‘I realised it has been easier for me to talk to those who are furthest away’

EETTA PRINCE-GIBSON: Women Wage Peace reach out to religious women at the West Bank settlement of Tekoa in a bid to find common ground.

As the chartered bus bringing about 30 women from Women Wage Peace (WWP) comes closer to its destination, the lively, friendly chatter quiets down. The Israeli feminist peace group is headed to Tekoa, a settlement in the West Bank, part of its "Journey to Peace”, a month-long event in venues throughout Israel and the West Bank, co-sponsored by WWP and Women of the Sun, a recently-founded Palestinian feminist peace movement.

For some of the women from WWP, this is their first time in a settlement in the territories. Before they get off the bus, one of the leaders of the group takes the microphone and says, gently yet deliberately, that she knows that this could be a difficult meeting for some.

"It's OK to have an opinion," she says. "It's OK to discuss, to argue. We are here to build connections. We are all built differently, and each of us will think what it means to her to create connections and what the best solution for this day is for her."

Women of the Sun did not attend this meeting in the settlement, but their logo, in Arabic, appears prominently on the signs hung up by women from WWP. As part of the shared "journey", the Palestinians have invited the Israeli women to Beit Jalla, near Bethlehem, next week.

About 20 women from Tekoa greet the women from WWP as they arrive, inviting them to a spread of salads, vegetables and breads. They mingle, the women from WWP in white with their trademark long turquoise scarves, the women from Tekoa with head coverings. Overall, the women from WWP look older, most seemingly at least in their fifties, while the women from Tekoa seem younger, in their thirties and forties.

Aliyat Nissat, 48, is dressed in the tight black hijab and embroidered blouse that identify her as a Bedouin. She is from Bosmat Tiv'on, a village in northern Israel.  She is, she says, a member of WWP, which includes Arab women from within Israel.  At the beginning, she was frightened about coming to the settlement, she says, "but I see how they have welcomed us, and I feel comfortable.