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<font size=3>Reply-To:
njsolidarity-announcements@lists.riseup.net<br><br>
<br><br>
As part of Palestine Awareness Week 2006, we are providing some
facts<br>
and information about Palestine that do not appear in the mainstream<br>
corporate press. We will send a different email daily providing this<br>
information. Please read and forward.<br><br>
Remember, Palestine Awareness Week continues with an event on<br>
Thursday, April 27. Join us to meet, view and discuss "Paradise
Now,"<br>
director Hany Abu-Assad's Golden Globe-winning and Oscar-nominated<br>
Palestinian film, at 6:30 PM in Room 411A of the Rutgers Student<br>
Center, on the 4th Floor, at 126 College Ave. in New Brunswick.<br><br>
PALESTINE AWARENESS WEEK 2006<br>
PALESTINE: Be AWARE.<br><br>
Palestinian Women Struggle for Liberation and Return<br><br>
"Concerning the women...they were the first to lead
demonstrations<br>
asking for withdrawal, rejecting occupation, asking for something.<br>
They were the first prisoners. They were the first to ask for<br>
strikes..." - Isam Abdelhadi<br><br>
Palestinian women feel the cruelest stings of poverty, oppression
and<br>
terror: their homes destroyed, their land stolen, their families<br>
impoverished; they were made refugees, prohibited to return to their<br>
homes and properties. As providers of food, education and
Palestinian<br>
identity, Palestinian women have suffered tremendously from Zionist<br>
brutality. Yet they have also always been at the forefront of<br>
Palestinian resistance, from the revolts against British colonialism<br>
to today's Intifada.<br><br>
A History of Struggle<br><br>
In 1884, Palestinian women were among the peasants who acted to
uproot<br>
the first agricultural settlement which the Zionists tried to build<br>
near Affouleh. In 1920, women were active in demonstrations
demanding<br>
cancellation of the Balfour declaration; the first women's union was<br>
established in 1921, which organized women's efforts in social
groups<br>
and organizations, as well as demonstrations demanding a halt to<br>
zionist colonialism. During the revolt in 1929, Palestinian women<br>
participated actively in demonstrations which were brutally
repressed<br>
by the British. The women martyrs included Jamile Azaar, Aisha Abu<br>
Hasan and Azba Salame. In 1928, the Arab Women's Association was<br>
founded as a Palestinian association to work side by side with the
men<br>
in the common struggle, and in 1929, a women's conference was held
in<br>
Jerusalem; hundreds attended and condemned British repression in<br>
Palestine.<br><br>
In 1936, women were active participants in the 1936-39 revolution,
and<br>
took on various roles. Women collected and distributed financial and<br>
material aid to Palestinian rebels, and to the families of martyrs
and<br>
prisoners; they sewed clothes, carried food and water to rebels and<br>
administered first aid. Fatima Gazal was the first Palestinian woman<br>
martyred in combat in a battle with British soldiers on October 25,<br>
2936.<br><br>
Throughout the 30s and 40s, women worked in societies emphasizing<br>
education and women's participation in politics.In 1942, women's<br>
solidarity associations were formed, with branches in the main<br>
Palestinian cities. And when the war and occupation of 1947-48
began,<br>
Palestinian women were active - "building barricades and<br>
fortifications, digging trenches, transporting weapons and forming<br>
more associations, like the one called Daisy Flower in Jaffa, which<br>
provided medical care, food and water to those fighting to defend
the<br>
land. Members of this association included Yusra Toukan, Fatima
Abdul<br>
Huda, Juhenia Khorshid, and Arabia Khorshid. Women also joined the<br>
fighters in their attacks. Many were martyred, including Juliet
Zakka,<br>
Jamile Ahmad, Deba Atyeh, and Helwe Zaidan. The latter had taken the<br>
gun of her husband afer he and their son were martyred; she
continued<br>
shooting at the Zionist gangs until her martyrdom on April 9,
1948,"<br>
as was chronicled in Democratic Palestine in 1984.<br><br>
Since 1948, throughout the history of the Palestinian national<br>
movement, women have been involved in all areas on a political
level.<br>
At the same time, they have borne the primary responsibility for<br>
caring for Palestinian families, raising and educating Palestinian<br>
children, and ensuring the continuity of Palestinian national<br>
identity, in Palestine and in exile. Reem Alnuweiri, Palestinian<br>
activist, wrote: "[The] Palestinian woman also became a refugee
and<br>
her critical mission was keeping the Palestinian national identity<br>
intact. She had to heal the pains, re-unify the dispersed family,<br>
secure food on the table with her partner, and above all, keep the<br>
memory. ... Palestinians raised by refugee families, who never saw<br>
Palestine, have a very clear picture of it, just from the memories
of<br>
their mothers and grandmothers, and the transcendence through<br>
generations continues."<br><br>
With the upsurge in the Palestinian national movement after the<br>
further occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967 and the<br>
development of Palestinian political and military organizations, and<br>
the rise of the Palestine Liberation Organization as a unified<br>
national liberation front, Palestinian women continued their leading<br>
role in the struggle. Women were deeply involved in building
community<br>
organizations and Popular Struggle Committees, and the General Union<br>
of Palestinian Women, the women's union of the PLO, was formed as a<br>
constituent union of the PLO. Every major Palestinian political<br>
faction had women's committees that focused on organizing women as<br>
part of the Palestinian national movement; all of the resistance<br>
organizations recognized that the liberation and participation of<br>
women was critical to the struggle for national liberation.<br><br>
Women were involved in all means of struggle, from social services<br>
organizing to educational work to military activities. Famous women<br>
fighters, like Leila Khaled, Shadia Abu Ghazaleh, Dalal al-Mughrabi,<br>
Amine Dabour and Abla Taha, took part in resistance operations,
while<br>
other Palestinian women were in the leadership of unions, clubs and<br>
social committees. In Palestine '48, women were active participants
in<br>
struggle; in the first Land Day demonstration in 1976, Khadijeh<br>
Shawahneh was marrtyred.<br><br>
Throughout the Intifada in the late 1980s and early 1990s,
Palestinian<br>
women were the backbone of the movement in the West Bank and Gaza.
The<br>
boycott of "Israeli" products - so effective - was carried out
by<br>
women who did the shopping and refused to purchase the goods of the<br>
occupier. Palestinian women were leaders in establishing alternative<br>
economic activity, including cheese making, bread baking and
community<br>
gardens. When Palestinian children were arrested, women would come<br>
into the street demanding the child's release, calling out for
"their<br>
son." Many times, soldiers were pressured to release the child.<br>
Palestinian women were at the center of popular committees and the<br>
popular movement, a role that has continued to the present day.<br><br>
Women are heavily active in all spheres of politics and society;
major<br>
social and political organizations and institutions are led by
women,<br>
such as Addameer, the political prisoner support association.<br>
Palestinian women are political prisoners; today, there are 116
women<br>
political prisoners in Zionist jails. Women's associations in<br>
Palestine, such as the Union of Palestinian Women's Committees,<br>
organize employment for women, children's committees and<br>
kindergartens, and work to provide health care. Palestinian women<br>
transmit culture and identity, hold together the family and the<br>
community, educate children and take active and leading roles in the<br>
political struggle. Mariam Abu-Dakkah, of the Union of Palestinian<br>
Women's Committees, said that "The Palestinian woman is making
sure<br>
that for every funeral there is a wedding and for every death, there<br>
is a birth". In exile, Palestinian women and women's
organizations<br>
are at the forefront of the struggle for liberation and return.<br><br>
The struggle of Palestinian women is the struggle for the liberation<br>
of Palestine; the two intersect, and achieving liberation for<br>
Palestinian women is an inextricable part of achieving national<br>
liberation.<br><br>
Find out more about the struggle of Palestinian women:<br><br>
<a href="http://www.newjerseysolidarity.org/resources/palestinianwomen.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.newjerseysolidarity.org/resources/palestinianwomen.html<br><br>
</a>For more information:<br>
New Jersey Solidarity - Activists for the Liberation of Palestine<br>
<a href="http://www.newjerseysolidarity.org/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.newjerseysolidarity.org/<br>
</a>info@newjerseysolidarity.org<br>
973-954-2521<br><br>
<br><br>
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(415) 863-9977<br>
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