Redefining Security

"Something in Israel is not right," Gila said. In the afternoon on Friday, before the Shabbat ending Pesach, I was talking with Gila Svirsky, a leader of the Coalition of Women for Peace. "Israelis think like victims, but the reality is that we are the victimizers."

We were talking about efforts by Israelis to convince the general Israeli public that the occupation needs to end. The Coalition of Women for Peace was especially concerned with reaching lower-income women. May of these are from Russia, and Gila noted that most of them were unaware that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank was draining resources away from social and economic services for Israelis.

As 25 percent of the Jewish Israeli population has come from countries that were part of the Soviet Union, it would be important to convince even a small proportion of these women to stop voting for politicians who support the occupation.

New Strategy

Recently, leaders of the nine women’s groups that make up the Coalition of Women for Peace in Israel met and agreed on a new strategy. Instead of arguing that the occupation violates human rights and international law, these women’s groups will try to answer the question: "What does security mean to you?" Through discussion groups, small demonstrations, and a media campaign these groups will argue that ending the Israeli occupation of the West Bank will provide more security for Israelis than continuing the occupation.

"Poor people say they need jobs, they want the streets to be safe, and they expect the government to provide an education for their children," Gila said. "Ending the occupation of the West Bank will never be their concern, until they realize what maintaining the occupation is costing Israel." The women’s groups are convinced that ending the occupation is the only way that the Israeli government will be able to change its spending priorities and invest in public education and the rebuilding of the economy.

Relevant facts include the following:

• The Israeli government is spending $1.5 billion per year to maintain the occupation, and the cost to the government of maintaining settlers on the West Bank is more than twice what the government spends per resident in Israel. ("The Price of the Settlements," Ha’aretz Special Edition, 26 September 2003.)
• Poverty has increased in Israel, and now 20 percent of the adults and 30 percent of the children are poor. (Peter Hirschberg, "Poverty Becomes Israel’s New Enemy," 1 November 2003, http://global policy.org/socecon/inequal/2003/1101israel.htm.)
• Crime has increased. The number of women murdered by their partners has doubled in the past 3 years, and Israel has the highest rate of juvenile violence in the world. (Ruchama Marton, "The psychological impact of the second intifada on Israeli society," Palestine-Israel Journal, vol. 11, no. 1 (2004), and Vered Levi-Barzilai, Ha’aretz, 7 November 2003.

Gila also pointed out that the occupation has led to an increase of racism in Israel, and that support among Israelis for democracy is declining. In a poll conducted less than a year ago, 64 percent of Israeli Jews indicated that they wanted the government to expel Arab citizens of Israel from the country. (Center for the Study of National Security, Haifa University, June 2004)

Moreover, twenty years ago 90 percent of the Israeli Jews thought democracy is the best system of government, but recently only 77 percent of the Israeli Jews indicated that this was their belief. (Research by Professors Asher Arian, David Nahmias, Doron Navot, and Daniel Shani, http://newisraelfund.org/content.cfm?id=1977&currbody=1)

Support

In the face of these discouraging facts, Gila also said the Coalition of Women for Peace would point out that most Israelis want to end the occupation.

• Now 84 percent of Israelis support the idea of a mutual end to the hostilities. (March 2005, joint survey of Truman Research Institute in Israel and the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, http://pcpsr.org/survey/polls/2005/p15ejoint.html.)
• 69 percent of the Israelis say that all or some of the settlements on the West Bank should be evacuated. Only 25 percent of the Israelis say that no settlements should be evacuated. (Center for Peace Research at Tel Aviv University, Aug. 2004, http://spirit.tau.ac.il/socant/peace)
• 65% of the Israelis support moving all the Jewish settlements out of Gaza. (March 2005, joint survey of Truth Research Institute in Israel and the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research)

"Only an end to the occupation," Gila said, "will create greater security for Israelis, as well as provide justice for Palestinians."

Bob Traer, 8 May 2005

The views expressed above are personal and do not necessarily represent the World Council of Churches. If you wish to publish or disseminate this letter beyond personal friends, please contact the EAPPI Communications Officer (eappi-co@jrol.com) for permission to do so. Thank you.

For other Letters from Jerusalem, go to http://christian-bible.com/Ethics/lj.letters.2005.htm. 

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