Voices from WILPF Israel: Daphne Banai & Taghrid Shbita
The women of Los Angeles, recognizing the extraordinary peace work done by Daphne Banai & Taghrid Shbita, members of WILPF Israel, brought them to the US for a mini-tour. They spoke at three events this weekend and are travelling to San Francisco for another engagement. I attended today's lecture and had the pleasure of meeting Taghrid & Daphne at a pot luck after the event.
Both Taghrid and Daphne believe that US citizens must pressure the US government to stop supporting the occupation. They offer no easy cures for the problem, only the hope that working together, we can affect real change in this horrific situation. Both believe in a two-state solution and dismiss the reasons given by the Israeli & US governments for not negotiating with the Hamas-led Palestinian government.
We can start creating this change in US policy by working together to formulate an alternative, feminist policy on Israel / Palestine. The US Section campaign "Women Challenge US Policy: Building Peace on Justice in the Middle East," is close to releasing a tool-kit to help our branches start feminist round tables to examine current US policy and develop an alternative approach.
For more notes from the lecture, visit my political blog, Social Upheaval.
Both Taghrid and Daphne believe that US citizens must pressure the US government to stop supporting the occupation. They offer no easy cures for the problem, only the hope that working together, we can affect real change in this horrific situation. Both believe in a two-state solution and dismiss the reasons given by the Israeli & US governments for not negotiating with the Hamas-led Palestinian government.
We can start creating this change in US policy by working together to formulate an alternative, feminist policy on Israel / Palestine. The US Section campaign "Women Challenge US Policy: Building Peace on Justice in the Middle East," is close to releasing a tool-kit to help our branches start feminist round tables to examine current US policy and develop an alternative approach.
For more notes from the lecture, visit my political blog, Social Upheaval.
posted by C.J. Minster at
8:13 PM
1 Comments:
Dear C.J. -
Recently I had a chance to talk with someone who is 95 years old who knew David Ben-Gurion well on the days of the first formation of the Jewish Palestine in the late 1940's.. what is known of today as Israel. My 95 year old friend spent many hours together with a shy Ben-Gurion as he talked about his dream of creating a land that would offer safety to all people.. Not some.. but ALL. In what he called "a paradise where all our children can play together on the streets and fields of Jerusalem." This is extremely important to remember.... that the founders of Israel were humanitarian in their vision. Today's version of the current Israeli government is only a shadow of this original true vision. I hope someday that the original intent.... to offer a place of safety to the Jews who suffered through the terrible pograms, extermination camps, displaced person's prisons and the ongoing ravages of war can also offer humanity and understanding to all people everywhere. Let's all get back to Ben-Gurion's original intent.
With hopes toward our greater opening and understanding,
-Lys Anzia
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