Building a Common Language for Peace in the Middle East
by Jessica Ann York

On September 17th, 2002, Hanan Ashrawi, a prominent Palestinian activist and politician took the stage at the Lyman Center at Southern Connecticut State University. Her lecture was part of the Women’s Studies Program “Women in Leadership” series. The series is focused on women from around the world who, against all odds, have changed the direction of history, significantly advanced the horizon of knowledge, or achieved influence in their sphere.

Although Ashrawi was invited to discuss how the Middle Eastern conflict is affecting women, it was clear that many in the audience were more interested in questioning every angle of the conflict itself. An earlier press conference primarily focused on questions dealing with the relationship between Arafat and Sharon, occupation, the differences between soldiers shooting people and suicide bombings, or where the borders of Jerusalem should be. What seemed to be over- looked was that no matter where you place yourself on the continuum of this conflict, between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli one thing remains constant — Palestinians and Israelis have lived and will continue to live next to each other, in times of war and peace.

Women have a special role in the Middle Eastern conflict and in peacemaking. Not only are they, as Ashrawi commented, “the most immediately involved, they pay the price of war and the absence of peace. At the same time they are the ones who are to help sustain peace once there is peace…historically women have played a major role in the discourse of peace.” By forming a common language and creating a voice for women in peacemaking, Ashrawi remains optimistic in stating that she does “not want to reach the point of no return, when peace is no longer an option.” Therefore, the struggle for peace must continue, and Ashrawi was poignant in stating that, “people don’t die for peace, they live for it.”

Ashrawi emphasized the important roles that women play in peacemaking. They do not use the same tactics nor analytical strategies as the male hierarchy in power uses. “We [women] do not play political games, military games, and power games-we go straight to the point. We acknowledge the ‘other.’ We don’t try to negate or obliterate the ‘other,’ so by acknowledging each other we try to forge a common language. We are much more inclusive.” There are no conflicts or wars that do not take a toll on human life and humanity. Ashrawi denotes this as “human ramifications,” and concluded in order for all of society to reach peace holistically, “the attitudes that you use against oppression and discrimination are the attitudes that need to prevail in all situations. You cannot exempt women, ethnic groups, or classes. The attitude is that you need to be unified.”

Ashrawi expressed her hope to build a dialogue that is concerned with peace, social justice and human rights. She pointed out that the way to achieve this goal “is that the voice and sanity of peacemakers is very badly needed and I would like to see more people intervene in a positive and constructive manner, women and men and all people of good conscience.” Ideally people need to establish and maintain lines of communication with their leaders and a more democratic approach needs to be taken in order to create peace. This needs to be done not only for Palestinians, but for Israelis as well.

Ashrawi attributes much of the development of her activist roots to seeing first hand the Anti-Vietnam movement and the women’s movement take shape in the United States, as a graduate student in Virginia. Ashrawi expressed her concern for the current women’s movement in Palestine, which she describes as “fragmented,” much like the early history of American women’s movement, into various factions with different beliefs on how to achieve peace and governance. However, underneath the differences, Ashrawi concluded, “there is a gendered voice that is common to us all. We must not be fragmented...there is tremendous woman power that has yet to be tapped.” Ashrawi would like to employ the methods of the early American movements by beginning a campaign of consciousness raising, starting with her own voice, one voice of many.