"Israeli and Palestinian mothers changing reality." Political Motherhood and Peace Activism in Israel and Palestine

Just three days before the deadly Hamas attack on Israel's territory on October 7, 2023, Israeli and Palestinian women from grassroots organisations Women Wage Peace and Women of The Sun marched together under the slogan "Israeli and Palestinian mothers changing reality." The march was preceded by the release of the organisations' joint statement, The Mothers' Call, centred on "the desire to protect children on both sides." Research on women's peace activism, particularly within the Israeli-Palestinian context, demonstrates that the concept of so-called political motherhood — a politicised discursive construction of motherhood frequently utilised by feminist theorists to analyse the intersection of motherhood and political engagement — is a "double-edged sword". This dual nature arises because, within the hegemonic discourse of the symbolic gender order, both positive attributes associated with womanhood and motherhood, such as nurturing and caregiving (considered as bearers of the national collective through childbearing), as well as negative perceptions like emotionality and irrationality, are entwined. Consequently, the categories of womanhood and motherhood can simultaneously serve to both legitimise and delegitimize peace efforts. Moreover, women's peace movements, by virtue of their activism, challenge the established patriarchal gender order rooted in dichotomous categories of private (feminine, passive, irrational) versus public (masculine, active, rational). However, in the Israeli context, this subversion in the second "reading" paradoxically reproduces and solidifies traditional gender roles through the exaltation of motherhood. There exists a paradoxical notion that the potency of women's civic voice and its persuasive impact is contingent upon the fulfilment of the national mission of motherhood and procreation. The glorification of motherhood, despite its subversive intent, inadvertently reinforces certain traditional gender norms, suggesting that women's influence is most valid when aligned with the traditional roles of nurturers and bearers of the nation's future. This paper specifically examines how the Israeli grassroots peace organisation Women Wage Peace utilises political motherhood, womanhood, and sisterhood in its activities, strategies, and narratives, both preceding and following the October 7, 2023 attack and the subsequent Gaza war.