The Emergence of a Joint Israeli—Palestinian Women’s Peace Movement during the Intifada

Abstract

Media images of the intifada, the Palestinian uprising in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip which erupted in December 1987, focused primarily on violent confrontations between stone-throwing Palestinian youths and gun-toting Israeli soldiers. There was, however, another less visible dimension to the uprising involving different forms of Arab—Jewish encounter. This chapter concerns the joint peace activities undertaken by Jewish and Arab women during the first two years of the intifada. Based on in-depth interviews with Israeli and Palestinian women, and participant observation of the Israeli peace movement from 1987 to 1989, this study describes three forms of political contact that developed locally and internationally: between Arab and Jewish women resident within Israel’s pre-1967 borders; between Israeli women and Palestinian women from West Bank and Gaza; and between Jewish and Palestinian women worldwide.