Italian Women in Black Join the BDS Campaign

We are part of the international network of Women in Black, our action in the world is to oppose war and every kind of violence, in the conviction that every conflict can be dealt with by dialogue and respect for human, social, and political rights.

For more than twenty years, we have been committed to a just peace in the Middle East, a peace that applies international law, putting an end to the Israeli colonial policies and to the continuing violence, suffering and collective punishments that have been imposed on the Palestinian population by the Israeli government, by settlers and by the Israeli army in the framework of the illegal occupation of Palestinian territories , apartheid policies and the siege of Gaza.


We have travelled many times to that land and we have listened to Israeli and Palestinian women, we have worked with them to try to create or strengthen relationships.

The Israeli Women in Black was formed at the very start of the first Intifadah, opposing the occupation that their government was determined to continue, and at the same time founding our movement. In Italy, we have supported their struggle and that of the Palestinian women.

We have been to checkpoints to protest with them, we have taken part in international delegations in support of the peace movement and of the non-violent struggle of the Palestinian population. After the massacre in Gaza in 2008/09, in which the Israeli army were involved in very serious war crimes (1400 dead, including 400 children), the situation became much more serious.

For this reason, we have decided, after a long, considered and often painful discussion, to join the world BDS campaign (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions). Launched in 2005 by Palestinian civil society, the Boycott National Committee (BNC) is made up of more than 170 Palestinian organisations, committees, parties and trade unions. The campaign is supported by associations, movements and even some governmental institutions in Europe and the rest of the world.

We also support the Palestinian Authority's campaign "Your conscience, your choice" for a boycott of products within the occupied territories, enacted by a law that prohibits the distribution and consumption of products from the illegal Israeli settlements and by the mobilisation of thousands of young women and men with whom the BNC collaborates.

Lastly, we support the campaign “Boycott from Within”, launched in support of BDS by a large range of non-violent associations in Israel, including the Coalition of Women for Peace and the Israeli section of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.

• Boycott is a non-violent practice of non-collaboration with injustice.
  


• Economic boycott is practiced against goods produced in illegal Israeli settlements and on goods produced by firms or multinational companies that support the occupation. Citizens and consumers refuse to buy certain goods produced without respect for human rights, labour rights, or environmental norms, and demand the full application of the terms of commercial agreements between the EU and Israel and respect for international law.
  


• Cultural boycott denounces agreements of universities, local authorities and other Italian institutions for technological, scientific and cultural collaboration with Israeli institutions who are involved in the occupation. The government of Israel actually uses universities, film, literature and tourism to promote an image of a normal country, living in peace, happy and democratic, which seeks to hide the image of an occupying power that oppresses and systematically violates the rights of the Palestinian people. Of course, cultural boycott should not be applied to those who support the application of international law and the non-violent struggle against military occupation.
  


• As Italian citizens, we call for the abrogation of the military agreements with the State of Israel. The current collaboration of the Italian state with an oppressive regime is a green light for further crimes and violations of the rights of the Palestinian people.
  

The boycott is not directed against the Israeli population and certainly not against Jews as a whole, but against the Israeli government, against the occupation of the Palestinian territories, against the ever growing colonial settlements, against the war economy. We also link the boycott to initiatives for the right to study for young Palestinians. We are determined to maintain are links with Palestinian and Israeli women who support the BDS campaign and to promote interventions by them in Italy.

We believe that BDS is necessary instrument to stop the colonial expansionist Israeli policies, a means of holding Israel and the international community responsible for the violations of international law and human rights. We believe it is also a means of communication for spreading the work about what is happening in the West Bank and Gaza.

A race against death for Nasrin Sotoudeh

The Italian Women in Black support the appeal to the Iranian government launched by the Iranian Nobel peace laureate, Shirin Ebadi, for the release of Nasrin Sotoudeh, lawyer and human rights activist, who has been in prison for more than three months and who has now started her third hunger strike.

For the Iranian regime, Nasrin Sotoudeh is 3 times guilty:


Guilty of being a woman of conviction


Guilty of being a human rights lawyer.


Guilty of daring to speak out against the regime

Shirin Ebadi and another six signatories of the appeal for Nasrin Sotoudeh's release, among them well known Iranian women's rights activists, have stated that on 20th December, they will start a vigil outside the offices of the UN in Geneva and remain until their colleague Nasrin Sotoudeh is released from Evin jail where she is being held in solitary confinement.

The life of Nasrin Sotoudeh, lawyer, defender of human rights and activist for women's rights, is in grave danger. Nasrin Sotoudeh was arrested by the Iranian authorities on September 4th 2010 for her human rights work and she has now been in prison for more than 103 days. The prosecutor has accused this courageous lawyer of propaganda against the state and activities against national security. According to the Iranian penal code, charges should be brought within a maximum of seven days after the conclusion of the preliminary investigations.

In addition, according to the Iranian penal code, it is illegal to hold a detainee in solitary confinement after charges have been brought and after the start of the trial. But Ms Sotoudeh has been in solitary confinement since the first day of her imprisonment and repeated requests by herself and her lawyer have been ignored. As a consequence Ms Sotoudeh decided to start a hunger strike to protest against the non-application of the law and has been on dry hunger strike since December 4th.

However, in addition to ignoring her requests, the judicial authorities have brought new charges against her, accusing her, for example, of not respecting the islamic veil.

We, a group of women's rights activists, signatories of this communique, who have either had the honour of working with this courageous lawyer for many years or have been helped by her, in order to express our solidarity with Nasrin and in protest at the violation of her rights, will start a vigil at the headquarters of the UNO in Geneva on December 20th.

We appeal to all who love freedom, to women's rights activists, to members of the universal family of human rights, inviting them to join us in calling for the immediate release of Nasrin Sotoudeh, in any possible way - by joining our vigil, sending emails and protest letters to the Iranian government, holding protests at Iranian embassies. We ask for your help in reaching the whole world with the voice of justice for our friend in prison.

Signatories: Shirin Ebadi, Khadijeh Mogaddam, Mansoureh Shojaee, Parvin Ardalan, Shadi Sadr, Asieh Amini, Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh

Nasrin Sotoudeh: Lawyer, Activist, Mother

Shirin Ebadi has also called for an avalanche of letters to be sent to the Iranian authorities and to our own governments. You can send a letter from here:

http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/6160/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4638

Meeting with Martha Giralda from Ruta Pacifica

We were five women of Women in Black from Bologna, two from Ravenna, three from Padova, one from Turin, and one from Verona, in addition to Martha. We are all very happy to have been in this meeting and to have met Martha: she is a calm but determined woman with whom we felt immediate sympathy. She does not hide problems but addresses them with clarity, looking for a solution.

In the introduction, made by Patricia, some points were outlined, that were later taken up again by Martha, setting out the situation in Colombia from the women’s point of view:

• The women from Ruta are trying to rebuild the relationships with the Organización Femenina Popular, even while acknowledging some persistent differences in point of view: Ruta is deeply opposed to all the armed actors (military, paramilitary, guerrilla), while O.F.P. has met with men of both the guerrilla and paramilitaries.

• The former President Uribe tried to involve some representatives of women’s organizations in his politics. Two women accepted to be part of the governmental commission on the Justice and Peace Law that deals with war crimes, while Ruta refuses such involvement.

• Some women’s organizations do not want to put violence against women, practised by all the armed actors, at the core of their politics.

Martha communicated immediately that the International Encuentro will be in Bogota from 15-10 August 2011. Ruta will organize, after the Encuentro, a tour of the 9 regions in which Ruta has a presence. It will be an inexpensive tour so that women coming to the Encuentro will be able to gain a better knowledge of the country and of the places where the armed conflict most damages the lives of women and people.

Ruta wants to take advantage of every journey women make in order to prepare the August international Encuentro, to understand why, till now, the response has been so weak, and to stimulate participation.

Martha in her thanks defined Italian WiB as a pillar of the women’s movement against war. That is the reason the Colombian women expected a lot of Italian women (as also women from Spain) to participate in the encuentro planned for this November (2010). Women living in conflictual countries (Palestine, Afghanistan, Sahrawi, Congo, Colombia….) especially need support for their struggle through initiatives of political pressure and protection. The support should aim to make more visible the problems experienced by women in those difficult places (for example, we should not forget what is happening to Palestinian women) and to amplify the value of their actions.

Political pressure and initiative in our countries can give them the strength to acquire more political influence in their country and can produce a “humanitarian corridor” that gives them protection. For example, the women of Ruta, being secular, have no protection – not even by the Church. So it is important that a large number of international women will attend the Encuentro they are organizing. Their actions expose them, and increase the risk to their safety and their lives. If the number of the international participants is low, their position is weakened; if it is high, it affords them protection, strength and recognition. This is why it was necessary to postpone the International Encuentro from November until August. It is also the reason this one in August cannot and must not fail.

They hope that international initiatives will involve creative non-violent direct action against war, actions that will be carried out in different cities worldwide, every month, after we have decided together the contents and the schedule. There are some very creative young women in the Ruta to whom they give the space to do NVDA. Sometimes the young women find it difficult to understand why we fight against war and not for peace, and this can be interpreted as a feminist interpretation of war.

Martha gave two examples of non-violent direct action. One was performed by themselves in Colombia when, taking advantage of a curve in the road, they inserted into a military parade a tank covered with flowers and firing flowers, pictures of which were conveyed worldwide. Another was realized in Spain and in Belgium, in which a group of women went with children into the toy department of a big store (in a shopping centre). The children fired with a red water pistol, ‘shooting’ the women who fell on the ground.

We need to generate shared thoughts and actions if we are to give more visibility and strength to the movement. With this aim it should be possible to announce a competition of ideas for non-violent direct action and performances and to organize workshops on non-violence and its practice. We should commemorate certain historical events when freedom and dignity were won without bloodshed, incidents that are little known, especially by young people. In this way we can transmit values to them.

About the XVth International Encuentro of Women in Black, Martha stressed above all that it is the first time that the Encuentro is to be held in a country outside Europe (or not directly linked with Europe, like Israel), but rather in a Latin American country that has seen the maximum of violence and war, and where the human rights defenders suffer continuously from aggression against them.

She then set out the five thematic strands proposed for the Encuentro:

• First Strand: Militarized security, armaments and women’s protection. How feminism interprets the security politics in the current world (militarisms, arms race, wars in the global south, arms in the global north, protection of women).

• Second Strand: Justice for war crimes and human rights violations against women. Experiences in “ad hoc” Courts and International Criminal Court.

• Third Strand: Reading of actual conflicts by feminisms. Armed conflict; religious conflict; illegal economies; sexism and xenophobia.
  

• Fourth Strand: Transforming actions or practices of women in response to challenges. Meeting of the participants to discuss the strategies that move women and transformative actions by women.

• Fifth Strand: The challenge of Women in Black. How do we interpret ourselves and how do we answer. Balance of Women in Black.

For each strand there will be: an introduction done by a woman (for the first one they are thinking of Luisa Morgantini, who has already been informed and has accepted); then workshops; and finally a report-back to plenary.

The fourth strand is designed to help us to get to know each other, to recall different historical memories, to discover how we are each interpreting our own realities, and the external realities of other countries. We are interested in the achievements of women, and particularly of WiB, in each country. We should accord full value to our practices and initiatives. About this, Martha said that when she goes to another country, she notices the importance of WiB in that country, while the WiB women themselves cannot perceive it. She said, “Unfortunately you Europeans think Europe as a country for old people!”.

The work and related conclusions of all themes should merge in the fifth one and in the final plenary, when we will take decisions.

We must ascribe value to the non-violent actions that we undertake: war takes away dignity and freedom, while the non-violent actions can by contrast add to freedom and dignity.

Women from OFP will be invited to the Encuentro because they are members of the Women in Black network.

In preparation for the Encuentro, the Colombian women ask that we discuss, both at local and national level, the proposed five thematic strands, and send our findings out on the international e-mail network. For them, the worst thing about their initiative last November was the silence: Ruta now ask us to break this silence, to write, even as individuals, expressing our difficulties (economic difficulties, difficulties related to the relationships between the Colombian women, or any others) and to state our intention to participate.

Ruta have pinpointed twenty women whose participation in the Encuentro they consider to be very important, but who cannot afford the expense of travel and registration. They should be “adopted” by international women (indeed some already have been). Ruta are prepared to manage the money involved in that.

Deadlines:

We WiB present in Bologna decided to start a fund raising to adopt some women coming from “difficult places”; we should send what we collect to Ruta by February.

Registration for the Encuentro must be done by March and will be published on the international network in order to attract others to participate – they call this “animar la fiesta” – livening up the party.