occupation towards peace. We want to continue in a peaceful world with dignity and equality between the two communities.”
Reem believes that the current onset of violence, triggered by Hamas' assault on the 7th of October, could have been avoided. “The situation that we reached on the 7th October, let's say we predicted, because we tell them [respective governments in Israel and Palestine] not once or twice, we tell them the situation needs to be changed. There are many things on the ground that need to be resolved.”
“Demanding peace is one of our rights as women, because it is the woman who always pays the price of war.”
She believes this starts with a seat at the table to “negotiate and find the suitable and equal solution for both of us.” But more women in senior leadership roles is not enough, Reem tells me. “We have many women enrolled in governments, but I think their voices are not loud enough to be heard or [for them] to make this change. It is mothers and women who bear the price of the war, so we should stop listening to the ‘war voice’ and listen to the ‘peace voice’.”
Women of the Sun focus largely on educating Palestinian women: “If you educate the woman, you educate a generation and have the ability to negotiate in the future,” Reem says. “If we just raise our kids [to think] 'Okay, this is Israeli people, we don't speak with them, we don't talk to them…' The gap between us and Israel will grow, and we don't want to do this. We want to find the bridge between us and them and find a solution.”
Neither Women of the Sun nor Women Wage Peace endorse a specific solution to the conflict. Yael explains, “We tell the leaders on both sides, ‘Sit down, talk and reach an agreement, and you need to actively involve women throughout the entire process’ because when women are involved in, or participate in, political negotiations, the resolution is more achievable and it is more sustainable.”
This, Yael reiterates, is backed up by the UN Security Council, which, in Resolution 1325, urges “all actors to increase the participation of women and incorporate gender perspectives in all United Nations peace and security efforts.”
Women bring a unique perspective to negotiations, Yael explains, “Not because they're better or smarter or more qualified, but just because they live differently.” She recently attended the Paris Peace Forum this weekend, where experts discussed how issues like health, water access, sustainability, and community education are neglected when women aren't involved in negotiations.
“People all over the world need to know that in Israel and Palestine, there are two movements working together from both sides of the conflict to resolve the conflict.”
I ask both Yael and Reem about how women in the UK (and across the world) can support their efforts to promote a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They each point me towards the Mother's Call: a campaign for Israeli and Palestinian leaders to “promptly begin peace talks and negotiations, with a determined commitment to achieving a political solution to the long and painful conflict, within a limited timeframe.”
Reem says, “We need all the women and everyone to sign [The Mother's Call] so we can use it in the future to demand negotiation and to sit on the table and find a solution for what is going on on this land.”
As my conversation with Reem concludes, she adds, “Demanding peace is one of our rights as women because it is the woman who always pays the price of war, and we want no wars anymore. We want to live in a peaceful place for us and for our families and the people we care about.”
She tells me about a time when she took her children to Israel as part of a joint trip with Women Wage Peace. It was the first time her 18-year-old daughter had ever seen the beach. She watched as Israeli and Palestinian children played together. She remembers thinking, “We are happy, and the children are enjoying it. Why can't we do this every day?”
Women Wage Peace and Women of the Sun both rely on donations to fund their vital activism and community work. You can find donation links below:
For more from Glamour UK's Lucy Morgan, follow her on Instagram @lucyalexxandra.
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