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‘Four Mothers’: The Womb in the Public Sphere 135

influence is not going to grow from this, and it is very doubtful if it
empowers the women as a public. (Hareven, Ma’ariv, 4 March 1998)

A similar perspective is suggested by Gillath’s (1991) analysis of an earlier
movement against the occupation of south Lebanon, ‘Parents Against Silence’
(dubbed by the media, ‘Mothers Against Silence’), which was active from about
1983 until about 1985. This group too, according to Gillath, was perceived as one
of worried mothers and not as a general anti-war movement. The activists
themselves, after retiring from their specific mission, had not become involved
with feminist or political organizations and did not attempt to realize their
potential power beyond the limited timely goal. Political movements in the
name of ‘motherhood’ had not, thus far, had a lasting impact on political life in
Israel.

The legitimacy of the ‘mother’s’ voice

The same argument is turned upside down by other writers, presenting a rival
interpretation of the role Four Mothers has been playing. It suggests that being
women is indeed the source of a different kind of strength, and a different kind
of logic.

The revolt, if we may call it so, is not against the military service of the
children ... but against the unwillingness of the establishment, mostly male,
to listen seriously and with respect to the female calling, that is certainly
coming out of a different place. Somebody said it is coming from the womb.
That is a very good and respectable place to come from ... there is room for
logic that comes from the womb, and not only for logic that comes from
combat experience ... women think differently from men, especially in
issues of war and peace ... there is a need to bring the female perspective
to the process of decision making. For us, women, to be able to fight over
the female perspective, we have to liberate ourselves from the stigma with
which we have been living for many years, that this perspective is inferior.
(Paz-Melamed, Ma’ariv, n.d.)

One of the activists even suggests that this perspective is superior:

I have an advantage over the man, because he says ‘I have to go to the
army’, that machismo, going to combat units, and those fathers who educate
their sons to follow in their footsteps to combat ... to be loyal to your
homeland, to your roots ... my feminist thinking is totally different ... I am
the first one who needs to worry about this, and yell about it, and cry about
it ... I gave life, you see, life ... because they are taking my son away from
me and they are telling him go serve in the army, and serve in combat units,
and maybe even forsake his life. I am the first one who has to say what she
has to say. (Shpigel, interview, August 1998)