★ Women have a different way of solving problems.

Until a few years ago, the term 'ambassadress' did not refer to a representative of her country abroad, but to the ambassador's wife. This apparently minor lexical question is, on the contrary, charged with a strong symbolic meaning. And yet, from Shéhérazade, the maiden protagonist of The Arabian Nights - who, thanks to her clever words and the magic of entertainment, kept the executioner's axe at bay - to Aristophanes' Lysistrata - who led the occupation of the Mint by women tired of the war waged by their husbands - history is full of female figures associated with diplomacy. Because women have a different way of solving problems, linked more to confrontation and discussion with 'the adversary' than to blind and obstinate confrontation. It is on the basis of these principles that in 1992 a group of Italian, Palestinian and Israeli women organised the project "Many women, one planet" to tackle the Israeli-Palestinian issue from a different, female point of view. This book aims to commemorate that experience, reporting its proceedings and reflecting on how much, almost thirty years later, it is still applicable to a situation that seems to change over time to remain always the same.

Giancarla Codrignani
Born in Bologna, Italy, she is a writer, journalist, politician and intellectual, committed to the peace movement and a lay Catholic, and has been a member of the Italian Parliament several times. Her work has been recognised by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Active in various experiences of solidarity and for peace, she is one of the most representative figures of the Italian culture of nonviolence.