Rabbi Nava Hefetz
6
Please tell me about the women's group.
Palestinian and Israeli women have been meeting every two weeks since the end of August. The meetings are aimed at both learning and trying to create a group that will then go on and do joint projects. It's extremely difficult. I found the donor, I mean, I bring in the money and through me the money goes to the Palestinian organization. That already creates asymmetry and it's not a good situation. I try very hard to ensure we do everything together. So, we have two coordinators, we construct the program together, and yet there is still the sense that "You [Israelis] are controlling the program and we [Palestinians] are being controlled." There's nothing we can do about that because they'll feel that way until a sovereign Palestinian state is established and it will no longer be possible to say there is an occupation. But [that sentiment] won't go away until that happens. What are we doing? What kind of discourse are we introducing to our respective communities? Is this discourse different from what we're hearing today? How will I, as a graduate of the program, continue and keep working? The Achilles' heel of all these programs is that they don't have follow up meetings. This is why the women's group will begin to plan ongoing joint projects.