Today marks one year since Hamas inflicted its horrific attack on Southern Israel on October 7.
Today also marks one year and three days since 1500 Israeli and Palestinian women came together on the shores of the Dead Sea, demanding an end to the “cycle of bloodshot” and for peacemaking to be elevated.
The gathering that occurred between the Israeli group Women Wage Peace, and the Palestinian group Women of the Sun, is especially tragic when you consider what was to come just days later. A brutal attack by Hamas that killed more than 1000 people in Israel, sparking a relentless Israeli retaliation in Gaza and an ever-escalating conflict that continues today.
It’s also tragic to consider how women have been fighting together for peace, but then violence against women was used on October 7, and continues to be used as a weapon of conflict.
One year of violence in a war decided by men, where women and children bear a horrific toll.
More than 350 women were killed on October 7, and another 100 women and girls were kidnapped. The Hamas attack included a campaign of brutal, sick and horrendous gender-based violence, including rape, physical torture and genital mutilation, witnessed by survivors and captured on cameras. First responders recounted the violence inflicted on women by the horrors left behind on their bodies.
Three members of Women Wage Peace were killed that day, including a co-founder, Vivian Silver.
More than 41,000 people are believed to have been killed in Gaza following the relentless Israeli response, almost half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry documents. The population continues to face significant food shortages, displacement, disease and a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, situations that heighten the risk of gender-based violence. Gaza now has the highest concentration of child amputees in the world, a horror record that has occurred in just 12 months. The UN has also reported allegations of sexual violence against Palestinian women and girls in Gaza and the West Bank.
At least 38 activists involved in the Palestinian women’s group Women of the Sun have since been killed in Gaza.
A terror rampage organised and perpetrated by men. A relentless retaliation by a male-dominated government, with almost no women involved in any aspect of the attempts at negotiations that have followed.
And yet women have and continue to pay a horror price and will continue to do so as the conflict further escalates into Iran and into Lebanon, where Beirut has been hit by a significant Israeli strike just this morning, and one million people have now been displaced.
Israel’s Women Wage Peace and Palestine’s Women of the Sun, who have been calling for an end to armed conflict for decades, are mere spectators regarding what comes next for the future. They have no say in negotiations and little to no voice in the need for solutions to consider the needs of women and children.
There are no women with voting rights in Netanyahu’s war cabinet. There are no women among the leaders of militant groups. There is a sprinkling of women in the Iranian parliament – making up 3 per cent of the legislature in a country that was recently expelled from the UN Commission on the Status of Women. There are very few women leaders on the world stage generally.
Where there are women, there is hope.
Women’s participation in peace processes increases the probability of peace agreements lasting at least two years by 20 per cent and at least 15 years by 35 per cent, according to UN research.
In the days that followed the October 7 attack, Women Wage Peace posted an image of a bloodied dove on social media. They noted the “intolerable situation” of there being “no women in decision-making forums in Israel”. They demanded women be included in the negotiation team for the release of the hostages that included women. A week later, the group posted about the escalation of violence in Gaza, noting that “we extend a hand in peace to the mothers of Gaza and the West Bank.”
They remain active in conversations with Women of the Sun, a group facing its own loss of members and trauma. Together, their leadership is seen as an “untapped resource” for any talks and negotiated solutions. They have been jointly nominated for the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize. They have issued a joint statement of agreement called “The Mother’s Call”: We Palestinian and Israeli women from all walks of life, are united in the human desire for a future of peace, freedom, equality, rights, and security for our children and the next generations.