Women Shaping Peace: NSL Delegation Brings Israeli and Palestinian Leaders to Ireland's Peace Process

NSL’s Executive Director Caroline (center left), SHIFT Futures’ facilitator (far left - Tarak Maassarani), and a few SHIFT Team members at Iveagh House, the headquarters of Ireland's Department of Foreign Affairs, in Dublin

This past summer, New Story Leadership brought six emerging Israeli and Palestinian women leaders, all NSL alumni or members of SHIFT Futures, to Dublin, Belfast, and Derry. The trip was made possible with support from Ireland's Department of Foreign Affairs, B8 of Hope, and other generous donors.

The delegation met with the people who built and sustained peace in Northern Ireland, including former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, one of the architects of the Good Friday Agreement, and Monica McWilliams, co-founder of the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition. They also addressed the Irish Parliament's Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, presenting the SHIFT Framework and sharing their work as Israeli and Palestinian women building peace from within civil society.

The visit produced a concrete result: following the meeting, a member of the Irish Parliament submitted a formal parliamentary question to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade on Ireland's support for Israeli and Palestinian peacebuilding, putting the issue on the public record.

Drawing on lessons from Ireland's peace process, the delegates will now develop a seventh chapter of the SHIFT Framework, focused on the role of women in Israeli-Palestinian peacebuilding. It will join six existing chapters addressing Gaza reconstruction, governance, transitional justice, the role of the international community, public preparation for peace, and trauma-informed healing.

As one delegate put it in Belfast: women did not merely add representation to the peace process. They expanded what peace itself was expected to accomplish.