Women want a place at the peace table. The organization called Female Leaders for Peace and Security sent a letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu and the ministers requesting that women be included in the peace talks.
As peace talks between Israel and Palestine begin Monday evening in Washington, D.C., John Kerry might have scored the event of his diplomatic career as Secretary of State, as Israeli leaders agreed Sunday to release 104 Palestinian prisoners. The release will be incremental over the period of nine months in four stages. It was agreed with the caveat that if any aggression by the Palestinians occurs during that time, the release of prisoners would stop.
Calling the prisoner decision “painful for the entire nation,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was able to get the approval of his divided cabinet earlier Sunday to release the Palestinian inmates, many convicted of killing Israelis, to help restart peace talks, according to the Washington Post.
The prisoner release could include militants who used fire bombs against Israelis resulting in the deaths of adults and children. Many of the prisoners have been in prison for 20 years with some serving life sentences.
State Department Spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the preliminary talks will be led by Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Chief Palestinian Negotiator Saeb Erekat. The talks will first layout the framework with intense negotiations to proceed following agreement on the outline for talks.
Even though the vote approved the negotiations in a 13 to 7 vote with two abstentions, Netanyahu’s cabinet called for a referendum allowing the Israeli people the last word in accepting any agreements. Any peace deal brokered by the negotiators will have to be voted on by the Israeli people.
Women must be included in peace talks
Women want a place at the peace table. The organization called Female Leaders for Peace and Security sent a letter to Netanyahu and the ministers requesting that women be included in the peace talks with Palestine, according to the Jerusalem Post.
The women’s group reminded the prime minister of the United Nations decision in 1951 creating the Equal Rights for Women Law that outlined equality in all government teams that included those negotiating treaties.
The negotiations between Israel and Palestine are historic moving forward toward peace and including women from different population groups is an opportunity to consider various points of view and enhance the quality and depth of negotiations.
Indeed, women are many times the first to cross lines of conflict and work together to find workable solutions and reconciliation, whether at the grassroots or high level talks like those between Israel and Palestine. The key is having support at the leadership level that reinforces and promotes that dialogue, and that means including women in high level negotiations.
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