I wondered how involved the Women in Parliaments Forum was in this, and it appears that they were fully complicit.
Here's one of their posters advertising the event from a month ago:
What makes this all the more remarkable, and repugnant, is that Israel has been a big booster of the WIP.
I mentioned that in 2013, Israel won an award from WIP, and Israeli Chief Justice Daphne Barak-Erez gave a speech.
In 2015, another of WIP's conferences was held in Jerusalem, Israel.
Their Leadership webpage features a quote from Binyamin Netanyahu.
But this year these women, who pretend to be working for noble causes, allowed themselves to be complicit in excluding an entire nation because Jordan's bigotry.
The idea that a group of people who have been historically marginalized was so quick to do the same to another group of historically marginalized people is simply sickening.
An apparent attendee sent me this ironic tweet:
Now discussing "women as active agents of peace" and "bringing everyone to the table" #wipsummit2016 @elderofziyon https://t.co/bEYtINNLiu— Charlotte Burow (@charlotteburow) May 5, 2016
This was corroborated by other tweeters at the summit:
Why are we only inviting those who hold the guns? we need to invite #women to the table in #peace negotiations @AUBinetaDiop #resolution1325— OECD Livestream (@OECDlive) May 5, 2016
Write to the sponsors of the event - including Microsoft, Merck, Salesforce, Facebook and E&Y - and ask them whether they support excluding Israel from this forum.
Some links to get you started:
Microsoft rrt@we-worldwide.com
Merck media.relations@emdgroup.com
EY contact page, also on Twitter @EY_GovtPublic @EY_MENA and @EY_Jordan
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.