BOOK: Sixty Years, Sixty Voices; Israeli & Palestinian Women's Stories

By Patricia Smith Melton

Sixty Years, Sixty Voices carries the voices of 30 Israeli women and 30 Palestinian women who share their wisdom, experiences, points of view, wounds, and joys. Their stories show the richness of female minds and hearts and demonstrate that women are those best prepared to reach across differences and build peace on mutual goals. We invite you to get to know them. We invite you to become inspired.

2008 is celebrated by Israelis as the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel. It is lamented by Palestinians as the 60th year of the Naqbah, the catastrophe. Negotiating between the different narratives, we asked repeatedly, “Is peace possible?” Every woman said yes. Their words are proof that Palestinian and Israeli women, in all their diversity, can bring peace to the Holy Land of the Abrahamic religions of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity.

Apart from a shared commitment to peace, the women share concern for the health and well being of children, the need for economic development, the inadequacy of politicians, and the need to stop violence in all its forms.

These “ordinary extraordinary” 60 women, from all social strata, professions, and political belief, share daily experiences and seasoned wisdom. They are joined by other women also interviewed in Palestine and Israel whose work, ideas, and beliefs highlight women's unique capacity for creation and rebirth under the most trying circumstances.

Now is the time and peace is the way.

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