It was with some hesitation that, as Israeli and Palestinian women,
we set about working together on an article on the 4th UN
conference and the NGO Forum on Women in Beijing, in
August-September 1995. We had spent three weeks together there in
the Young Women Leaders Program. We asked ourselves how we could
approach this issue commonly, in spite of coming from very
different and opposite backgrounds.
As a Jewish-Israeli citizen, living in a developed modern state,
Netta has the opportunities and the means to fulfill her ambitions,
while Hanan, as a Palestinian woman living since birth under
Israeli Occupation, has very limited accessibility to similar
opportunities in life. This cruel situa¬tion inhibits her
chances to develop a better quality of life for herself and her
society. It is not easy for occupier and occupied sitting together
to try to find a common language.
We sought a common issue, or experience to which to relate, apart
from the fact that we were sent to Beijing by the two centers of
the "Jerusalem Link": Bat Shalom [Israeli] and The Jerusalem Center
for Women [Palestinian]. Although as two young women, members of
the Jerusalem Link, we share a common political view regarding the
rights of the Palestinians to self-determination and an independent
state, we felt that our attitudes to the Beijing conference were
not limited to the politi¬cal analysis of the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Highlighting Identities
We remember Beijing as masses of women from all over the world,
coming together as one voice in order to strengthen themselves as
women. The most beautiful sight was how women kept highlighting
their different cultures and different identities. They did it not
only through their speech¬es, but through clothes, dancing,
singing, demonstrating. For example, the Tibetan women showed their
identity by staying with their mouths masked in order to express
their rejection of the Chinese government.
We wanted to participate in almost all the workshops, touching upon
all aspects of our identity. Hanan went to many workshops that
discussed the status of Muslim women in Islamic rules and laws,
searching for methods that can improve their lives. Netta as a
Mizrahi (an Oriental Jew) took part in workshops regarding
immigrant women and their contribu¬tion to society. We both
found ourselves many times in the Youth Tent, looking for
understanding and sharing our experiences and difficulties.
We have decided to share with you two stories, in which each of us
describes an incident that highlights one specific major aspect of
the other's identity.
A Palestinian Woman in/out Beijing
Netta Amar
For Hanan, actually reaching Beijing was a challenge of its own.
Difficulties raised by the Israeli security authorities made the
whole trip look like another nightmare of the Occupation. Getting
the ticket and per¬mit to leave the country seemed like an
unreachable dream. When it final¬ly came true, there came the
humiliating search in Hanan's luggage and an hour's wait in a
separate room for Palestinians, before she got to the
air¬plane. As for me, I came only two hours before the flight,
and was asked a few routine security questions. Our separation was
degrading. She was treated as the potential terrorist and I as the
potential victim.
It seemed as if the worst was behind us as we took off, but Beijing
turned out to remind Hanan once again that even though she was
physi¬cally far from the conflict, she couldn't escape the
stereotypes when presenting herself from Palestine or as
Palestinian. The first thing was the NGO's Forum badge that said
"Hanan Aruri - Israel." She was furious.
As a Palestinian, it was obvious that she had consented to go to
Beijing because she felt she had to raise international awareness
to the Palestinian demand for an independent state. She tried to
erase the false identity that was given her and write as large and
as clearly as possible: "Palestine."
Humiliation
There were many reactions to "Palestine." Some came and asked, out
of ignorance, where Palestine was. Some felt the need to correct
her, saying Palestine was not yet a state. When she identified
herself as a Palestinian, a Jew traveling with her in a taxi
accused her of terrorism. While some looked at her with anger and
disgust, others encouraged her. But Hanan was proud to wear the
corrected badge although it was not as aesthetic as my
"Israel."
The most humiliating experience was on our return home, when we
landed for 24 hours in Bangkok. Hanan was stopped by the
immigration officer because she only had a travel document from
Israel and not an Israeli passport. She tried to explain to the
senior officer that we had reser¬vations in a hotel in Bangkok
and that the Thai Embassy in Israel had told her she did not have
to get a visa for her stay there. The officer paid no attention to
her pleas. She was warned that if she kept on shouting and
protesting, she would be arrested and confined in a small room in
the air¬port. She was prohibited to leave the airport till her
flight to Israel on EI Al.
So we stayed 24 hours in the expensive Transit Hotel, in the inner
part of the airport, feeling we were in prison, not knowing whether
it was day or night. Hanan spent her stay in Thailand feeling like
an outcast, unwanted, threatened, ashamed, frustrated and sick.
When the time came to prepare for the flight, she had to go through
a further series of searches and questioning, as before leaving
Israel. Before we separated, she said she would never come back to
that part of the globe again.
A Mizrahi Woman in the Conference
Hanan Aruri
Among so many women from so many nationalities and cultures, Netta
and I felt very close to each other. Yet we tended to take this for
granted, until one day when we were going to the NGO site in
Huaira, an Algerian woman approached me and started talking to me.
Then she turned to Netta and also spoke to her in Arabic. Netta
smiled while the woman con¬tinued to speak. She didn't stop
the woman in order to correct her that she was not a Palestinian or
an Arab. On many other occasions, Netta was regarded as an
Arab.
She always identified herself, proudly, as a Yemenite. She felt
that in the Far East, at the conference, she could openly highlight
her Eastern origin without feeling inferior, which is how many
Ashkenazi (European and American) Israelis regard Mizrahi
(Oriental) men and women in Israel. She then started to tell me how
her Arab origin had brought her closer to the Palestinians. She
calls herself an Arab-Jew, a term that would make some people
laugh, as if it were not possible to combine the two identities.
She regards the relationship between Arabs and Jews who live in
Arab countries as having a unique significance which can help
Israelis and Palestinians live together.
Against Racism
Netta felt closer to the black African women in the conference than
to any other group of women. She regards herself as black. This is
the result, she explained, of living in a country that
discriminates against the blacks, including the Arab-Jews within
it.
When we sat down to write the article, she brought up the issue of
the demonstration of the Ethiopian Jews against racism. As the
Ethiopian Jews suffer now, so the Mizrahi Jews suffered from
racism. They were put in poor neighborhoods, got less good
education and had less accessibility to official positions in the
government. Racism for her was a phenomenon in Israel, internally
toward its own citizens, and externally toward the
Palestinians.
Netta explained to me that she supports the Palestinians in their
strug¬gle because she is against the denial of rights to all
others. In my relations with Netta, we sense a mutual solidarity,
mutual understanding, rein¬forced by our common experiences in
Beijing.
What Now?
We came to Beijing with a feeling that we had to put across our
message to the world, that our problems do not start and finish
with male domina¬tion. We feel that we, as women, can
contribute to humankind in our spe¬cial way. Our feminism
encompasses the problems of all human rights: poverty,
exploitation, equal opportunities, self-determination, fighting
against stereotypes and other global issues. Feminism is the means
to achieve a better quality of life for men and women throughout
the world. Although we are in different stages in our national
struggle, the two iden¬tities that both of us hold, I as a
Palestinian and Netta as a Mizrahi woman, cry out loud: there
cannot be a separate fight for the rights of women with¬out a
parallel fight for self-determination. We hope that 10 years on, we
will be able to come with all of our identities, proud, known and
accepted by everybody. At the 5th UN Conference on Women, our
identities and our rights will have been mutually accepted in the
region and in the world.