Mothers of Hope: How Israeli and Palestinian Women Are Leading a New Peace Movement
Israeli and Palestinian women are leading a cross-border peace initiative that challenges dominant narratives of conflict by centering maternal voices, shared loss, and women-led advocacy.
Written By Asia Easton // EEW Magazine Online
Yael Admi (center right) and Reem al-Hajajreh (center left) leading a mass peace rally in October 2023. Photograph: Courtesy of Women Wage Peace
In a global news cycle dominated by images of war, displacement, and political deadlock, two mothers from opposite sides of the Israeli-Palestinian divide are advancing a different narrative.
Their work is not rooted in diplomacy or military strategy, but in shared loss, maternal responsibility, and a conviction that peace efforts have too often excluded the voices most affected by prolonged conflict.
That conviction sits at the center of “Mothers’ Call,” a cross-border initiative bringing together Israeli and Palestinian women who argue that sustainable peace cannot be achieved without women at the table. At a time when coverage of the region is overwhelmingly shaped by violence and retaliation, the movement challenges the prevailing frame by insisting that cooperation, not enmity, deserves sustained attention.
Israeli and Palestinian women, members of two local peace movements, take part in an inaugural event marking the beginning of their partnership, on the shore of the Dead Sea near the city of Jericho, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on March 25, 2022. (Photograph: Getty)
The initiative, highlighted in The Guardian, unites women from both communities around a shared concern for their children’s futures and a rejection of the assumption that reconciliation is either naïve or unattainable.
Instead, organizers position their work as a corrective to decades of failed peace efforts that sidelined women’s leadership and community-based solutions.
The movement is led by Yael Admi, an Israeli mother of six and co-founder of Women Wage Peace, and Reem al-Hajajreh, a Palestinian mother of four and founder of Women of the Sun. Both women come to the work with personal experience of loss and sustained criticism from within their own communities, where calls for dialogue are often viewed with suspicion or outright hostility.
Yet both have remained publicly committed to collaboration, arguing that cycles of violence have failed to deliver security, dignity, or long-term stability.
Women Wage Peace, co-founded by Oct. 7 victim Vivian Silver, has grown into one of Israel’s largest grassroots movements, drawing tens of thousands of supporters. Women of the Sun focuses on trauma recovery and community empowerment among Palestinian women.
Vivian Silver, a cofounder of Women Wage Peace, was killed during the October 7 attacks. Silver, 74, lived in Kibbutz Be’eri near Israel’s border with Gaza, which was among the communities attacked by Hamas. (Photograph: Canadian-Jewish News)
In March 2026, supporters from around the world are expected to gather in Rome for a symbolic barefoot walk organized in coordination with Vital Voices. Organizers say the event is intended to draw attention to the human cost of prolonged conflict and to underscore the shared experiences of families living under its weight.
The Rome walk is planned as the first in a broader series of international peace walks and outreach efforts. Organizers say the initiative is designed to elevate women’s participation in peace-building and formal negotiations, consistent with international frameworks such as U.N. Security Council Resolution 1325, which affirms the role of women in peace and security processes.
At a moment when public discourse surrounding Israel and Palestine often collapses into hardened positions and zero-sum thinking, Mothers’ Call advances a narrower but deliberate claim. Peace, its leaders argue, is not only a political outcome but a social responsibility, one that begins with listening to those who have paid the highest price for its absence.
