Draft:Reem Al-Hajajreh
Reem al-Hajajreh (Arabic: ريم حجاجرة; born 1981 or 1982), also called Reem Hajajreh, is a Palestinian peace activist and founder of the group Women of the Sun.
Al-Hajajreh was named as one of TIME's 2024 women of the year,[1][2] and was a 2024 recipient of The DVF Awards.[3]
Life
[edit]Al-Hajajreh grew up in Dheisheh, Bethlehem, in the West Bank,[4] where she continues to live with her four children.[5][6] She attended Al-Quds Open University, where she studied business administration and social work.[6] She was driven to become an activist out of fear for her children's safety, knowing that under the status quo they were more likely to be imprisoned, wounded, or killed. In 2021, she founded Women of the Sun, which seeks to politically empower Palestinian women and to encourage a nonviolent end to the Israel-Palestine conflict.[7]
Al-Hajajreh traveled to Israel with Women Wage Peace on several occasions before the Israel-Hamas war to share her story and the work of Women of the Sun.[5] In January 2024, al-Hajajreh and Yael Admi, of Women Wage Peace, spoke at the French Parliament, where they called on Israeli and Palestinian leaders to return to negotiations to end the Israel-Hamas war.[7] In September 2024, she was a pannelist at the Bled Strategic Forum international conference in Bled, Slovenia, speaking during the session "Reconciliation: Learning from the Past to Build a More Just Future".[8] The following month, she was interviewed by France 24[9] and she and Women Wage Peace member Rita Brudnik spoke at the Women Making Peace in the Middle East conference in Milan, hosted by Bicocca University.[10]
In regards to her work during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, Al-Hajajreh noted in October 2024, "it was hard to continue to work with Israelis as the death toll mounted in Gaza and the conflict expanded" but that she looked to her children as motivation to continue her peacemaking work. On peace and the on-going Israeli-Palestinian conflict, she said "If we ask and demand peace, that doesn't mean that we accept the current situation and what the Palestinians are enduring. Our most important demand is the freedom of the Palestinian people".[11]
References
[edit]- ^ "Meet TIME's women of the year: The Israeli, Palestinian planning for peace". The Jerusalem Post. 2024-02-21. Retrieved 2024-09-13.
- ^ Fink, Rachel (2024-02-28). "Palestinian-Israeli Peace Activist Duo Named Among Time Magazine's Women of the Year". Haaretz.
- ^ "The DVF Awards 2024". Diane von Furstenberg EU. Retrieved 2024-09-13.
- ^ Günther, Inge (2024-05-25). "War in the Middle East: Women Wage Peace and Women of the Sun work together for peace". Qantara.de. Retrieved 2024-09-13.
- ^ a b Morgan, Lucy (2023-12-18). "'I don't feel like we're Israelis or Palestinians; we're just sisters': Inside the women's movement for peace in the Middle East". Glamour UK. Retrieved 2024-09-13.
- ^ a b "Interview of Yael Admi, founder of Women Wage Peace and Reem Hjajara, founder of Women of the Sun". Fondation RAJA-Danièle Marcovici. 2024-03-21. Retrieved 2024-09-13.
- ^ a b Serhan, Yasmeen (2024-02-21). "The Israeli and Palestinian Women Calling for Peace". Time. Retrieved 2024-09-13.
- ^ "The Nelson Mandela Foundation in Slovenia". Nelson Mandela Foundation. Retrieved 2024-12-02.
- ^ "أي دور للمرأة الفلسطينية في صنع السلام؟" [What role do Palestinian women have in peacemaking?]. France 24 (in Arabic). 2024-10-11. Retrieved 2024-12-02.
- ^ "Donne costruttrici di pace in Medio Oriente". Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca (in Italian). 2024-10-01. Retrieved 2024-12-02.
- ^ Kelemen, Michele (2024-10-03). "Israeli and Palestinian women are working together for a peaceful future". NPR. Retrieved 2024-12-02.