#NotInMyName: Hundreds of Jerusalem women say 'choose life, not violence'

“Civil violence is not the answer, no matter what side you are on.”

MAY 15, 2021 20:55

Updated: MAY 15, 2021 20:56

Ariel Markose says, "No in my name" (photo credit: Courtesy) — Ariel Markose says, "No in my name"

(photo credit: Courtesy)

Hundreds of Jerusalem women have taken to social media in the name of the “silent majority” to protest the violence and civil disobedience that has taken over Israel’s mixed cities in recent days.

The “Not in My Name” campaign was launched Thursday night across Facebook, with images of women holding their hands up with the phrase written in Hebrew, English or Arabic.

“This was coming from an extreme desire – after seeing image after image of violent men in the streets as the face of the internal, civil, local uprising – and wondering if a female voice could not be a contrast to this,” said Ariel Markose, who helped spearhead the project. “This was the focus of the campaign: the opposite image, the opposite message.”

“These people don’t speak for me, this is not in my name,” she continued. “Civil violence is not the answer, no matter what side you are on.”

A resident of Jerusalem’s Katamonim neighborhood, Markose said the idea was sparked by a social media message posted by her friend Heftzi Zion Moses that called out the silence of the moderate majority.

That post led to a phone call between the friends, along with two others – Eliraz Shifman Bergman and Anat Shwartz Weil – and Rachel Azaria, formerly an MK in Moshe Kahlon’s Kulanu Party.

At first, the group envisioned a women’s protest but realized that such an effort might get lost amid the countless other riots across Israel. Moreover, they wanted to provide a space for women with children who might feel unsafe going out to protest.

The team started a WhatsApp group that in hours filled up with 300 participants; they have now started a second one to help include more women who can share the message.

The Facebook posts are in all three languages and state, “Not in my Name! Women of Jerusalem, from all sectors are saying not in our name. From the horrible events we are witnessing these days, we choose life and say no to violence. We call on all of you to join. This evening, together, we raise our hands to say, ‘Not in my Name.’”

The hashtag #NotInMyName and its Arabic and Hebrew counterparts have hundreds of posts and thousands of comments – some supportive, others by extremists who posted death threats.

Markose, who runs the Jerusalem Model project that brings together the city’s diverse social activists, said that she doesn’t know of Palestinian women who have shared the posts so far.

“In times of conflict for a Palestinian woman, expressing any political voice against violence and uprising is not a majority view and can be condemned by those around her to the point that it is scary,” Markose said. “There is a tension between wanting to strike when there is momentum and making it perfectly equal and symmetrical. The value here is not symmetry.

“On the other hand, there is a strong community of local Jerusalem women who have energy and something to say,” she said.

She added that the campaign is also apolitical and not meant to influence government policy.

“I hope we can do something great,” Markose concluded.