‘Women in Black is just one of the civil society voices, Israeli as well as Palestinian, who are challenging the occupation but the space for civil society is shrinking.’
Every Friday lunchtime, a group of elderly Israeli women stand quietly for an hour on a central Jerusalem junction holding small signs and banners. Although quiet, their presence provokes a lot of hostility. Their message? ‘Stop the Occupation’. They tell us they have been called many names from fellow Israeli citizens including ‘Nazi whores’, ‘whores of Arafat’,’ traitors’, as well as simply, ‘Christians’ even though they are almost all Jewish.