Over 200 attend Melbourne Women Peacebuilders event on 31st August. WILPF Victoria supported a public peacebuilding event entitled Mending our Social Fabric: Learning from Palestinian and Israeli Women Peacebuilders. This event was attended by over 200 people and was part of a speaking tour about Women’s Peacebuilding in Conflict Zones organised by a collaboration by of organisations including the Uniting Church in Australia (Synod of Victoria and Tasmania), Pax Christi, the VictorianCouncil of Churches and WILPF Australia. The tour featured two remarkable women: Riman Barakat and Peta Jones-Pellach who hail from opposite sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict representing two grassroots women’s movements for non-violent conflict resolution and the essential role of women in peacebuilding – Women Wage Peace and Feelbeit.
Rabbi Dr. Peta Jones-Pellach is an Israeli educator, interfaith activist, and senior member of Women Wage Peace (WWP), the largest women-led peace movement in Israel, with over 50,000 members. The movement spans political, ethnic, and religious divides, and is dedicated to the achievement of a negotiated political resolution to the Israeli Palestinian conflict and empowering women through public demonstrations, political engagement, and community education. Key projects include the March for Peace (2017), and the Political Alternatives First Bill (2019).
Women Wage Peace also partners with the Palestinian women’s peace organisation, Women of the Sun, to develop joint initiatives including the Mothers’ Call, a petition which calls upon leaders on both sides to begin negotiations for the sake of the future of our children.
Peta spoke about the growing disillusionment in Israel with the war and the recognition that a resolution will only be achieved through working together. Post 7 October WWP has brought together groups of women of different religious faiths – Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Druze – initially in separate groups and then in combined groups. Peta highlighted that this approach has promoted deep listening, recognition of the others’ pain and the building of empathy. The project has ‘created a new “We” that has bonds on both sides…people realise I know something about those other people…I cannot unlearn what I know about you.’
Riman Barakat is a Palestinian peacebuilder based in East Jerusalem and is the co-director of FeelBeit, a visionary Israeli-Palestinian cultural centre that uses the arts to create spaces of dialogue, collaboration, and hope. Feelbeit has engaged 70,000+ participants since its inception in 2019 including 18,000+ participants since October 7, 2023, in equal Israeli-Palestinian numbers.
Riman highlighted how Feelbeit, using Arts events as the mediator, is able to provide a ‘low barrier entry point’ for Jewish and Muslim people to come together and create a safe space and sense of community. Their model recognises that people may not initially have the words to speak about conflict resolution but that ‘all sorts of things can happen when you are able to interact with the other side’. Underpinning Feelbeit’s model is a team of people with strong relationships, a core group that are practising dialogue and being together every day. Equal representation, safety and everyone feeling at home are critical components of their approach.
Peta and Riman inspired their audience by sharing grassroots methods of building bridges, refusing hatred, and modelling cultural leadership that honours human dignity on all sides. Their hopeful and compelling message: Peace is not naive. It is urgent and it is possible. ‘Partners are there somewhere looking for you. Through listening and dialogue we can all do so much’.
Heather Clarke
WILPF Victoria