Thousands of women demonstrate for peace in Jerusalem

Thousands of women gathered in Jerusalem on Wednesday to demonstrate in favour of peace and protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress.

Women Wage Peace, an organisation set up in the wake of Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip last summer, drew a crowd of more than 3,000 women, including both Jews and Arabs, religious and secular, to the Knesset Rose Garden after a march through the city from Independence Hall, the location where Israel's independence was originally declared.

"Israel is stuck in a barren dialogue with itself that there is no choice and no partner," said Irit Keynan, head of the Institute for Civic Responsibility.

[Translation: Thousands of Israelis call for a peace agreement with the Palestinians]

"Politicians who are uninterested in peace hold onto weak excuses and raise the ghosts of the Jewish people's traumatic fears."

She said that decades of warlike discourse had infused the word “peace” with negative connotations and made it akin to an insult in Israel.

"Without a diplomatic agreement with our Palestinian neighbours, without ending the conflict, the Zionist vision is doomed to failure," she added, "and with it all, the wonderful achievement we made here during 67 years of Israel's existence."

"We've suffered through enough wars. Among us are young women, mothers and grandmothers, people who will raise our children - the next generation of soldiers who will be forced to go to war. It's enough!"

The group began their journey in Tel-Aviv on Tuesday where their protests coincided with Netanyahu’s speech to the US Congress, where he was attempting to shore up opposition to alleged Iranian plans to construct nuclear weapons.

“He is talking in Washington in English, and we have chosen to speak in Jerusalem in Hebrew and Arabic,” said Michal Shamir, a founding member of the organisation and the director of the School of Art, Social Studies and Culture at Sapir Academic College in the southern town of Sderot, a frequent target of Hamas rockets from Gaza, on Tuesday.

“We’re not about white flowing dresses and tree hugging,” she added. “In fact, most of us are way too old to be hippies. We’re about doing practical things.”

Michal Keidar, the widow of Dolev Keidar – an Israeli army colonel killed during the ground invasion of Gaza – also sent a message from America on Wednesday.

"I tried not to care about what is happening in this country. I really tried," she wrote. "I thought the only privilege given me on July 21 was apathy about the economic situation, after years of getting irritated and hurting about the racism, the wars and the lack of hope spreading here," she stated, referring to the date her husband was killed.

"I lost the only man I loved in the madness of this country," said Keidar. "And then came the elections, and I realised that I didn't even have this privilege."

"Dolev gave his life for this country," she added. "The least I expect of you is to sit and think who has the best chance of giving us hope for a quiet, normal life, and go vote."

The war in Gaza last summer - codenamed Operation Protective Edge - costs the lives of more than 2,100 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and 73 Israelis, mostly soldiers.

At the time, anti-war demonstrations in Israel were rare, and when they were staged they were often attacked by far-right gangs.