When we are pregnant, we dream of bringing a great life into the world. We dream of wellbeing and a healthy lifestyle for our children. Religious fanaticism and militant political parties are not a part of that dream. We are mothers, wives, and daughters, and we don’t want our children to pay the price of war.
We are Midwives of Peace. We are Palestinians, Israelis, Israeli Palestinians, Jews, Muslims and Christians. We believe in peace and in each other. We have empathy for the suffering of all and stand together in compassion, working together towards peace.
We are women and caregivers. We are there with mothers when they deliver their newborns. We see women struggle, sweat, curse and cry and we know the strength and wisdom that women bring to the world.
We have been meeting together for fifteen years. Our group has survived many ups and downs during times of conflict, and we have often feared that the group would be affected by the tensions. But we have consistently kept the lines of communication open, and our friendship has enabled us to overcome the fragility of the hostility between our nations.
On October 7, our world was shattered by the Hamas attack. We witnessed an event that was unlike anything any of us had dreamt of in our most horrific nightmares. In the days after, the retaliation of the Israeli army in Gaza was relentless and terrifying. The suffering was, and still is, heart-breaking.
At first, members of the group from both sides buried themselves in their own shock and pain. Some members left the group. Slowly, things began to change. When the shock began to thaw, we understood that there was no way to really understand the pain of the other, and that all reactions are legitimate. With time, we were able to remember why we joined this group 15 years ago, and that we still love and respect each other very much.
We met on Zoom, and expressed our emotions out loud, making space for a wide range of experiences. We understood that no one has a monopoly on suffering, and that we are all in pain, each in their one way and for their own reasons.
Aisha, one of our founding members, encouraged us with this analogy: “We are like an olive tree, rooted very strongly in the earth. We need to save our tree by understanding all the branches. One year the harvest is good, one year it is not. We can make the tree stronger by taking care of its roots. We are strong; we are women. We can take care of each other, trust one another and talk about our emotions.”
With all that we have been through, we still believe in peace and respect for all. We all have deep wounds that need to heal.
We are praying for the wisdom of a political solution to allow for peace and dignity for all Palestinians and Israelis.
We pray for the emergence of a new kind of leadership that will pave the path to a new kind of communication and thriving coexistence as neighbors.
We are hopeful that all this pain and suffering will end soon.
