In February 1997, four residents of the north who were mothers of soldiers then serving in Lebanon established a protest movement called “Four Mothers.” The movement was created following a helicopter collision that killed 73 soldiers on their way to the security corridor north of the border. The shock from the accident sparked a vast wave of anger over the fact that the Israeli government hadn’t fulfilled its promise to withdraw from Lebanon. It brought about the creation of one of the most significant protest movements in the history of the country.

The women who established the movement were not high-ranking officers in the military. They were not combatants; they had no expertise in military or security issues. Their significant connection to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) was their being mothers of soldiers in compulsory service. They understood that their concern for the safety of their sons was powerful and legitimate enough a force to motivate a large protest movement.

The beginning was not simple. The discourse of mothers isn’t accepted in Israeli society, which prefers to deal with military and security considerations more than with the safety of the soldiers. The common response was, “What do they know?” They were accused of hurting the military and national resilience. Despite all this, they succeeded in gradually eroding the fixed worldview of Israelis and of the military and political establishments as it related to Lebanon, when they cried, “We’ve had enough of sacrificing our children to this foolish war.”

The protests they organized grew larger and larger, while their messages permeated the public consciousness. From four mothers they grew to tens of thousands. The Israeli media embraced the movement, and gave its representatives a regular stage on talk shows. The women organized protest marches, met with senior officials and became a legitimate voice in the discourse on the “Lebanese quagmire,” that until then was the arena only of men from the security establishment. The generals scorned them, but the public listened to them.