Although formal negotiations to end apartheid in South Africa were dominated by men, women were active at a grassroots level. Beyond the famous Women’s March to the Union Buildings, they were leaders in the struggle for freedom and peace. The lesson is that women have a role to play in the peace-building process, whether in South Africa or elsewhere.
Alison Lazarus is a member of the Pretoria-based South African Women in Dialogue (SAWID). As determined as she is that the genocide in Palestine must be ended, she believes women should be part of the process to bring about a lasting solution of peace.
In an interview on Salaamedia, she said the status quo was about “those who have access to violence, creating the havoc that gets them a seat at the table, and then they do deal-making”.
Instead, she suggested, what the world desperately needed was localised peace-building with particular emphasis on the voices of women affected by conflict.
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Local peace-building
“Peace has to be made on the ground,” said Lazarus, adding there needed to be “women who play that really important role of building sustainable peace. When all the others jet out of the country, it’s themselves who have to live and make peace together”.
She said what was unfolding in Palestine was the wiping out of the future of an entire people. That is why SAWID advocates not merely for humanitarian pauses, but “an end to the genocide”.
“We’re not only saying end the hostilities and the violence, because they’re structural violence. Genocide also happens in a structural way. That is structural violence that actually continues the genocide because you can’t reassemble your people, you can’t rebuild your community, you can’t build your tribe, you can’t build your cultural group”.
While Hamas and Israel on Wednesday announced a four-day truce that would see the supply of humanitarian aid, the return of a handful of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for hostages, this was not the end.
“We are not going to tolerate just dealmaking. We will do what we usually do: listen to what the women of Palestine and the peace-loving women of Israel see as their future. We will promote a just peace. We will attack impunity with our hearts and our souls,” said Lazarus.
