Bringing Hope to Bedouin Women
By David B. Green
Ha'aretz
February 5, 2023
“Hope Is a Woman’s Name,” by Amal Elsana Alh’jooj.
"The poignancy of this book begins with its title…
"Almost since birth, she has been fighting for the right to participate – first for herself in the life of her family; then for the women of her Negev village in southern Israel, which led her to challenge many of her society’s traditions and taboos. Eventually, her scope came to include not only all of the roughly 250,000 Negev Bedouin – the country’s poorest and perhaps most maligned minority, one-third of whom live in villages that lack state recognition and therefore even the most basic infrastructure and utilities – but Israel and its democracy in general…
"During her student years, Elsana Alh’jooj founded the Lakiya Women’s Association, whose activities include operating the town’s famed embroidery collective. She also helped set up the Bedouin community’s first bookmobile. In 2002, she founded the Arab-Jewish Center for Equality, Empowerment and Cooperation (AJEEC), which operates youth organizations, employment training, and numerous other educational and social programs…
"Over three decades of activism, Elsana Alh’jooj had evolved from a firebrand driven mainly by anger over injustice, to someone striving for workable – even if not ideal – solutions. At the same time, she was uncompromising in her belief that women had to be involved in any process. As she writes in the book, albeit with some overstatement, she had come to understand that 'justice and equality have nothing to do with which side is right, but [are] about bringing people from all sides to work together.'"
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