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Women Write for Israel!
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What is this
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Mission
statement
Background
WIZO
doesn't need to be introduced. Its
primary mission is to help Jewish women all over the world and provide
for the welfare of women, children and elderly worldwide and in the
Israeli society.
But in recent years Brenda Katten,
Chairperson of WIZO's Public Affairs Department realized that in
today's information age helping Jewish women around the world must
also include the distribution of true information about Jews and about
Israel, countering Anti-Semitism and countering misinformation and
hatred of Israel. To this end for several years now Brenda writes and
WIZO issues a bi-monthly Newsletter.
Take-A-Pen
is also known of this website, as an international and multilingual
popular letter-writing website for truth-loving volunteers, Jews,
Christians, secular or of any faith, writing to the media and to
politicians for the truth and countering bias regarding Israel and the
Arabs-Israel conflict. |
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Brenda
Katten, Chairperson of WIZO's Public Affairs
Department |
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Endre Mozes,
Chairman of Take a Pen |
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Mission statement
This
Women Write for
Israel!
project is being launched by WIZO and Take-A-Pen jointly with the
ambitious mission to help women around the world to express themselves
more efficiently, particularly on Israel and on the Arabs-Israel conflict,
among others by writing letters to the media and to politicians; in order
to spread the truth, to counter ignorance, errors and misinformation, to
bring peace closer for all the women in the region and thus to make the
whole world a better place.
Ways of operation
The
Women Write for
Israel!
Project's main tools are WIZO's Newsletters and TAP's multilingual (18)
website which provides actual and factual information, addresses and all
guidance to make public letter-writing easier. But the most important
contributors of the project are to be the women membership and readers of
both WIZO and Take-A-Pen readers, who hopefully will express their views
vigorously in personal letters to media and to politicians, more
effectively through this project, than before. |
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Brenda
Katten's Newsletter |
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Winds of Change – Post Arafat
Recently I had the privilege of being
Israel’s only official representative at The
International Conference for Women Defending Peace.
Held in Geneva, under the personal initiative of Suzanne
Mubarak, wife of Egypt’s President, whose International
Peace Movement brought together some 500 women from all
over the world including many from Arab countries. Whilst not
under the official umbrella of the UN, nevertheless the
Conference opened with a message of support from the UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan, had the participation of both
former UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali and
Louise Arbour, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Having participated in five United Nations’
Conferences at the UN in New York and having led the WIZO
delegation to the “so called” UN Conference against Racism –
this conference proved to
be considerably different to the others. It was the first
time that the Palestinian issue did not dominate the
proceedings and neither did the emanating Plan of Action refer
specifically to the
Palestinians. It
was also the first time that I, representing Israel, received
warm applause for my contribution to the deliberations. Many
delegates approached me expressing interest in what Israel and
WIZO were doing to promote bridge building between our ethnic
and religious groups and the important work carried out by us
to prepare women for leadership positions. |
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Back in Israel,
the winds of change are being felt in the diplomatic
relations between Egypt and Israel. Phone
calls between the President of Egypt and our Prime
Minister are becoming more frequent and certainly warmer.
Egypt has released Azzam Azzam, an Israeli Druze accused
of spying for Israel. The two countries have signed an
agreement for establishing industrial zones in Egypt. The
Egyptian charge d’affaires - interviewed on TV - stated
that once the peace process was back on track, there would
be a dramatic improvement in diplomatic relations between
Israel and the Arab States. |
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Azzam Azzam returns to Israel after
eight years in prison in Egypt |
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Israel has agreed to the expansion of
Egyptian forces in Sinai to block the smuggling of arms to
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip after next year’s planned
disengagement. Israel’s Foreign Ministry reported a “new
atmosphere” after recent talks in Jerusalem between PM Sharon,
Foreign Minister Shalom, Egypt’s Foreign Minister, Ahmed Aboul
Gheit and intelligence chief General Suleiman.
Concurrently the UN is endeavoring to
remove itself from the brink of irrelevancy. Kofi Annan (his
own image somewhat tarnished with the “oil for food” scandal)
appointed a panel whose findings were made public in December.
Surprisingly its proposals are cause for hope. At last it has
defined terrorism as “an action that is intended to
cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians or
noncombatants when the purpose of such act, by its nature or
context, is to intimidate a population or to compel a
government or an international organization to do or abstain
from doing any act” - it goes on to say “there
is nothing in the fact of occupation that justifies the
targeting and killing of civilians”.
WINDS OF
CHANGE? – WE CAN BUT HOPE SO!
Brenda Katten |
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Letter-writing calls and letter examples:
Brenda's
Newsletter "Winds of Change – Post Arafat" you just read
above gives us several letter-writing topics and ideas, what we'll also
illustrate later with a few example letters.
Here are a few topics and
ideas you can write Your letter about:
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Winds of
change - Post Arafat opportunities and obligations
Now, post-Arafat,
there is a great opportunity to move towards peace. There is an actual
improvement in the Egypt-Israel relationship. Finally everyone with a
bit of common-sense realizes that Arafat was the main obstacle on the
way to peace. (Even to the Palestinian side it is clear now, though can
not be said openly. But facts talk: Abu Ala – alias Ahmed Qurei - and
Mahmoud Abbas – alias Abu Mazen - ousted of their government within days
after Arafat was gone all the six ministers who were known as puppets of
the past leader.)
But to actually reach peace
is not easy. For it each side must do its obligations and beyond that.
Israel has to make actual steps for peace – and is resolute to do so. Such a
step underway is the painful evacuation of forty-years-old Jewish
settlements from Ghaza in order to leave the whole Ghaza strip to the
Palestinians.
The long-due Palestinian obligation is
to make all possible efforts to stop terror, like bombarding Israeli
civilians from the territories where the Palestinians received autonomy.
Mahmoud Abbas must act against terror organizations like Hamas and
against Fattah's armed thugs like the Martyrs' Brigades. If he does not
act, he must be pressed also by The West
There is a hope now to move
towards peace. Israel is ready again for painful sacrifices, but this time the Palestinians
too must do more than empty promises, made solely in English, while in
Arabic the incitement for hatred and murder goes on.
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Write Your Own Letter on the
important subject:
Terror is
finally Defined
Fight against global terror has been hampered by
lack of a generally accepted definition of terror. "Political
correctness" says sometimes that one man's terrorist is another
man's freedom fighter - though it sounds non-sense that somebody
can call freedom fighters those Palestinian gunmen who in a
roadside ambush stopped and killed from point-blank range Tali
Hatueli (32) and her 4 little children aged 2 to 9. The Arafat
regime did call them "the best of our sons".
Now there is an official UN definition coming! The Kofi Annan-appointed
panel says:
"Terrorism is an action that is intended to cause death or
serious bodily harm to civilians or noncombatants when the
purpose of such act, by its nature or context, is to intimidate
a population or to compel a government or an international
organization to do or abstain from doing any act” - and it
goes on to say: “there is nothing in the fact of occupation
that justifies the targeting and killing of civilians”
(See the original report at:
http://www.un.org/secureworld/report3.pdf
, pp. 51-52, paras 157-164.)
Write your letter and use this new definition of terror
in every case –and there are too many – when terrorists
according to this definition are called by different
white-washing names in the media or by politicians, like:
"activists", "militants" or else.
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Another Writing
Topic: Life is beautiful in Israel
This is a right topic for
letter-writing always.
Whenever your read an
article or hear a public figure demonizing Israel or depicting life in
Israel as a horror story, you can do an important service to the truth,
writing, based on your personal experience or otherwise, that you found
Israel creative and beautiful, people are radiating a special Israeli
"joie de vivre", and in front of all the Arab hostility Israelis do not
give in to a culture of hatred but sincerely want peace. |
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Women Write for
Israel
Reader's Letter examples: |
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Letter 1
: (originally in Danish)
To: Politiken
Dear Letter
Editor (Date) December
18, 2004
Sub: Hopes for
Palestine
(or any article discussing new openings for peace)
I fully agree that after Arafat's
death there is a long-awaited opportunity to seek peace between
the Arabs and Israel. But strangely your writer wants to press
Israel only to create a Palestinian state. Your analysis ignores
facts and obvious lessons of the Oslo accord and the past 5 years.
Israel gave autonomy to
Palestinian territories and Palestinians did not try to stop their
terror, the other way round. To achieve peace between the
Palestinians and Israel this time the West has to demand also from
the Palestinians to deliver.
Israel has to make actual steps
for peace – and seems to be resolute to do so again, for example
by the painful evacuation of forty-years-old Jewish settlements
from Gaza in order to leave the whole Gaza strip to the
Palestinians.
The Palestinians have to fulfill
now their long-due obligation, they never sincerely tried, to make
all possible efforts to stop terror, like bombarding Israeli
civilians in the poor development town Sderot, from the
territories where the Palestinians received autonomy. Mahmoud
Abbas must act bravely against terror organizations like Hamas and
Fattah's armed thugs like the Martyrs' Brigades. If he does not
act, he must be pressed also by The West. When the Palestinians
will sincerely fight against their own terrorist wings, then there
will be real hope for peace.
Respectfully yours,
Astrid Nielsen
Copenhagen
(In a reader's letter you should
give your name and city; and separately your address and your
daytime contact data, like cellular phone number) |
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Letter 2
: (originally in French)
To: Le Monde
Dear Letter
Editor (Date) January
16, 2005
Sub: Hopes and fears in
Israel
(or to any article calling Palestinian terrorists by
whitewashing names like "activists" or "militants")
I fully agree with your
analysis that after Arafat's death there is a long-awaited
opportunity to seek peace between the Arabs and Israel. But peace
can not come until terror stops and your writer solves this
problem too simply; by not calling the terrorists who bombard
Israeli civilians in Sderot city what they are; "terrorists". You
call them militants" and even "Hamas activists" and that is like
white-washing murderers.
A recent UN panel appointed
by General Secretary Kofi Annan gave a clear definition to terror:
"Terrorism is an action that is intended to cause death
or serious bodily harm to civilians or noncombatants when the
purpose of such act, by its nature or context, is to intimidate a
population or to compel a government or an international
organization to do or abstain from doing any act” - and it
goes on to say: “there is nothing in the fact of occupation
that justifies the targeting and killing of civilians”.
See the original report at:
http://www.un.org/secureworld/report3.pdf , pp. 51-52,
paras. 157-164.)
According to this definition
there is no doubt that the Palestinian attackers of civilian
targets in Sderot are terrorists. It is time that Le Monde
contribute to advancement towards peace between Palestinians and
Israel by denying legitimacy to Palestinian terrorists.
Respectfully yours,
Ann-Marie Hellmann
Strasbourg
(You should give your name and
city; and separately your address and your daytime contact data,
like cellular phone number) |
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Letter 3
To: Newsweek
Dear Letter
Editor (Date) 8 January,
2005
Sub: What country is
Israel?
(or any article discussing
Israel)
The strange impression is as
if your writer in "Palestinian elections revisited" wrote about an
imaginary dark Israel she might have never seen. I have been in that country several times
and several weeks in recent years, and found a country totally
different from your picture.
Israel is not only creative in
many fields what is more known but also a beautiful country.
People are radiating a special Israeli "joie de vivre", and though
they are not too polite formally but are genuinely considerate and
helpful in major problems and towards the weaker minorities. The
most different thing from your article is that I heard from many
people from all walks of life that in front of all the endless
Arab hatred and hostility Israelis do not give in to a culture of
hatred but sincerely want peace.
Respectfully yours,
Helga Zimmermann
Dortmund,
Germany
(You should give your name and
city; and separately your address and your daytime contact data,
like cellular phone number) |
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For further
inspiration for
letter-writing you can read again Brenda's Newsletter, or look for
further ides on the whole take-A-Pen site, in any of its 18 languages
too. Many practical addresses of media, government heads, ministers and
officials and international organizations around the world you can find
on the Take-A-pen site.
Whatever topic you
choose, whatever way you write – it is good. The main thing is that
You write one short letter NOW. If many of us will do this, we can
change the world around Israel for the better.
So write Your letter
now with
Women Write for
Israel!
With any idea or
question contact
womenwrite@take-a-pen.org
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NEWS ITEMS: |
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Some background articles on the Middle East: |
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www.take-a-pen.org |
