Published: 18 August 2020
Last updated: 4 March 2024
THE HELICOPTER DISASTER in 1997 left 73 Israeli troops dead. It also led to the creation of Four Mothers, a movement founded by four Israeli women with sons serving in Lebanon, to protest the ongoing Israeli presence in that country.
Just over two decades later, Israel is witnessing the creation of a new protest movement, this one by Arab mothers of victims of the wave of violence and crime that has swept Arab society over the past few years.
On August 11, a march by a group of Arab mothers left Haifa’s Halisa neighbourhood for President Reuven Rivlin’s residence in Jerusalem. Leading the march was Mona Khalil, whose son Khalil, 28, was killed last June. She was joined by several other mothers whose children were also victims of violence, and by Ayman Odeh, chairman of the Arab Joint List.
FULL STORY Israeli-Arab bereaved mothers protest pandemic of violence, crime (Al-Monitor)
Son's murder spurs 'mothers' march' to Jerusalem protesting violence in Israeli Arab community (Haaretz)
Demonstration didn't draw masses, but organiser Mona Khalil isn't deterred
Photo: Arab Joint List Chairman Ayman Odeh joins Israeli-Arab mothers in a march from Haifa to Jerusalem, August 13 (Twitter/AyOdeh)
