In "Partners for Peace" we travel to communities in Israel and Palestine with a delegation of 13 women who have come together, under the leadership of Nobel Peace Laureates Jody Williams and Mairead Maguire. Their common purpose is to learn about the conflict and to explore how they may support the often invisible work of Israeli and Palestinian women, who are working to advance peace. We meet four of the delegates and main characters in the film and follow the journey through their eyes: Jaclyn Friedman feels she has neglected understanding the conflict more fully and her role as an American Jew; Jody Williams, a grassroots activist and Nobel Prize recipient for her role on the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, has focussed on the region at the urging of her friend and fellow Nobel Laureate Mairead Maguire; Lauren Embrey, a philanthropist from Texas, is committed to supporting women’s rights and wants to learn and hear from the people themselves; and, Mairead Maguire who received the Nobel Prize in 1976 for her work to end sectarian violence in Northern Ireland, is deeply committed to advancing peace in the region and to justice for Palestinian people, and spearheaded the delegation. Along with the delegates, we spend time with Israeli and Palestinian groups listening to how the conflict impacts their everyday lives – and their own work towards peace. At Isha L’Isha, an Israeli feminist group, the delegates learn about the need to broaden understanding of what security means in Israel, threats don’t just come from outside, what about economic security and civil liberties? At the Coalition of Women for Peace, Eilat Moaz challenges assumptions about settlement construction and outlines the benefits to the Israeli economy. Parents Circle Families Forum builds understanding and bonds between Israelis and Palestinians through their common experiences of loss, in their view, essential to long-term reconciliation; and others. Over and over, the message conveyed by the women they encounter is, “hear our voices, we need your help”. Jaclyn is particularly affected by what all of the women are saying. She identifies with them, they are familiar, this is not a foreign land. But one of the group’s members is missing. Detained when she tried to enter Israel, Mairead Maguire struggles to join them, even thwarting an early deportation attempt when she sits down on the tarmac, refusing to get on the plane. While the others carry on in her absence she struggles to defend her rights and get her message out. The uncertainty about how her story will play out weighs heavily on the other delegates. Along the way the delegates also meet some compelling individuals: Mustafa Barghouthi, a Palestinian doctor, politician, and democracy activist, shares his views of the history of the conflict; Sahar Vardi, a young woman who was jailed for refusing mandatory military service, is a voice against evictions of Israeli Palestinians; Israela Oron and Talia Sasson, both who had high-level responsibilities in the Israeli Defence Force and government respectively, share their views about what a future peace could be; and, in a brief visit to the hillsides above the Israeli-built settlements Hagit Ofrani, who bravely carries on despite death threats and intimidation, outlines the extent of settlement expansion. The journey goes well beyond a simple visit by outsiders looking in. The women are confronted by the harshness of life for Palestinians in Israeli-controlled areas, shocked by the economic inequalities they witness, the unrelenting and sometimes brutal separations between people, the vastness of settlement construction, and the fear, the trauma of loss, tragically common on both sides of the divide. What they see and hear is deeply unsettling. Fuelled by their growing realization of the desperation and urgency of the situation, the journey reaches a dramatic peak in a confrontation between Jaclyn and a group of women who live in a settlement outside Jerusalem. No longer comfortable to listen and learn Jaclyn is compelled to engage and she does, it’s an emotional ride. "Partners for Peace" offers a rare window on the work of women at the grassroots in Israel and Palestine, doing the hard, often invisible and unreported work of building peace. Their efforts play outside governmental and international peace efforts, sharply contrasting and challenging those efforts by revealing the injustices of the current situation and bridging common ground between Israelis and Palestinians. Jaclyn, who sees great hope in the work of these women says, “These are women with ideas about how to get out of this mess . .. in reality there are almost infinite partners for peace, we’re just not asking the right people to the table. Partners for Peace is narrated by actor Marisa Tomei and is 101 minutes long. PartnersForPeaceFilm/
Posted on: Fri, 06 Sep 2013 09:27:34 +0000
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