Sixty Years, Sixty Voices: Israeli and Palestinian Women
When first scoping out this book, I thought that it would be written within a historical context. Being that it would discuss the deep history of the Israeli/ Palestinian conflict by listing dates and facts, how the government dealt with the situation. Then to add an extra touch of compassion, they would have stories from Palestinian and Israeli women to add to that "human" effect. When I turned to the first page I was caught off guard. The book in its whole sum is actually all about the life stories of these sixty women and how the conflict has impacted their lives. It was not written by some sort of governmental agency trying to put a face to the conflict, but was organized by a group of women involved in the PeaceXPeace organization which promotes women's rights world round. It is very simply laid out, giving the story of 30 Israeli women and 30 Palestinian Women with questions pertaining to their impact upon the conflict be it through politics, education or outreach. One thing that stood out to me was the fact that the book was written in English, Arabic and Hebrew. I had never seen a trilingual book before and it made me realize that the authors of this book did not want the language barrier to hinder their message, making the book accessible to the population that it researched.
As far as being within the principles of Beyond War, it was uplifting and educational to read about these women in how no matter their "label" of Palestinian or Israeli, they all had the main goal of empowering of women and making women realize their potential. One downside though was that the women only seemed to communicate within their own groups, and did not seem to put much of an effort to be cross-cultural. Which somewhat defies what BW is all about. Overall, it was a very informative book, seeing the human emotion lift from the pages of the suffrage than these women have gone through; I just wish that they could have shared with one another between the two groups.
Discussion Questions:
1) Do you think that the conflict in Israel/Palestine will ever come to an end? Why or Why not?
2) What principle or core practice of BW would you say that this book falls under?
3) Many of the Palestinian women discussed the shame of checkpoints, having their freedom revoked. Would there be some sort of breakthrough in communication if the checkpoints were no more?
As far as being within the principles of Beyond War, it was uplifting and educational to read about these women in how no matter their "label" of Palestinian or Israeli, they all had the main goal of empowering of women and making women realize their potential. One downside though was that the women only seemed to communicate within their own groups, and did not seem to put much of an effort to be cross-cultural. Which somewhat defies what BW is all about. Overall, it was a very informative book, seeing the human emotion lift from the pages of the suffrage than these women have gone through; I just wish that they could have shared with one another between the two groups.
Discussion Questions:
1) Do you think that the conflict in Israel/Palestine will ever come to an end? Why or Why not?
2) What principle or core practice of BW would you say that this book falls under?
3) Many of the Palestinian women discussed the shame of checkpoints, having their freedom revoked. Would there be some sort of breakthrough in communication if the checkpoints were no more?
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