This page is subject to the extended confirmed restriction related to the Arab-Israeli conflict.Four Mothers (Hebrew: ארבע אמהות arba imahot; the name is in reference to the Biblical matriarchs Sarah, Rebecca, Leah, and Rachel)[1] was an Israeli protest movement founded in 1997 following the 1997 Israeli helicopter disaster by four women residents of northern Israel and mothers of soldiers serving in Lebanon.
In what was then called by the Israelis Operation Peace for Galilee, the goal was to root out Palestinian insurgents and support the Christian militias and the Free Lebanon State on the course of the Lebanese Civil War.
Following the 1982-85 fighting, the IDF remained deployed in the area of southern Lebanon controlled by Lebanese Christian militias, which was declared by the Israelis as a security zone.
The purpose of the movement was to put public pressure on the Israeli government to withdraw from Lebanon, with or without a peace agreement, and thus to implement the United Nations Security Council Resolution 425, calling for the recognition of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Lebanon, for the IDF to leave the area and the deployment of an international force in the region.
Within a few months thousands of people have signed a petition of solidarity with the movement, and on 5 July 1997 the founding conference was held in which several dozen of women and men participated.
Such a view was laid out by Dan Steinberg in an essay that was delivered to the Israeli press called "The truth about the lie of Lebanon".
[2] Four Mothers movement had developed a strategy to achieve their ultimate goal and its actions included government level and political activities on the one hand, and the public sphere on the other.
On the government level, however, it was a much more of a relaxed front, and was characterized by an attempt to garner support for their goals by continuing to pressure the ministers and MKs through conversations and dialogue .
Despite the delays, and thanks to extensive activity, the movement had become an influential player in Israeli public life and a meaningful social phenomenon.
Four Mothers tried to engage in the public sphere in places where it was perceived to be "a man's world" in Israeli society - the Israeli army, and against all odds was able to raise the issue of unilateral withdrawal to the level of a national agenda, to arouse public opinion and exert massive pressure on decision makers.
The movement sparked social controversy and large parts of the Israeli public did not agree with the agenda presented by Four Mothers.