On a stiflingly hot September afternoon little shade is available, but spirits are high amongst a group of women as they set up trestle tables in a wide circle on a grassy verge near the busy Gan Shmuel shopping complex. Light banter is exchanged as the ladies neatly arrange items they have brought to sell at the roadside bazaar. The goods on sale are almost as diverse as the vendors: Jewish and Arab women from the villages and small towns of the Wadi Ara region. The Jews hail from kibbutzim, moshavim and a small clutch of communities in the area founded by early Zionist pioneers; the Arabs from a batch of Muslim villages straddling Route 65, the main highway connecting Hadera to Megiddo. Although close 'neighbors' the ladies manning the tables and neatly arranging items from ceramics and flower arrangements to hair products and household wares did not know each other until last year, when they joined a project devised to assist female entrepreneurs develop small business initiatives and create a business community providing mutual support. The project, Creating Women's Business Communities, is based at the nearby Givat Haviva Noa/Nuha Center for Women and Gender Studies and one of several innovative projects run by the 6 year-old center that reach out to women in different parts of the country under the general title of Women in Community. Groups of Jewish and Arab women are involved in diverse projects such as training to be women's group facilitators, participating in empowerment projects and professional training. The aim is to advance the women's social, political and cultural involvement whilst promoting Jewish-Arab coexistence.
Back at the Gan Shmuel bazaar, the first curious possible customers are beginning to cast an eye over the goods on sale. They have been enticed over the road from the lucrative kibbutz forecourt shops by a number of pamphlet-distributing business savvy children, the offspring of the budding 'businesswomen.' A number of items are sold, and successful stallholders receive supportive comments from those who have yet to make a sale. A word of encouragement invariably floats back in their direction. Casting an eye over the proceedings are Project Director Myriam Dagan-Brenner and Jumana Boulos, a Nazareth born business adviser who now resides in Acre. "Most of the women run a business either from home or close to their homes, and although they might get some encouragement from their husbands there is a definite 'it's okay for you to work, but don't rock the family routine' attitude," says Dagan-Brenner, who joined the Givat Haviva staff almost 20 years ago as supervisor of the Children Teaching Children program and Director of the Counseling Center for Peace Education. "As many of the women live in relatively isolated communities they have little chance of success. Some have little connection with others outside their immediate surroundings, and as women are less assertive in their business dealings such as with suppliers," explained Dagan-Brenner. "We've also had women go almost bankrupt because they find it difficult to refuse those who want credit, and the debts pile up. In many cases the family is not supportive. They see the woman's effort to build up a business as a sort-of hobby - and sometimes an expensive hobby. Men do not have such problems - nobody sees a man trying to set up a business as indulging in a hobby."
One of the first hurdles was learning how to present to others what they had difficulty in promoting prior to the course: the 'how and why I do what I do' aspect. As part of the project, funded by the UJA Federation in New York, the 20 women visited each other's businesses and homes. "Just preparing for the group's visit meant being able to explain location and possibly prepare a map if it's a bit off the beaten track, organize a business card with phone numbers, and being able to deal with - and learn from - the possible criticism following the visit," says Dagan-Brenner, whose facial expression hints at some of the difficulties encountered along the way. Rasmia Asali has been in business for 16 years. The mother of five runs a shop in the centre of her village, Kfar Kara, selling goods imported from Thailand and China. Although a veritable 'veteran' businesswoman, Asali felt there was much to be gleaned from the Noa/Nuha project and hasn't been disappointed. "We help each other by buying and suggesting to others to buy from other women in the group and just on that score have learned about the advantages of group support and the importance of advertising," she explains as she ponders where to place large carved wooden cars and boxes on her table.
Rawda Masarwa opened a small boutique in her village, Arara, some six years ago. Before joining the Givat Haviva project her only contact with Israeli Jews was through suppliers to her shop. "Participating in this project has definitely helped my personal development and growth, and boosted my self-confidence. I am just beginning to realize just how much I have developed since joining the group," Masarwa exclaims. With a head-and-shoulders window dresse's dummy sporting a bright orange wig sitting centre-table in front of her, Sima Zilberstein from Karkur arranges her business cards among the hair care products, wigs, hair pieces and hairdressing equipment she sells. Amongst her clients for wigs and hair pieces are theatre groups, opera performers and even the Bat Sheva dance company. So what brought Zilberstein, who is also a professional cosmetician, to the Noa/Nhua project? "I was attracted to the idea of doing something connected to running a business with a group of Jewish and Arab women together. After all, particularly in this area we are neighbors, right?" she says. Zilberstein now admits that she was surprised to discover a very different mentality and way of life amongst the Arab people to that which she had envisioned before. "The modernization inside the home and the positive relations between women and their husbands where I visited were far from what I had in mind beforehand," she says with a laugh as she stretches out a hand to greet to Abir Raniyen, a social worker from Baka al-Gharbiya, one of her course facilitators and a graduate herself of a Noa/Nuha facilitators' course. Rachel Hershkovits from Kibbutz Gan Shmuel was a nurse for many years at the Hillel Yaffe hospital in nearby Hadera. She decided she wanted a change of career, and opened up a canine beauty parlor in her kibbutz.
The last course participant to register, Hershkovits says she had good connections with Arab Israeli medical and other staff and patients at the hospital. "I joined the course primarily because I wanted to learn how to run my business, possibly expand it and before doing so assess what I really have in hand," explained Hershkovits, whose magnetic business cards sport a floppy-eared King Charles Spaniel. With the kibbutz taking care of the economic side of her beauty parlor, Hershkovits had realized that she knew little of the actual running of a business even though she was operating one. Her dream is to open boarding kennels - the kibbutz willing to supply premises, but she wasn't sure how to go about it. "For sure I have learned a great deal over the past year, but I also have to say there were some very difficult moments during the process of our getting to know one another as a group of Arab and Jewish women. Obviously the course didn't solve those differences but certainly it strengthened what we do share in common, and that is a great deal. Hate is easy to develop but the opposite – to foster co-existence through understanding – is a slow and difficult process," she says. "Most of the women face the same type of dilemmas, whether it be with their business, in the home and family or just being women," notes Dagan-Brenner. "Due to the war in Lebanon there wasn't enough time to organize this bazaar in a way we would have wanted, but the women went for it anyway. It is the 'togetherness' developed over the last year, self discovery and new confidences that's brought them here today." SIDEBAR: Inspiring name
Choosing a name for the Givat Haviva Women's Centre that would appeal to both Arab and Jewish women seeking empowerment was a tall order in the name tag department: Not only should women feel that the name is representative of their feminine community, but also of the two separate and often conflicting communities to which they belonged. Nuha is Arabic for wisdom and the other half of the name, the biblical Noa, is seen as the first feminist woman in Jewish history. Born in the desert while the Hebrews wandered towards the Promised Land, Noa was one of the five daughters of Zlofchad, the son of Hefer. Noa's sisters were named Machla, Chogla, Milca and Tirza, and when their father died they formed an in-house sisterhood to demand their inheritance rights. At the time, Hebrew law stated that an inheritance could only pass to a male member of the deceased's family. Not willing to accept this state of gender-based affairs, Noa shared her feelings with her sisters and the five-some decided on a collective sisterly plan of action to get what they rightfully saw as theirs, and succeeded. An impressive number of Noa/Nuha women's empowerment projects are now underway all over Israel, led by women inspired by the wisdom of women like Noa and her sisters who wandered in a wilderness of ignorance and discrimination – until they decided to make a stand. As will, no doubt, Rasmia, Rawda, Sima, Abir and Rachel.
