A Space for Peace: National identity in Israeli and Palestinian women's dialogue.

Nedanstående innehåll är skapat av Mimers Brunns besökare. Kommentera arbete

The importance of gender differences during conflict and peace-building have raised as a specific area of study both in the academy as well as among global institutions such as the UN. Among those, there is almost a pre-assumption that strengthening women?s movements is positive for a peaceful and just solution. However, they fail to address the complex relationships between the conflicting parties. Women and their identities are highly influenced by the conflictive society they live in and by participating in border-crossing activities, they carry multiple identities that get de- and re-constructed during such activities. The aim of this study is to focus on the intersectionality, de- and reconstruction between gender- and national identities during such activities, using the case of the Jerusalem Link. Through the use of focus-group meetings and interviews with Palestinian and Israeli women active in the Link, I attempt to build an alternative understanding of the processes involved in peace-building initiatives. Women enter into a political group like the Jerusalem Link because of different motives and with different experience, privileges and power. While for some of the Israeli women, the Jerusalem Link is a mean to deconstruct their national boundaries in favor of a feminist identity, for many of the Palestinian women, the Link becomes a way for strengthening their national identity through the meeting with the ?othe...