[Marxism] Women in Black conference in Jerusalem

[Roger Lippman <zeznuto1@xxxxxxxxx>]

A Serbian woman at the Women in Black conference in
Jerusalem discusses parallels between the situations
in Israel/Palestine and Serbia.

Excerpts below. For the complete article, see
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/Printer&cid=1124677191019&p=1006953079845

SILENT SCREAMS
By Eetta Prince-Gibson
THE JERUSALEM POST
Aug. 22, 2005

Last week, more than 650 women peace activists from 44
countries convened in Jerusalem for the second
International Women in Black Conference. For four
days, in almost unbearable heat, the women sat under
tents at the Seven Arches Hotel on the Mount of
Olives, listening to panel discussions simultaneously
translated into six different languages, and
participating in workshops.

One day was devoted to the Palestinian-Israel
conflict, including topics such as "The Politics of
the Judaization of Jerusalem;" "Is the two-state
solution still viable?" and "Boycott, Divestment, and
Sanctions against Israel."

Each workshop was co-facilitated by a Palestinian and
an Israeli woman.

Another day, under the theme "Women's Global
Challenges," was dedicated issues such as "War Crimes
against Women;" "Gender Relations during Political
Conflicts and in Their Aftermath; and "The Politics of
Fear, Hatred and Racism."

On the Friday afternoon during the conference, more
than 200 international Women in Black joined their
Israeli counterparts at their weekly vigil in the
capital's Paris Square. They stood as they always do,
at the same time and place, purposely silent, dressed
in black, holding "stop signs" calling for an "end to
the occupation."

As they stood there, an occasional pedestrian or
driver called out to them. Some of the statements
aimed at the activists were sympathetic - one woman
pushing a baby carriage shouted "Kol Hakavod (good for
you)!" - yet most were hostile.

"Go f--- a Palestinian," one man cursed while honking
his horn to get their attention.

"I hope you'll be a widow and always wear black,"
another woman said, adding, "I hope your womb dries
out and you never have children."


Lepa Mladjenovic, 50, a counselor for female victims
of male violence and a member of Women in Black from
Belgrade couldn't understand the Hebrew epithets being
hurled. But she said she was familiar with the body
language and hand gestures from her own experiences in
Serbia.

"It's just like our vigils at home," she said,
indicating a mixture of amusement and ill ease.

"Some things - like hating women, especially women who
take an unpopular political stand, women who are ready
to criticize their government - are universal," she
added, sounding well-versed in the mantras of
militance.

...

In 1991, she said, women like herself who sought a way
to express their opposition to Slobodan Milosevic's
growing power, adopted the tactic and began to hold
their first vigils in Belgrade. They defined
themselves, she said, as an "anti-nationalist,
anti-militarist, feminist, pacifist group."

"Milosevic was using ethnic nationalism to manipulate
the people and create a popular base for extending his
control over the former Yugoslavia," Mladjenovic
recalled. "He was using rallies and the
state-controlled media to teach people to hate anybody
who was different. He was constructing ethnic
nationalism based on identities that had nothing to do
with reality, not with history or even political
interests.

...

Mladjenovic described how she and the other Women in
Black in her region maintained their weekly vigil for
seven and a half years - until 1999, when NATO forces
bombed Belgrade for 77 days straight. Until that time,
she said, they stood as the violence mounted in
Croatia, as Mostar and Sarajevo were destroyed, as the
violence escalated in Kosovo, as Milosevic and his men
set up concentration camps and massacred countless
civilians in Srebrenica and committed atrocities in
Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Some of the women were arrested. All were regularly
harassed and threatened by the secret police, the
military, and the paramilitaries and militias that
Milosevic encouraged. Many of them were socially and
politically discredited and lost their jobs. Some were
ruined financially, as Serbia's economic situation
deteriorated.

There is a new regime in Serbia now, and the region is
largely peaceful. But Mladjenovic and her colleagues
believe that in some ways, the situation has actually
worsened, with the "prevailing fascist climate
justifying and minimizing any Serbian responsibility
for the wars and the atrocities."

"Milosevic didn't hate; he used hatred," she
explained. "But the current president is a nationalist
fascist, and he genuinely hates anyone who isn't a
'true' Serb. He has given power to every fascist
right-wing group. The Orthodox Church supports this
nationalism, too. Today, young people are prowling the
streets, willing to beat up anyone who is different."

"As a country, we should be working towards accepting
our collective moral responsibility for what was done
in our name, and for electing another fascist regime.
We have to break the consensus that the situation
justified the war crimes that our nation, the Serbian
nation, perpetrated. So we are again isolated, again
we are traitors in the eyes of many of our countrymen
and women."

...

"We didn't stop Milosevic," she acknowledged. "Nor
were we able to prevent the massacres. But we gave
hope. And history will record that we cared and took a
stand. That matters, too."

Yet, she said she was encouraged by what she
considered to be an important role played by Women in
Black in the recent recognition of rape as a war crime
by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former
Yugoslavia at the Hague and the International Criminal
Court.

...

Mladjenovic referred to the Jerusalem Women in Black
as her "spiritual mothers and sisters in peace" and
said their existence as a movement was politically,
emotionally, and morally important for women
throughout the world.

"I feel solidarity with both Jewish and Palestinian
women. In both societies, women are ruled by the
patriarchy. In both societies, just like in our own,
women have to oppose the leadership that speaks in
their name."


                
____________________________________________________
Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page
http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs


________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism