Israeli and Palestinian women's peace groups meet with French officials

Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo joined representatives of the group Women Wage Peace last week in the French capital as women of the joint Israeli-Palestinian organization called for a political agreement between Israelis and Palestinians and held meetings with French officials, Women Wage Peace announced. 

The group, which was founded in the aftermath of the last land war in Gaza, 2014’s Operation Protective Edge, claims 45,000 members, both Israeli and Palestinian. More than 30,000 women, including 3,000 from the West Bank, participated in the group’s ‘March of Hope’ in 2016. The organization has partnered with a Palestinian group ‘Women of the Sun’ movement, since 2022, which was also represented in the delegation to Paris.

The visit was initiated and organized by the French-based international women's movement Guerrieres de la Paix (Warriors of Peace.)

Women of the peace organizations addressed the French parliament, declaring in a speech to the body, “We call upon people of peace around the world to add their voices to our Mothers’ Call, and to women worldwide to stand beside us.” The group also met with the heads of feminist organizations in France, and Socialist Party member Boris Vallaud, who expressed his support.

"Release the hostages, implement a cease-fire"

The group led a rally “to release the hostages and achieve a cease-fire, equality, freedom, peace, security, respect, and justice.” Simultaneous rallies were also held in major cities across the world.

“We call for a unification of moderate voices in the region and worldwide,” the activists said at the parliament, “to create a brave alliance, for the sake of the future of the entire region.” 

The Mothers’ Call referred to in the speech is a petition available on Women Wage Peace’s website calling for “peace talks and negotiations, with a determined commitment to achieving a political solution to the long and painful conflict, within a limited timeframe.

“We believe that the majority of the people of our nations also share our mutual desire,” the statement said.

Women Wage Peace has joined other activist groups pushing for the prioritization of the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza amid the ongoing war with Hamas: earlier this month, the group was involved in a protest that drew more than 2,000 demonstrators in Tel Aviv, blocked the Ayalon highway, and included speeches by survivors of the attack and those who had lost family, alongside speeches by former Knesset members and peace activists.

The demonstration marked the first birthday of Kfir Bibas, an Israeli baby whom Hamas terrorists kidnapped on October 7 and who remains in Hamas captivity, as do his brother Ariel, 4, and their mother Shiri, 32. 

Vivian Silver, one of Women Wage Peace’s co-founders, was believed to also have been kidnapped to Gaza until her body was identified using DNA about a month after the massacre.