WITS END - JO LEE Magazine

POLITICALLY RED
By
Lani Silver
San Francisco - California
Lani Silver - historian, artist, free-lance writer, and Lecturer with the American
Program Bureau. {Gorbachev’s bureau, Desmond Tutu, Betty Williams & Oscar
Arias}. For 16 years, Lani directed San Francisco's landmark Holocaust Oral
History Project, conducting l,700 oral histories with Holocaust survivors and
witnesses. Lani and her partner, historian Eric Saul, discovered the story of Chiune
Sugihara, who is called "The Japanese Schindler." Lani became Steven Spielberg's
first consultant and trainer for his Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation.
54,000 testimonies. Lani is currently the Project Director for the James Byrd Jr.
Racism Oral History Project. byrdfound@juno.com
WOMEN
PRO-PALESTINIAN AND PRO-ISRAELI
AT THE SAME TIME
Have you ever noticed on television and newspapers that
when there are images of gatherings or rallies in Arab
countries they’re all men? We see women when they are
veiled and weeping. This got me thinking: where are all the
women? So what does the role of women have to do with the
Middle East crisis and what are the ramifications of their
absence?
First off, there aren’t many Middle Eastern women leaders,
Arab or Israeli. Secondly, too many women are oppressed.
Not only in Arab countries but everywhere. But more to the
point here is what would be different, if we brought women’s
voices to the table.
What would women bring to the Middle East conflict if they
were allowed to? What would be different? Women might
well have the answer to the crisis.
My point? Women could help. Gender roles have been
politicized and entrenched in the Middle East and now the
stakes are higher than ever. It appears to me that we are
seeing male and female ways of managing conflict, and I’m
not liking the male way so much these days. It’s all kind of
scary and aggressive.
Women have a nuance way of thinking about conflict, one
that includes emotional realizations. Women’s views are
textured. They talk about compromise and flexibility.
Upheaval isn’t simple; people are not necessarily friends or
foe. There are shades of gray.
Compromise is effective and practical. Women pay attention
to suffering. They don’t seem to be coming from anger or
hate, as much. They’re empathetic. They understand all
suffering.
In fact, when I think about it, the wave of fundamentalism
that has swept the globe is in large measure a reaction to the
liberation of women and the excesses of capitalism. I
understand part of it - we all recoil at certain excesses. But
now we are left with an imperfect, tangled karmic loop,
which has relegated women to a lesser role. It takes an open
mind to be Pro-Palestinian and Pro-Israeli.
Let’s correct that, while we can.
94 JO LEE
SUMMER 2007