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Contact: Ellen Avraham
ellenavraham@yahoo.com
 

                               The Coalition of Women for Peace

and Isha L'Isha—Haifa Feminist Center

ISRAEL

 

Present

 

The Alternative Conference to the Herzliya Conference

in Post-War Haifa

 

Security for Whom?

 

For the past seven years, the Herzliya Conference on Israel's National Security has been held by the Institute for Policy and Strategy at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya.  The conference is designed to bring together policy makers and leading thinkers to address the key issues that affect Israel's security.

 

However, the conference offers a very limited understanding of "security"—that of the patriarchal ruling elite.  Other aspects of security, including economic security, personal safety, and the wellbeing of minorities in our society, are not included.  The speakers, predictably, reinforce the militaristic worldview that they represent.  The majority of speakers are men, and feminist views are absent from the agenda, even from the words of the few women who do address the conference.

 

In response, Isha L'Isha—Haifa Feminist Center and the Coalition of Women for Peace held an Alternative Conference in 2006.  The goal was to open up the discussion to include those issues absent from the mainstream discourse represented in Herzliya: the ways in which the ongoing violent conflict affects citizens and the price we all pay for the militaristic approach.

 

On January 23, 2007, Isha L'Isha and the Coalition of Women for Peace are holding the Second Annual Alternative Conference, entitled "Security for Whom?".  This year, it will be held in post-war Haifa.  In two sessions—"Your 'Security' Hurts Us: The Second Lebanon War and its Effects on the Lives of Women on Both Sides of the Fence" and "Not Strong Forever: The 'Security' Policy and Its Dangers"—speakers will address the war's impact on Jewish and Palestinian women, the price paid in the name of "national security", and the future dangers that await citizens of Israel and the region as a result of the continuation of the "Security" policy of the militaristic government in Israel.

 

It is our hope that the Alternative Conference will help raise these issues onto the national agenda and redefine the ways in which Israeli society thinks about security. 

 

Program schedule:

 

Security for Whom?

 

Tuesday, 23 January 2007, 16:00-20:30

Haifa Cinematheque, 142 Sderot HaNasi, Haifa

 

Moderator                    Orly Noy, Journalist

 

Opening Lecture           Security and Strength for Whom?

                                    Nabila Espanioly, Altufula Center

Dr. Dalia Sachs, University of Haifa

 

First Session                 Your "Security" Hurts Us — The Second Lebanon War and its Impact on the Lives of Women on Both Sides of the Border

 

                                    Israel Goes to War — The Decision-Making Process According to the Israeli Government

MK Zehava Galon, Meretz

 

                                    Where is Their Security? — The Economic, Occupational and Emotional Toll of the War on Disadvantaged Women in the North During the Second Lebanon War and its Aftermath: The Premier Release of the Mahut Center's Report "Living Testimony: Women in a War Economy"

Yaara Buksbaum, Mahut Center

 

Second Session            Not Strong Forever: The "Security" Policies and Their Dangers                         

 

The Demographic Threat–Who Pays the Price?

Terry Boullata, Abu Dis

 

What Do Nuclear Weapons Have to Do with Security?

Merav Dotan, Atty., Greenpeace

 

Dr. Helen Caldicott, President, Nuclear Policy Research Institute, Australia (via video)

 

More Security Like This and We've Lost — The Weakening of Civil Society in the Name of Israeli "Security"

Hedva Eyal, Isha L'Isha-Haifa Feminist Center

This program has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union.  The contents are the sole responsibility of the Coalition of Women for Peace and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union.





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