And This Is An Academic?

Hannah Safran helped organize a July 29 anti-war march in Tel Aviv sponsored by women's peace groups that organizers say attracted as many as 3,000 people. Protestors began marching at Rabin Square, holding up signs that said "Stop Killing Citizens" and "Exchange Prisoners Now" while a few Israeli supporters shouted "traitors" and clashed with participants.

Her thinking?

"Without this, I don't have a life. I am scared. I am desperate," said Safran, 56, who was making anti-war signs in Hebrew, Arabic and English at a women's center in Haifa days before the July 29 protest. "This is what gives me the ability to cope, the hope that we can change, that our life has meaning."

Hannah is employed at the Haifa University.

She supports refusal to serve.

In 2002, she knew that the Israeli government may be contemplating crimes against humanity.

And you know what, let me give you the full story about Professor Safran:-

Hannah Safran served as the coordinator of Isha L¹Isha - the Haifa Feminist Center between 1987 and 1996 and was involved in creating new projects for
women such as the hot-line for battered women and the emergency shelter for battered women. She is particularly skilled in organizing and used her experience in working with different groups of women on different projects, as well as in the organizing committee of the National Feminist Conferences.

In recent years she continued to volunteer at Isha L¹Isha where she also writes a personal column in the bi-monthly newsletter published by the organization. She has also been involved in creating a new organization for economic empowerment of poor women using micro-credit as a tool for changing
women¹s economic acumen.

Between 1996 and 2001 she went back to the University for the Ph.D. studies which she has recently completed. Her dissertation focuses on the history
of feminism in Israel in the 1920s and in the 1970s and examines the influence of the American feminist movement on local movements. During this period she worked as the coordinator of the Women¹s Studies program at the University of Haifa and contributed her skills to the creation of the Israeli Association for Feminist and Gender Studies whose goal is to promote women¹s studies at the universities and in society.

In addition to her work at the University and in the community, Hannah has been active in Women in Black, a weekly vigil against the Israeli occupation
of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. She has been active in creating and participating in the Coalition of Women for Just Peace, a coalition of eight women¹s peace groups working to create an atmosphere of peace and bring about a just solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She has also represented the Coalition at UN conferences and in tours of the US.

She has two grown children. Her son joined the army against her will but promised not to serve in the occupied territories, not to kill and not to get killed. Her daughter refused to join the army and has recently completed one year of national service, teaching Hebrew to Bedouin women in the Negev.
Hannah is currently teaching at the Women¹s Studies program at the University of Haifa and lecturing widely on women in Israel. She continues
to take active part in campaigns and actions to promote peace and women's rights in Israel.