Al Hayat
The Four Mothers Movement plunges into the battle for peace via ... the
Internet
(English original of article by Susannah Tarbush published in Al Hayat
Arabic daily newspaper on Sunday 16 August 1998).
The Four Mothers Movement, the Israeli group which is campaigning for a
unilateral and unconditional Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon,
is looking to the internet to establish contacts in cyberspace with the
Lebanese people, over the heads of the governments of the region. And it
is hoping also to eventually have face to face contacts with some
Lebanese, perhaps members of the Lebanese diaspora living outside their
country.
The Four Mothers Movement is so keen for any contacts with the Lebanese
that it was excited to read an article in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz
on 26th July about an open letter Al Hayat had published on 19 July,
from the British academic and writer Helena Cobban to a woman member of
the Four Mothers Movement, Irit Letzter.
The father of Helena Cobban’s son Tariq comes from southern Lebanon,
and Tariq, who cannot visit his father’s home in the ‘security belt’ is
about the same age as the son of Irit Letzter, who is serving in a
military unit in the security zone, so the letter was from one mother to
another. Linda Ben Zvi, the international relations coordinator of the
Four Mothers Movement says the Movement would like to reply to Helena
Cobban’s letter.
That the Four Mothers Movement has had only limited success so far in
making internet contacts with the Lebanese public is hardly surprising,
particularly in view of the rejection of the Syrian and Lebanese
governments of a proposed Israeli withdrawal, following the Israeli
cabinet’s decision of 1 April to adopt UN resolution 425, but with the
attachment of certain conditions.The Four Mothers Movement goes further,
in stating that such a withdrawal should be unconditional, but this idea
too is seen with suspicion in Damascus. Meanwhile, the internal Israeli
debate over Lebanon continues, with many Israelis referring to
southern Lebanon as “Israel’s Vietnam”.
Yohan Rochlin, who manages the Four Mothers Movement website, is
continuing her efforts to contact the Lebanese, in particular those most
directly involved in the conflict in southern Lebanon. She told Al Hayat
she often sends e-mails to the various sites of Hizbollah, including
the Hizbollah TV station Al Manar, but she has never received an answer.
Mrs Rochlin notes that the movement’s website was originally in
Hebrew only, but in January this year she started an English language
version because “it is highly important to let Lebanese know about us,
and give them the opportunity to support us by e-mail”. The movement’s
website, the address of which is:
www.angelfire.com/il/Four Mothers
is a rich source of information on the situation in south Lebanon. It
includes a map of the “security zone”, lists of the villages occupied by
Israel, UN resolutions, articles on Hizbollah and Amal and their
leaders, articles from the Hebrew and English press and many links with
other sites in Lebanon and elsewhere. The site is notably sympathetic in
explaining the background and policies of Hizbollah.
The Movement’s hopes of making contacts in Lebanon via the internet were
increased when in January the Daily Star English-language newspaper in
Beirut published an interview it had conducted by e-mail with a
spokesman for the Movement.
Subsequently, the movement received some messages of support from
Lebanese through the visitors book at its website. Typical messages
are “it is about time we have a direct dialogue and drop the lunatics
of both sides,” and “as long as such people exist on both sides, the ray
of the peace light will never die.”
Mrs Rochlin says that in addition to the messages in the visitors’ book
she receives other, private, messages from Lebanese direct to her
e-mail. She says she has developed a close friendship via her e-mail
with a young Shi-ite man in Lebanon. She describes him as “the only son
I have in Lebanon.” (Her own son, at 15 years old, is too young to be in
the army.)
She has also been interviewed by the group Americans for a Free Lebanon.
The interview is included in the Americans for a Free Lebanon website,
which also includes articles by, among others, Michel Aoun.
The Four Mothers Movement was founded after 73 soldiers died in February
1997 when two Israeli helicopters collided while carrying troops into
southern Lebanon. The movement was founded by four mothers with sons
serving in Lebanon, and the name also refers to the four biblical
mothers of Judaism.
The Four Mothers Movement now has several hundred active members and has
collected around 25,000 signatures. It has arranged numerous
demonstrations in northern Israel and the major cities, and has
attracted much attention in the media. It claims to have put Lebanon
back on the national agenda: recent polls indicate that proportion of
the population which supports unilateral withdrawal is 53 per cent -
almost double what it was when the Movement began. And the Movement
claims to have been instrumental in the cabinet’s decision of 1 April to
support UN resolution 425.
The movement is not affiliated with any party, although it does
sometimes organise joint demonstrations with the Movement for a
Peaceful Departure from Lebanon, founded in September 1997 by Labour
Knesset member and former cabinet minister Yossi Beilin.
The Four Mothers’ Movement’s latest venture is a “tent of protest”
which it is erecting for 10 days from 16th August in front of Israel
prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem. The tent
will collect further signatures, and will provide passers by with
information.
Mrs Rochlin says she sees Hizbollah as freedom fighters and not
terrorists, but she adds that even among people who understand
Hizbollah, there is a debate over Hizbollah’s future intentions after
an Israeli withdrawal.”Sometimes Hizbollah declare they want to free
their country, sometimes they declare that their main goal is Jerusalem.
We worry whether they will continue sending over Katyushas and continue
the hostilities after the withdrawal.”
By stating sometimes that Hizbollah’s goal is Jerusalem, Hizbollah’s
secretary general Hassan Nasrallah makes the members of the Four Mothers
Movement question themselves, and lays them open to criticism by others,
Mrs Rochlin says.
“I do think that if Nasrallah and his other leaders are trying to appear
as moderate politicians and not as a gang of terrorists, they need to
share the rules of the game and express their future plans.”
ENDS
Email: yona@netvision.net.il