My name is Yali Hashash. I represent today the women’s Coalition for Peace in Israel, in which the feminist organization I belong to is a member. My organization is called Ahoti – sister, and it stands for social justice, peace, and ethnic equality for women.

Women from the Coalition were the first to protest the war. A few weeks into the war, thousands in Israel are joining the women’s initiative. And indeed women have much to lose and little to gain from any war situation in the region. While we can all agree that Hizbullah’s threats and actions against the civilian population are intolerable, we cannot understand why Lebanese civilians should pay the price of the conflict, or how massive bombing on a civilian population and infrastructure can promote any attempts to achieve a long lasting peace.

Previous attempts to achieve stability in the region, whether in the north through peace negotiations with Syria and Lebanon, or whether through peace settlements with the Palestinians, have all failed so far. It is my belief that one of the main reasons for that failure is that these attempts have failed to take into account any considerations of economic security for the vast population on all sides of the conflict. In Ahoti – my organization – we strongly believe that any discussion of peace in the Middle East is futile unless it gives people a sense of future prospects, both of physical safety, but also of economic stability.

Peace agreement attempts seem to fail in gaining large supporters with all sides partly because they seem to deteriorate rather better the economic security of large populations. Factories in the periphery in israel have been shut and moved to Jordan and Egypt for low cost labor, making the periphery pay for the peace costs. The Oslo agreement suggested solving most territorial issues, yet offered no economic future prospects for Palestinians. Thus, support for militaristic action at least gives a sense of belonging and solidarity, and perhaps a hope for social mobility to people, which peace, as practiced so far has failed to do.

So today, while opposing the aggression against civilians in northern Israel and southern Lebanon, and Israel’s disproportionate retaliation against the civilian population, I wish to remind you that a temporary ceasefire or even a peace agreement is not enough. Only massive investments in local economy throughout the middle east, while opposing a neoliberal economy, can recruit people once again into believing that peace holds any future for them and their children. Indeed, only a strong alternative to the American “new order” policy, an alternative that promotes coexistence rather than constant forcing of a neocolonial order, can bring true peace to the region.

Unfortunately, some leaders in my country have adopted the “evil axis” rhetoric promoted by Bush. It is a rhetoric that leads to a dead end, and goes against all that we know about true negotiation. Jews and Arabs have long rich traditions of negotiating. Both have been the carriers of goods, knowledge and culture to the whole world, using negotiation as a skill that is crucial for survival in a heterogenous reality, and developed it to an art. Given the right economic terms, I am confident that negotiating peace in the middle east is not beyond us.