• Security for Whom?

Introduction

Our Reframing Security project seeks to promote support for peace by ‘reframing’ security and introducing the notion of ‘human security’, a notion that is increasingly recognized throughout the world.

In Israel, the concept of ‘security’ is a powerful one. For years, politicians have used it to justify human rights violations and the occupation itself as carried out in the name of ‘security’. Yet few Israelis stop to think whether these military and policing measures have in fact provided us with the long-sought security.

To challenge this ethos, the Coalition of Women for Peace has developed a campaign to ‘reframe’ security as ‘human security’. One part of this campaign is conveying the understanding that achievement of a negotiated peace with our Arab neighbors – Palestine, most urgently – would do more to ensure our security than all the military might in the world.

The Campaign

Many Israelis believe that security requires that Israel hold onto the occupied territories and/or maintain a strong military presence there. Particularly since the victory of Hamas in the Palestinian elections, Israelis feel that military security is of paramount importance.

It would be virtually impossible to overturn this view in the short run, but overturning it is not necessary. In our campaign “Reframing Security”, we begin from the premise that security is vitally important to Israel…but that security is much broader than military control. In fact, we claim as part of this campaign that ‘human security’ – protection of the individual – requires a rethinking of our current strategy of occupation. Indeed, this campaign leads to the conclusion that control of the territories is counter-productive to achieving real security.

To accomplish this re-interpretation of security, we turn to a tool called ‘reframing’, which has been used by many experts in conflict transformation and specialists in communication. “Reframing is the process of changing the way a thought is presented so that it maintains its fundamental meaning but is more likely to support resolution efforts” [Bernard Mayer, The Dynamics of Conflict Resolution, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 2000].

Our goal in using this tool is to reframe the public debate about security so that it facilitates consensus about peace.

When we ‘reframe’ security, we are not asking people to give up on a deeply held belief, but rather to enlarge their conception of it. Because we are building on a belief that already exists in people’s minds, they are more likely to allow themselves to consider a reconstruction or extension of that belief, which conveys a new perspective on it.

In the framework of our campaign, we begin by affirming the importance of security. In so doing, we create a bond with our interlocutor, agreeing upon the importance of security. We then begin to probe more deeply – Do you feel secure? More secure today than you did five years ago? In what ways do you not feel secure?

At the same time, we reframe the meaning of security by helping participants notice the areas of personal security that have been underplayed in recent years by Israeli politicians. Some examples of genuine security needs that are given less attention:

1. economic security (having a job, a roof over one’s head, a steady income);
2. security from violence (safety from gender-related violence and other crime, protecting one’s children from drugs); and
3. environmental security (knowing that our tap water is clean and pure, having access to clean beaches, having clean air to breathe).

This broader understanding of ‘security’ has recently been supported by both scholars and policymakers, and referred to as ‘human security’. The 2003 report of the UN Commission on Human Security asserts:

Human security means protecting vital freedoms. It means protecting people from critical and pervasive threats and situations, building on their strengths and aspirations. It also means creating systems that give people the building blocks of survival, dignity and livelihood.

The case for reframing security as human security is made in many publications: the UN Development Programme’s Human Development Report (1994), the Commission on Human Security’s report, Human Security Now (2003), Kvinna till Kvinna’s Security on Whose Terms?, the Human Security Network, and many others.

Through the activities outlined below, we help participants understand that the political conflict with the Palestinians prevents us from meeting these other urgent human security needs. We demonstrate that a military conflict with all its attendant features – a strong army, educating children for violence and militarism, the neglect of environmental needs, inequality for those who do not participate in the armed struggle, heavy budget spending by the military, etc. – prevent Israeli society from meeting the many other legitimate needs that give individuals security in their daily lives.

Campaign Activities

Key to our methodology is the feminist empowerment of all those we address – our belief that changed attitudes must come from within the individual, through a process of empowerment and maintaining the integrity of the relationship. Our campaign seeks to create the conditions for participants to find their own way to a new conceptualization of security. These are the principles that guide us through all our activities.

Some of our campaign activities:

Reality Tours: This activities brings Israelis to see the many “walls” that both surround and divide our society – the Separation Barrier, military checkpoints, walls separating haves and have-nots. Some 4,000 Israelis have already participated in these tours, and many have told us how meaningful these tours have been for them.

Outreach to Russian speakers: A growing group of approximately 150 Russian-speaking Israeli women are dedicated to promoting progressive values among other Russian-speakers in Israel. These women conduct weekend seminars, workshops, political drama groups, and place articles in all the Russian-language media in Israel. Thousands of Russian-speaking Israelis are exposed to these views, otherwise unheard in these media. Soon we will publish our new Russian-language website.

Public education events: We have already held two public education events that reframe security, and received very positive feedback from the participants. One was a day-long conference at Oranim Teachers’ College called “My Security Day”. Workshops were held on personal security (“The social construction of safeguarding the female body”), security from violence (“The revolver on the kitchen table”), health security (“Breast cancer and your life”), economic security (“A business of her own”), and other relevant topics. Another public program was held in Tel Aviv, which we ran as an “Alternative Herzliya Conference” – presenting an alternative to the military discourse of the better known Herzliya Conference, where politics, big business, and the military comingle .

Printed materials: We developed and printed the poster “This is My Security” [see sidebar] and have begun to teach it in schools in northern Israel.

Media: Media play a very important role in this campaign, as we work to place articles in the media, include our people into radio and TV interviews, and challenge the published views of others. We have had some recent success with this, but want to do much more.

In Closing

Initiating public discourse about human security will provide a first, critical stage in attitude change in Israeli society, opening the door to more far-reaching changes in public policy and priorities, helping Israelis understand that resolution of the conflict with our Arab neighbors would further their own well-being and prosperity.

The more Israelis realize that vast amounts of public resources and attention have been sunk into the conflict with the Palestinians, and that the policymakers have not paid sufficient attention to other issues – poverty, unemployment, crime, pollution, inequality, etc. – the more they are likely to support the concept of reframing security as ‘human security’.

To Support this Campaign

We are hoping to be able to raise money that will enable us to do much more – posters, bumper stickers, internet activity, a media campaign, etc.

To contribute, click here