Women for Israel's Tomorrow
Encyclopedia
Women for Israel's Tomorrow is a right-wing
political women's group in Israel
. It is more commonly known as Women in Green (WiG) (Hebrew: נשים בירוק) due to its followers' "custom" of wearing green hats, in contrast to the older left-
wing anti-war organization Women in Black
.
WiG is a registered non-profit organization founded in 1993, and is not affiliated with any political party. According to the group's website, the movement is "dedicated to the security and Jewish heritage of historic Israel". It is opposed to a two-state solution
; that is, the creation of a Palestinian state
alongside, and mutually recognizant with, Israel. The group particularly opposes the return of land captured in the Six Day War of 1967, and aggressively supports Israeli settlement
of those territories, which it proposes should be annexed
. WiG also opposed Israeli military withdrawal from southern Lebanon
in 2000.
Ruth and Nadia Matar, co-chairwomen of WiG, argue in Transfer of Arabs is the Only Solution for Peace that Arab
s in the "Holy Land
" are descended from relatively recent immigrants, and favor their "transfer
" to the neighboring Arab countries from which, the Matars claim, they originate. They maintain that the United States
and the E.U. could use the aid they provide (and political pressure) to help resettle Arabs, and that co-operation from surrounding Arab states would be required as well. They insist that "Fair payment can be made to those Arabs who agree to leave the Holy Land", and that "Arabs who wish to remain can do so, provided they agree to be a citizen of a Jewish State
."
WiG's political activism extends to the United States, where it maintains several chapters, which hold demonstrations and fundraisers every year. An advertisement on its website for a protest scheduled for April 11, 2005, when Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon
visited president George W. Bush
's ranch in Crawford, Texas
, said:
Nadia Matar
, the group's co-chair, caused controversy across the Israeli political spectrum in September 2004 when she compared the government's intention to remove
Israeli settlers from Gaza
to the involvement of the Judenrat
("Jewish Council") in Berlin
in 1942, which under orders from the German
government organized the expulsion of the Jewish community from that city. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=479643&contrassID=13 Matar drew this comparison in a letter she sent to Yonatan Bassi, the head of the department overseeing the civilian aspects of the withdrawal. She attached a copy of a 1942 letter from the Judenrat, which she claimed mirrored the letter Bassi sent to Gaza settlers explaining the procedures for the evacuation. Matar stated:
In the summer of 2005, members of the Matar and Finkelstein families, co-founder of Women for Israel's tomorrow, moved in a shared caravan to Kfar Yam, in the Gush Katif settlement in Gaza.http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/5371
Right-wing politics
In politics, Right, right-wing and rightist generally refer to support for a hierarchical society justified on the basis of an appeal to natural law or tradition. To varying degrees, the Right rejects the egalitarian objectives of left-wing politics, claiming that the imposition of equality is...
political women's group in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. It is more commonly known as Women in Green (WiG) (Hebrew: נשים בירוק) due to its followers' "custom" of wearing green hats, in contrast to the older left-
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
wing anti-war organization Women in Black
Women in Black
Women in Black is a women's anti-war movement with an estimated 10,000 activists around the world. The first group was formed by Israeli women in Jerusalem in 1988, following the outbreak of the First intifada.-History:...
.
WiG is a registered non-profit organization founded in 1993, and is not affiliated with any political party. According to the group's website, the movement is "dedicated to the security and Jewish heritage of historic Israel". It is opposed to a two-state solution
Two-state solution
The two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the consensus solution that is currently under discussion by the key parties to the conflict, most recently at the Annapolis Conference in November 2007...
; that is, the creation of a Palestinian state
Proposals for a Palestinian state
Proposals for a Palestinian state currently refers to the proposed establishment of an independent state for the Palestinian people in Palestine on land that was occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War of 1967 and before by Egypt and by Jordan since 1949...
alongside, and mutually recognizant with, Israel. The group particularly opposes the return of land captured in the Six Day War of 1967, and aggressively supports Israeli settlement
Israeli settlement
An Israeli settlement is a Jewish civilian community built on land that was captured by Israel from Jordan, Egypt, and Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War and is considered occupied territory by the international community. Such settlements currently exist in the West Bank...
of those territories, which it proposes should be annexed
Annexation
Annexation is the de jure incorporation of some territory into another geo-political entity . Usually, it is implied that the territory and population being annexed is the smaller, more peripheral, and weaker of the two merging entities, barring physical size...
. WiG also opposed Israeli military withdrawal from southern Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
in 2000.
Ruth and Nadia Matar, co-chairwomen of WiG, argue in Transfer of Arabs is the Only Solution for Peace that Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
s in the "Holy Land
Holy Land
The Holy Land is a term which in Judaism refers to the Kingdom of Israel as defined in the Tanakh. For Jews, the Land's identifiction of being Holy is defined in Judaism by its differentiation from other lands by virtue of the practice of Judaism often possible only in the Land of Israel...
" are descended from relatively recent immigrants, and favor their "transfer
Population transfer
Population transfer is the movement of a large group of people from one region to another by state policy or international authority, most frequently on the basis of ethnicity or religion...
" to the neighboring Arab countries from which, the Matars claim, they originate. They maintain that the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and the E.U. could use the aid they provide (and political pressure) to help resettle Arabs, and that co-operation from surrounding Arab states would be required as well. They insist that "Fair payment can be made to those Arabs who agree to leave the Holy Land", and that "Arabs who wish to remain can do so, provided they agree to be a citizen of a Jewish State
Jewish state
A homeland for the Jewish people was an idea that rose to the fore in the 19th century in the wake of growing anti-Semitism and Jewish assimilation. Jewish emancipation in Europe paved the way for two ideological solutions to the Jewish Question: cultural assimilation, as envisaged by Moses...
."
WiG's political activism extends to the United States, where it maintains several chapters, which hold demonstrations and fundraisers every year. An advertisement on its website for a protest scheduled for April 11, 2005, when Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon is an Israeli statesman and retired general, who served as Israel’s 11th Prime Minister. He has been in a permanent vegetative state since suffering a stroke on 4 January 2006....
visited president George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
's ranch in Crawford, Texas
Crawford, Texas
Crawford is a town located in western McLennan County, Texas, United States. It is best known as the home of former President of the United States George W. Bush. He currently resides at the Prairie Chapel Ranch, which is located just outside Crawford, Texas....
, said:
- The Arab-MoslemMuslimA Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
threat is real and palpable. They hate America and Israel and a democratic way of life, and have a completely different concept of what is moral. If you don't take a stand against the Arabs and the SaudisSaudi ArabiaThe Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
NOW, you will live to regret it ... Before you know it the Arab hordes will be at your doorstep. They believe in no compromise. The Arabs are ruthless, and are waiting and praying for the opportunity to strike. Don't wait until they have Nuclear Arms. Act now, before it is too late! http://www.womeningreen.org/
Nadia Matar
Nadia Matar
Nadia Matar was born on February 16, 1966 in Antwerp, Belgium) and is a political activist in Israel. She is, together with her mother-in-law, the co-chairman of the Women in Green.-External links:*...
, the group's co-chair, caused controversy across the Israeli political spectrum in September 2004 when she compared the government's intention to remove
Israel's unilateral disengagement plan
Israel's unilateral disengagement plan , also known as the "Disengagement plan", "Gaza expulsion plan", and "Hitnatkut", was a proposal by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, adopted by the government on June 6, 2004 and enacted in August 2005, to evict all Israelis from the Gaza Strip and from...
Israeli settlers from Gaza
Gaza
Gaza , also referred to as Gaza City, is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip, with a population of about 450,000, making it the largest city in the Palestinian territories.Inhabited since at least the 15th century BC,...
to the involvement of the Judenrat
Judenrat
Judenräte were administrative bodies during the Second World War that the Germans required Jews to form in the German occupied territory of Poland, and later in the occupied territories of the Soviet Union It is the overall term for the enforcement bodies established by the Nazi occupiers to...
("Jewish Council") in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
in 1942, which under orders from the German
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
government organized the expulsion of the Jewish community from that city. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=479643&contrassID=13 Matar drew this comparison in a letter she sent to Yonatan Bassi, the head of the department overseeing the civilian aspects of the withdrawal. She attached a copy of a 1942 letter from the Judenrat, which she claimed mirrored the letter Bassi sent to Gaza settlers explaining the procedures for the evacuation. Matar stated:
- Yonatan Bassi is a much worse version of the 'Judenrat' in the HolocaustThe HolocaustThe Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
, for then in the Holocaust, this was forced upon those Jewish leaders by the NazisNazismNazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
, and it is very difficult for us to judge them today. But today no one stands with a pistol to Bassi's head and forces him to cooperate with the deportation of the Jews of Gush KatifGush KatifGush Katif was a bloc of 17 Israeli settlements in the southern Gaza strip. Gush Katif was specifically mentioned by Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli prime minister who fell victim to an assassin in 1995, as essential to Israel's security border. In August 2005, the Israeli army moved the 8,600...
and northern SamariaSamariaSamaria, or the Shomron is a term used for a mountainous region roughly corresponding to the northern part of the West Bank.- Etymology :...
. http://web.israelinsider.com/Views/4186.htm
In the summer of 2005, members of the Matar and Finkelstein families, co-founder of Women for Israel's tomorrow, moved in a shared caravan to Kfar Yam, in the Gush Katif settlement in Gaza.http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/5371
Activities
- Weekly street theater.
- Public demonstrations, petitions and grass roots activism.
- Frequent press articles, commission posters, newspapers advertisements.
- Lectures to groups regarding political current events.
See also
- Arab-Israeli conflict
- Israeli-Palestinian conflictIsraeli-Palestinian conflictThe Israeli–Palestinian conflict is the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The conflict is wide-ranging, and the term is also used in reference to the earlier phases of the same conflict, between Jewish and Zionist yishuv and the Arab population living in Palestine under Ottoman or...
- Road map for peaceRoad map for peaceThe roadmap for peace or "road map" for peace is a plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict proposed by a "quartet" of international entities: the United States, the European Union, Russia, and the United Nations. The principles of the plan, originally drafted by U.S. Foreign Service...
- Israel's unilateral disengagement planIsrael's unilateral disengagement planIsrael's unilateral disengagement plan , also known as the "Disengagement plan", "Gaza expulsion plan", and "Hitnatkut", was a proposal by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, adopted by the government on June 6, 2004 and enacted in August 2005, to evict all Israelis from the Gaza Strip and from...