I was happy to read that this week President Barack Obama will welcome leaders from the Middle East to the White House to resume peace talks. AAUW’s upcoming delegation trip to Israel makes these hopeful whispers of change on the horizon even more exciting.
Of course, our delegates won’t be the dark suits behind closed doors. We’ve lined up eight fantastic days of dialogue, social events, and experiences.
Spend time in the culture-rich cities of Haifa, Tiberias, and Jerusalem. Meet with leading political and professional women, including two Israel Prize laureates, and be in the company of Rivka Carmi, a barrier breaker in her own right. As the first female president of an Israeli university, Carmi will join me in leading our group’s adventures as we explore one of the world’s most intriguing places.
If this sounds like the trip of a lifetime, let me tell you, it is. This is an opportunity not only to discover Israel, but also to build a personal community among AAUW members and some incredible Israeli women.
We’re excited to extend one last invitation for you to join us, but time is of the essence—September 3 is the deadline to sign up.
Here are some logistics: We leave for Tel Aviv on October 3, and return to the United States on October 11. All the arrangements are being coordinated by Professionals Abroad, a Washington, D.C.-based division of Academic Travel Abroad. This 60-year-old company has arranged trips for organizations such as National Geographic, the Smithsonian Institution, the American Museum of Natural History, and many top universities, so we’re confident that this trip will be hassle-free and worth every penny.
To gear up for our adventure, AAUW has selected some excellent reads:
- The Jewish Agency for Israel gives telling statistics about the state of women’s employment in Israel, including one that reveals that only 2 percent of women serve in positions of senior management or as directorates of large companies. The website also has information on programs working to change the status quo.
- Learn about Alice Miller, a 23-year-old who paved the way for Israeli women to become pilots, and more about the history of women in Israel’s military from Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
- In 2003, one Israeli woman marched to protest cuts to programs that helped single mothers. Find out how the Israel Women’s Network joined the struggle against women’s poverty.
- Check out the International Women’s Commission, a group of women leaders, many of whom are Israeli and Palestinian, who are dedicated to establishing peace in the region.
We realize that this geographical area evokes strong emotions in many people. This delegation does not represent an endorsement of any position or government in the region; rather, this trip is part of our rich tradition of opening opportunities for dialogue and action, bringing the world back home, and building a global community of women.
AAUW is fortunate to have the accomplished Rivka Carmi joining us. Before becoming president of Ben-Gurion University in 2005, Carmi was the first woman to serve as the university’s dean of the faculty of health sciences. A pediatrician and geneticist, her research has resulted in important discoveries and contributions to the field of genetic diseases.
So join me, meet Carmi, and prepare to build relationships, community, and understanding on our journey in Israel.
To Linda Hallman:
I agree in every detail with Sarah Alibabaie’s comments. AAUW’s efforts and concerns need to be directed to learning about the existing denial of human rights to, and the ethnic cleansing of, the people of Palestine, not just “dialogue” with Israeli women. The trip that AAUW members evidently made to Tiberias, Jerusalem, Haifa, etc. showed you nothing of the West Bank and living conditions there. I can only imagine what you characterize as “excellent reads” by the Jewish Agency for Israel and Israel’s Agency of Foreign Affairs told the travelers about their trip.
AAUW ought to be interested in peace and justice in Israel/Palestine for ALL their peoples. I urge you to do further reading, e.g., Susan Abulhawa’s Mornings in Jenin, and Mark Braverman’s Fatal Embrace, for a more enlightened view. I also urge that you go again to the region with a different itinerary so that you can speak with the Palestinian political and professional women who are “imprisoned” in their own country, as well as the Israelis.
Many thanks to Sarah Alibabaie from Oregon for this conversation.
Nancy Maclay (Pennsylvania)
Hi Nancy,
Thanks for your comment in support there; I meant to respond so long ago but have been traveling for months! I’m going to check out those books you mentioned myself since I haven’t read those yet.
I also hope AAUW arranges an itinerary in the future that will link women of AAUW with Palestinian women and explore how we can work together towards peace and liberation for all.
Peace,
Sarah
[...] AAUW: Take the Trip of a Lifetime—To Israel [...]
Sarah, we believe it is utterly important to establish international relationships that encourage dialogue, particularly because understanding different perspectives about longstanding controversies is an important part of learning how to deal with them. The AAUW delegation to Israel facilitates members’ discussions with diverse leaders in the Middle East, which will certainly help us gain deeper understanding of their perspectives on the challenges in the region and potential for creative solutions. Will our delegation bring about peace in this troubled region? Of course not. Will we establish relationships with other women, one on one, and in turn seed further dialogue? Quite possibly.
That possibility is the driving force of this trip – not our desire to give a stamp of approval for any government or political agenda. AAUW is excited to talk with anyone and everyone interested in advancing women – in Israel, Palestine, or Lebanon – and we want this delegation to be informed on how women in the region are joining together to develop positive strategies to impact the region’s problems. In our pre-reads for attendees, we made it a point to include the International Women’s Commission, a group made up of both Israeli and Palestinian women who are dedicated to establishing peace in the region.
You are right in noting that the itinerary doesn’t mention Palestine, but that’s not to say it won’t. Indeed, we purposely saved defining the discussion until we knew the interest and expertise of the participants, especially because each delegation participant is invited to speak or conduct a workshop. This truly will be an opportunity for AAUW members to engage in personal face-to-face dialogue on issues that are unique to our group, making this delegation about relationships, not politics.
No matter what, AAUW will continue to advance the status of women around the world. In fact, AAUW is currently the only nonprofit invited to participate in an expert group meeting on women and girls in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Our Chief of Staff will represent AAUW in October at the meeting and we have provided an informational ‘white paper’ to inform the discussion. The truth is, there is controversy wherever we go in the world, but controversy should not deter inquiry and engagement. For AAUW, it’s not about differences; our travel focus is on what we have in common – a strong desire to break through barriers for women and girls.
Hi Linda,
Thanks for your response. I see where you’re coming from in terms of the inclusion of some reading material for the delegates, and some activities that are supposed to expose them to diverse views and realities.
The usage of “controversy” throughout your comment is interesting to me, and I think have a different view on what “controversial” would be in this situation. This itinerary does not differ very much from other itineraries I’ve seen for American institutions going to the region, i.e. it basically focuses on Israel and at the same time ignores (by not naming) the occupation and apartheid created and enforced by its government on a daily basis. For this reason, since this is the American norm for dealing with the area, I wouldn’t call this trip controversial; thus my comment was not reacting to controversy, contrary to what you seem to think I was reacting to.
Instead, I think my objection is viewed as controversial by you. I’m sorry if you think that I am against controversy and somehow shying from “inquiry and engagement” by objecting to this itinerary, and I assure you that is not the case. I was in a position a few years ago in college of explaining and defending the visit of a controversial speaker on the subject of Israel and Palestine precisely in terms of the value of hearing information NOT often inquired about, NOT often engaged with, here in the United States. To me, challenging the status quo, calling things into question, calling things like they are, and taking action to set a new standard would be truly “controversial”–in a case like this, that would mean AAUW drastically modifying or canceling the itinerary, or at least speaking up about apartheid and inequality and acknowledging “Palestine.” Even without disengaging completely with the occupiers, there is still the chance to engage with the occupied. And although right now this is a chance that AAUW is missing, there is still time to change and resources to do it, if the will is there (http://www.pirt.ps/).
Another note about the usage, in terms of referring in the first paragraph to the situation there as a “longstanding controversy”: I would not call what is going on there a “controversy”–but I would call it many other things–ethnic cleansing, colonialism, uneven war, occupation, apartheid.
Sincerely,
Sarah
Sarah,
AAUW understands and appreciates the perspectives you have shared. I used the word controversial to describe our trip because it has sparked meaningful debate over the potential implications of AAUW travel and the Palestine-Israel conflict. However, it is not our intention to get involved in a back-and-forth on this trip’s merits; that’s been established. In the spirit of debate that shakes up the status quo, we continue to welcome your feedback with open ears and ready pens.
The trip may not be consciously set up to endorse any particular point of view, but without expressly speaking and acting out against the political realities–that is, of occupation and apartheid–or without meeting with people in Israel with the goal of speaking out, this trip by AAUW shows a default acceptance of that reality.
Similarly, while the acknowledgement in this blog post of the new talks as good signs of change is an effort to show that AAUW wants peace, the reality is that the only change these talks will bring about, unless people of conscience such as officers and members AAUW speak and act up, is a change towards greater inequality between Israelis and Palestinians.
Both of these expressions by AAUW about this trip are extremely CASUAL references. This is more than disappointing to me, it is upsetting.
For example, the language about opening up and building dialogue, community, etc with Israeli women, when Palestinians are cut off from their own families by the apartheid wall strikes me as ill-informed and insensitive. The extra engagement that it takes to dialogue and build community around a barrier such as the wall is not something that AAUW seems to be willing to take the steps to do.
On the itinerary page, http://professionalsabroad.org/itinerary?program=AAUW&itinerary=AAUW , the words “Palestine” and “Palestinian” do not appear even once. Do they not exist?! This is evidence that the lip service in the announcements of the trip do not bear out in the true nature of the trip.
I believe the implications of this trip were not fully thought out, and at a time when the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement is gaining real ground, AAUW should take a stand for all women of the region and not associate with institutions that support and collaborate with the Israeli state and its apartheid policies.
Would AAUW have run a trip like this to South Africa during its apartheid days?
It’s true that traveling to Israel and Palestine can be the trip of a lifetime–I volunteered in the area for a short two months in the summer of 2008, and it did change my life, but that’s because I made the choice to interact with both Israelis and Palestinians all over the country and in the Occupied Territories on an individual level.
I have been unable to ascertain whether AAUW boycotted apartheid South Africa, but I truly believe that sisters in AAUW, at this time and this stage in history, can take a stand for peace and justice right now by canceling this Israel itinerary that masks the illegal and inhumane actions of the Israeli state.
Sincerely, Sarah Alibabaie (Oregon)