International appeal of Women in Black

December 2, 2006, Paris, France

I remember that from Israel, Gila and Debby did not stop, up to the last minute, feeding our website with new names of cities where vigils of Women in Black would stand, as part of the World Appeal.

I remember that the day before, comrades like Bertrand and Catherine (of the ex-coordination of Palestine’s committees) got back into harness to help us work and transport the sound system with its complex connections and its generator as heavy as a dead horse.

I remember our small disappointment, at 3pm seeing each group of the solidarity movement underrepresented, even if the banners of solidarity were there. And each of these groups had prepared a speech.

I remember that the fine and cold drizzle did not persist (certainly thanks to the “It’s nothing, it’s nothing, it will pass”) and that it did not perturb while it lasted.

I remember my pride when I pronounced one by one the names of the 78 cities in the world where Women in Black, according to the time zones, had gathered, where gathering or would gather this same December 2, 2006 with the same demands “Stop the siege of Gaza”, “Stop the massacre of the Palestinian people”.

I remember that following the alphabetic order, Naples was placed side by side with New York, Paris with Parksville/Canada, Verona with Vancouver, Washington with Wellington in New Zeeland and that Honolulu came just after Grenoble.

I remember that three of us passed hours in a parking not far from “La Fontaine des Innocents” blowing up with helium black balloons on which was written in white: “End of the occupation”. I remember that they brought us, in dribs and drabs, with an expression of delighted little girls, these strange bunches of black balloons.

I remember that a very old man from the “Association des travailleurs maghr�bins de France” held one of these black bunches for two hours and that he refused to be replaced even when it started to rain.

I remember that many women mixed themselves in the stream of passersby to distribute our statement and that their black and motionless figures creased and slowed down the flood of the walkers, like dark rocks showing at the surface of water.

I remember that Mick�line read the poem “I shall resist” from Mahmoud Darwish and that all of us, while we where listening, felt being “r�sistantes” through and through.

I remember that at the end, three women of the chorale “Chants de rage et de r�volte” (Songs of Rage and Revolt), that we did not expect anymore, broke into song a capella in Calabrian, such a powerful polyphony that they tetanized the participants and even the black balloons which stayed in the air above our heads.

I remember the finale, the release of black balloons – Identified Flying Objects to our struggle and our hope for “over there” and that they slowly rose in the grey sky of December 2, 2006 in Paris France.

Doucha Belgrave

• Translation From French into English by Edith Rubinstein