Are we giving up on political power?

In September a woman, Tzipi Livni, won the leadership elections of Kadima party and is very likely to become the next Prime Minister of Israel. Shouldn't I, as a feminist, rejoice? Certainly not.

Simplistic interpretation of policies such as the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, which stresses the importance of women's presence and contribution to political processes and peace negotiations, could mistaken this for an achievement for women. Or for peace.

Policies often become superficial when the analysis, ideological force and motivation behind them are forgotten, disregarded or silenced. When ideology is cut into pieces and some of these pieces are integrated into policies, it can in fact disconnect those elements from their conceptual and political context which gives them meaning and force and thereby to neutralize them. In other words, there's more to political power for women than several individual figures in leadership positions of right-wing pro-military governments.

The struggle for women to take political power is not just about entering existing political, economical, social and military institutions. With the emergence of radical feminism, or the Second wave, we also speak of challenging these institutions, their legitimacy and the very values they are based on. In simple example, liberal feminism would see a success in women taking leadership roles in the army. Women from radical feminist positions in Israel act to reduce the central role of the army in society and to counter militarism altogether. Having an equal "right" to kill and oppress is not what we fight for.

With Israel being known in the world as a democracy, one might assume that there is a separation between the political and the military systems. This is not the case. The political system is profoundly militarized and intimately bound with the military. Moreover, as long as the state is defined as Jewish and democratic, it puts in question the "quality" of citizenship of Palestinian citizens and other non-Jewish residents. These issues raise the question of whether the parliament, for example, can be a legitimate political institution. By attempting to enter this system, we would recognize its legitimacy de-facto.

So are we giving up on political power? Have the fierce struggles of women's organizations in the UN to pass resolutions securing women's place in peace processes been in vain? Of course not.

What it does mean however, is that in this particular political context, political power may not necessarily be to secure a place for women in the Knesset or other state institutions. For me, political power means creating true partnership between Jewish and Palestinian women (from Israel, from the West Bank and Gaza, in the Diaspora). I am not interested in "representing" the state of Israel. Rather, I wish to be part of a Jewish-Palestinian feminist movement across borders, working to shape the political identity of this region. And we are working on getting there.