Women Wage Peace, a grassroots peace movement formed after Operation Protective Edge in 2014, raised NIS 1 in a crowdsourcing campaign online, the NGO said in a press release on Wednesday.
The funds will allow projects to be carried out for 2021, which includes a regional peace conference and the establishment of heritage sites for coexistence and peace. “The speed at which donations were collected is proof of how much the Israeli public supports progress towards peace with our neighbors,” said Avital Brown, a member of the organization’s steering committee.
Among other uses of the money includes “a Citizens’ Cabinet to demand a solution to the problems of the residents of southern Israel, the establishment, throughout Israel, of heritage sites honoring coexistence and peace; a research-based campaign to assist in identification of beliefs and stigmas that inhibit support for peace.”
“The summer of 2021 presents us with a unique window of opportunity to step up our efforts towards a negotiated accord,” Brown added.
“Various changes and developments underway in Israel, in the region and world, such as the Abraham Accords, the re-emergence of the word ‘peace’ in public discourse, the new administration in Washington, indications from the Palestinian Authority regarding their willingness to enter into negotiation,” Brown continued. “All these, and more signal the possibility of fertile ground for progress towards a negotiated agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.”
Some 2,500 people responded and gave donations, many of whom left messages of encouragement.
Despite the coronavirus pandemic, Women Wage Peace continued to gain new members, now listed at approximately 45,000. The NGO has also worked with the UN in a consultative role, and introduced a bill to the Knesset focused on forcing the government to exhaust all political options before military actions.