Elana Sztokman
30 במאי 2024
A slew of mother-led movements are forming, full of women who are fighting back
Israeli mothers have had enough of the war. We are fed up with the endless violence, the mindless escalations, the aimlessness, the sacrificing of our children on the altar of political wins, the corruption and a prime minister who seems to care about nothing but his own political survival.
And the mothers are starting to rebel. Though we have not yet had a definable impact on the situation, and it is not clear if we ever will, we won’t stop speaking out for the Israel that we believe in.
All of my four adult children or their spouses have been called up for military service since Oct. 7, and one of my sons-in-law is still on active duty. Two of my daughters live in the south, one in the Israeli “envelope” that borders Gaza, and were displaced for months with their babies and lived with me while their husbands were away.
I have been volunteering in many activities, from collecting supplies for single mothers and displaced families to supporting the injured in rehab centers to transporting Palestinians from checkpoints throughout the country to hospitals in Israel through Road to Recovery. Although these experiences are nothing compared to what Gazan mothers are going through, this war is still a major disruption and a complete erasure of the possibility of normalcy.
Several women-led organizations have been created with variations on the theme of protecting our children: Mothers Against Violence, Mother Awake, Mothers on the Front, Mothers of Soldiers, Mothers Screaming, to name a few. I’m in most of these groups, and I regularly attend activities and protests. My living room is filled with handmade placards, and my WhatsApp is popping 24/7 with calls to stop the war, agree to a cease fire, release the hostages, let overstretched soldiers come home to their families and hold elections immediately.
Members of these mothers’ groups come from all sides of the political spectrum — including former right-wingers like me who have moved to the left and former Netanyahu voters who have told crowds that they feel betrayed. Yet most share the same vision: Violence only brings more violence, all human beings are human beings, and the only way to bring lasting peace and get the hostages back is by speaking with our enemies instead of endlessly and mindlessly pounding away in Gaza while using our children as cannon fodder.