The selection was not easy. The far right proposed Elon Musk, which would be laughable if it did not reflect misguidedness or even political blindness. The vote was closer, between the suggestion of the group of liberal-centrists allied to the social democrats, opting for interference in views on the Middle East, and the conservatives of the European People’s Party who won the decision by associating with other groups rather than being part of the tripartite coalition.
Strive to be positive
As was also indicated in The Free Sophie Wilmès, vice-president of the Renaissance (Renew) group, the aim was to support two organizations of women and young people who want to get their community out of the infernal cycle of aggression/repression: Women of the Sun, a Palestinian association from the West Bank and from the Gaza Strip, working towards peace through cultural awareness; and Women wage peace, an Arab-Jewish association, for the promotion of peace through non-violence and the participation of women in negotiation processes.
Long before the war broke out, caused by the horrors committed by Hamas, these two associations concluded partnerships which they still strive to make positive, despite the dangers.
This Arab-Israeli war seems to be only a man’s affair. Women never appear in the media, except when images of victims of bombing or human distress reflect the atrocities of the conflict.
Netanyahu’s clique is male. As for Hezbollah or Iran, the consideration that we can detect for the fairer sex there is limited, as we know, to the texture of the veil.
It took decades, a few works of fiction, reports and testimonies on daily life and support for the economy for us to discover the work of women from 14-18, while husbands were dying in the trenches. .
Bet on the future
To honor the duo formed by Women of the Sun and Women Wage Peace would have been to bet on the future, to demonstrate that there remains a glimmer of possible peaceful coexistence through and beyond the frightening tragedies and infamous monstrosities. Convince and persuade that fear contains hope while the disgust aroused by murderous stubbornness can disintegrate without betraying memory.
Gaza: are we implicit anti-Semites?
The European Parliament missed an opportunity to write itself into immediate history by opening a different window on a conflict which is bogged down in a sort of impasse marked by contempt and disgust. The Sakharov Prize award ceremony will take place on December 18 in Strasbourg. On that day, if Maria Machado will still be crowned with the Vaćlav Havel Human Rights Prize with which the Council of Europe honored her a few weeks earlier, if Edmundo Urrutia will return to Spain where he obtained the asylum, there is no doubt that during the speeches and congratulations, children and women will still be killed by gunfire and bombs, in the dust of a Middle East where the word peace must always keep meaning, if only to preserve human dignity.
