Hear the Prayer of the Mothers

6 minute read

I study peace in the Middle East. My specific area of interest is Israel and Palestine. Why, you may ask, would someone who is not Israeli or Palestinian devote so much time and energy to the region, especially to such a controversial aspect of it? Simple. Because if people don't care, peace will never be achieved. I want to introduce you to some of the most caring human beings on the planet - the incredible, courageous, powerful, and exhausted women of the Women Wage Peace movement. These women are heroes and you deserve to know about them. Founded just three years ago and now boasting tens of thousands of registered members:

Women Wage Peace is a broad-based grassroots movement founded after the Gaza War of 2014 (Operation Protective Edge) and counts among its thousands of members women from the political Right, Center, and Left, Jewish and Arab women, religious and secular women – all of us united in our demand for a political agreement to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The movement was born out of deep despair and cynicism which followed our most recent war in Gaza, in order to rekindle hope in a viable future for our region.

Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports, “The founding group numbered about 40 women, who held their first meeting in Tel Aviv, in the midst of the war.” They continue, “To be able to have an impact on decision-makers, the founders of Women Wage Peace understood they would need a critical mass of supporters. To achieve that, they knew they would have to appeal to women way outside their natural base: right-wing Israelis, religious Israelis, even settlers. To appeal to such a large and diverse base, they realized they would have to steer clear of controversy and focus on the issues almost all women could agree on.” The foundational issue? To reach an honorable and bilaterally acceptable political agreement of the Israeli – Palestinian conflict by 2018.

While studying Hebrew over the summer, I learned about Women Wage Peace thanks to a friend who posted this video on our program page. Right away, I reached out to the organizers to let them know of my interest and my willingness to participate in their second annual cross-country (binational) march for peace. This year's march began September 24th and ended October 10th. I secured my plane ticket, a seat on the Women Wage Peace bus for October 8th, and landed in Israel for the first time with the express intention of waging peace with these wonderful women. In the end, the mass demonstration swept the media and made international headlines. This is the story of my experience.

Morning of the march

I arrived to the Haifa pick-up point at 6:30am and watched as women in white began trickling in. They arrived on foot, by car, and by bus, women of all ages. Our seat assignments were checked on the official roster, we loaded our assigned buses, a brief overview was given by our group leaders, and we were off. Destination, the Dead Sea just outside of Jericho in the West Bank.

The journey from Haifa to the Dead Sea took a couple hours and wound us through Jerusalem. This being my first time in the country, I could hardly peel my eyes away from the landscape. I photographed the outskirts of the city and noted the vast differences between Jerusalem and the West Bank, the latter being the zone to which the Palestinians are relegated by the Israeli government. There, they are subjected to military law and regularly face collective punishment such as curfews, searches, checkpoints, and arbitrary detentions.

As the bus rolled on, I stared pitifully at the hideous concrete dividing wall that separates the state of Israel from the military zone that is the West Bank or, if you rather, occupied Palestine. The obtrusive, gray eyesore winds up and around, following the elevation of the desert terrain enclosing behind it the Arabs of Palestine. Tall, concrete buildings huddle together like so many tan Legos; rectangular and uniform with no charm at all. It is hardly a thing to behold, but looking away feels wrong and dismissive. Seeing the checkpoints choked with barbed wire, trucks, and uniforms left me with an overwhelming feeling of heaviness and shame.

As we took the windy road out of Jerusalem, the buildings became fewer and, gradually, the desert filled the landscape. Trees peppered the sandy terrain, stubborn in their greenness. Ten minutes outside of the city to the north and we were soundly in the Judean Desert. I found it impossible not to find beauty in the harshness, wisdom in the ruggedness. The antiquity was palpable. Truly, these ancient hills have seen the best and worst that humanity has to offer. 

Arrival to the Dead Sea

Our bus arrived to the Dead Sea around 10:00am, but thousands of women and men, media, police and security officers were already present, not to mention the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Because the police required that our convoys be no larger than ten buses, the women arrived in waves. There were 60 buses in total coming from every direction; Israel and Palestine. 

We descended from the bus, women in white, and gathered under the massive canvas tent that had been erected prior to our arrival. The sound of music filled the desert air - drums, ouds, guitars, women's vocals. There were women in line for water, women on stage, women in drum circles, women sitting and laughing in chairs, children running, men mingling, people exploring and ascending the nearby dunes, and some wandering off alone, presumably to convene with a presence higher than themselves.

Some of the Muslim women donned abayas and hijab, conservative Jewish and Christian women covered their hair, Druze and the nonreligious wore what they pleased, and white Women Wage Peace t-shirts were for sale for all. I purchased one immediately to cover my head and neck from the blazing sun. Hebrew, Arabic, and English were spoken freely by participants on the ground and the organizers on stage. This held true throughout the entirety of the event until its finale at 9:30pm. 

The Journey to Peace 

We marched to drums that symbolized the beating of our hearts; قلب واحد بالسلام, לב אחד לשלום, one heart for peace. From one tent to the next, we marched through the desert singing songs of peace and hope. Muslims and Jews hand in hand, religious and atheist, secular and spiritual, Arabs and Jews alike, we marched together for the future of the region. ​

To the Peace Village we stepped, the media following on the periphery, gathering at last at the tent of Sarah and Hagar. There, women satiated their thirst and hunger with the food and water provided. The enormous crowd organically split, some electing to situate themselves near a stage, others congregated on mats to rest, while hundreds more took part in one of the lectures presented by various invited speakers. I chose to listen to a trilingual lecture on reclaiming the narrative of Sarah and Hagar, the mothers of Isaac and Ishmael, respectively. 

The message of the lecture was powerfully direct: ​Each woman had something the other did not, and each failed to triumph over her vice; Sarah's cruelty and Hagar's boastfulness. Unfortunately, their failures haunt us still, yet we must reject the simple conclusion that, as their descendants, we are doomed to a perpetual state of conflict. Rather, the challenge is repairing the opposition between the two, mending the wounds each caused the other. Sarah's precedent of child sacrifice, of sending Ishmael into the desert to perish, cannot be the standard we continue to live by. The children of Sarah and Hagar must rise up together and say enough is enough! !هذا يكفي! מספיק We can no longer accept that the fate of our children is to be sacrificed in unwinnable wars against the other. We, as courageous women with a voice, must take command of our own future and that of the generations ahead. No longer is it acceptable to sit back and let the reckless passivity of men determine our destiny. 

To Jerusalem

Our energy high, we rode into Jerusalem ready to take to the streets with our message of peace and solidarity. We arrived shortly before 5:00pm and waited at Agranat Plaza for the thousands of marchers to arrive from around Israel. Sadly, the Palestinian women with whom we marched in the Dead Sea were no longer beside us since Palestinians have extremely restricted access to Israel. Shortly before 6:00pm, we marched again with our signs held high, drums beating, and our voices raised in unison, "Peace is possible!" Our chants and clapping lured people out of their homes to stand on their balconies and on the sidewalk to watch us pass. We drew crowds, some onlookers joined in our procession, most clapped, cameras snapped photos, and flags waved proudly as the demonstration demanded to be seen and heard.  

We strode through the city, marching until nightfall, finally coming to rest near the Old City in Independence Park. There, we were gifted with a concert by Yael Deckelbaum and her ensemble, as well as a number of electrified speeches from the group's organizers and women personally affected by the trauma of constant conflict. After the grand finale, thousands of people singing Yael's trademark song, "Prayer of the Mothers," we loaded ourselves back on our buses and headed home to our respective cities. A job well done. Score one for the ladies, one for peace, and one for the children. 

Like the women of Israel and Palestine who took part in this epic demonstration on the power of maternity and femininity, after having been a part of this, I can never go back to how I was before. I am forever changed for the better. I am beyond proud of this movement and of the women (and men) who made it possible. We made it quite clear, passivity is no longer an option. Women are on the rise, from the north to the south, from the west to the east. The prayer of the mothers is going to be heard, and the powers that be will be held accountable for effecting lasting changes that ensure the safety of future generations. I was there. I saw it in their eyes. These women are unstoppable. They will continue to wage peace until the Israeli government reopens a dialogue with the Palestinian Authority to get this seven decade conflict resolved. 

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