<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<div class="container content-width3" style="--font-size:20px;">
<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <font
size="-2"><a class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://al-shabaka.org/briefs/the-political-marginalization-of-palestinian-women-in-the-west-bank/">https://al-shabaka.org/briefs/the-political-marginalization-of-palestinian-women-in-the-west-bank/</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">The Political Marginalization of
Palestinian Women in the West Bank</h1>
<div class="meta-data">
<div class="reader-estimated-time">by <a
href="https://al-shabaka.org/en/author/yara-hawari/">Yara
Hawari</a> <time>on July 28, 2019</time></div>
</div>
</div>
<hr>
<div class="content">
<div class="moz-reader-content line-height4 reader-show-element">
<div id="readability-page-1" class="page">
<section>
<header itemscope=""
itemtype="https://schema.org/WPHeader"></header>
<header>
<section>
</section>
<section>
</section>
</header>
<div>
<div>
<section>
<article>
<div>
<div>
<h2><b>Overview</b></h2>
<p><span>Though Palestinian women have always
played </span><span>a fundamental role in
the struggle for liberation from the
Israeli settler colonial regime, they have
</span><span>faced consistent political
marginalization. This experience has
become more multifaceted and entrenched
since the 1990s, when the Oslo Accords
unleashed a myriad of changes in the
structure of Palestinian society and
governance.</span></p>
<p><span>These changes have included a
newfound dependence on international donor
aid among Palestinian civil society,
including women’s organizations, and the
bolstering of a corrupt and relentlessly
patriarchal Palestinian Authority (PA)
that complements rather than confronts the
Israeli occupation and its oppression of
the Palestinian population, both male and
female. Such developments have caused
today’s Palestinian women to endure
perhaps even more formidable challenges
when it comes to activism and political
participation. </span></p>
<p><span>This policy brief addresses these
issues, providing a historical
consideration of Palestinian women’s
political participation and then examining
the reasons behind their de-politicization
with a particular focus on the West Bank.
It concludes by offering some potential
avenues for Palestinian women and their
allies to disrupt this process and
revitalize the Palestinian liberation
struggle through feminism.</span></p>
<h2><b>Palestinian Women as Political Actors</b></h2>
<p><span>Palestinian women have long been
politicized individuals not just as wives,
sisters, or mothers, but also as fighters,
organizers, and leaders with agency that
is not defined by their relationship to
men. Looking back through Palestinian
history, women have always been present
and active at crucial political and
national moments, though they have also
had to navigate tensions among feminism,
nationalism, and anti-colonial struggle. </span></p>
<p><span>In 1917, Palestinian women took part
in demonstrations against the Balfour
Declaration. Many women’s associations
subsequently organized themselves under
the </span><a
href="https://www.palestine-studies.org/jps/abstract/40801"><span>Arab
Women’s Congress</span></a><span>, which
convened in 1929 in Jerusalem. The
congress created the Arab Women’s
Executive Committee to carry out
decisions, and this served as the
beginning of an </span><span>organized
women’s movement in Palestine. <a
title=" The term “women’s movement” in
this policy brief is used in a broad
sense to refer to the collection of
groups and organizations working to
further women’s rights in Palestine."
id="return-note-10323-1"
href="#note-10323-1"><sup>1</sup></a></span><span>
Many of the women involved in the
committee were of the urban upper and
middle classes, particularly of Jerusalem,
and were involved in community organizing
and charitable works. Still, the committee
was also a political body, with members
boldly </span><a
href="https://jps.ucpress.edu/content/24/3/5"><span>making
speeches</span></a><span> in spaces
traditionally dominated by men, such as
the Haram al Sharif and the Church of the
Holy Sepulchre. </span></p>
<p><span>During the Palestinian uprising
against the British in 1936, Palestinian
women not only participated in
demonstrations en masse, but were also
part of smuggling operations delivering
weapons and supplies to guerrilla
fighters. Here, rural and working class
Palestinian women played a vital role.
They hid guns in their clothing or in the
fields and traversed the terrain, sharing
important information with guerillas such
as British troop locations and supply
routes. <a title="Fayha’ Abdul Hadi,
“Adwar al-mar’a al-filastiniyya fi
al-thalathinat 1930 – al-musahama
al-siyasiyya lil mar’a al-filastiniyya
[The Role of the Palestinian Woman in
the Thirties, the Political
Participation of the Palestinian
Woman],” Al-Bira: Markaz al-Mar’a
al-Filastiniyya lil-Abhath wa
al-Tawthiq, 2005, 84."
id="return-note-10323-2"
href="#note-10323-2"><sup>2</sup></a></span></p>
<p><span>Over a decade later, the Nakba, or
Palestinian catastrophe, of 1948 ripped
apart Palestinian society, devastating the
social and institutional infrastructure
that the women’s movement had built in the
preceding decades. The establishment of
the Palestinian Liberation Organization
(PLO) in 1964 provided centralization and
an institutional home for many civil
society organizations established before
the Nakba. The fervent institution
building that followed created many more
employment opportunities for women. In
addition, the General Union of Palestinian
Women (GUPW) formed in 1965 and brought
many women’s organizations under its
umbrella, reviving the Palestinian women’s
movement. These </span><a
href="http://archive.thisweekinpalestine.com/details.php?id=1627&ed=112"><span>organizations</span></a><span>
offered educational, medical, legal,
social, and vocational services to women,
undertook advocacy, and created links with
other women’s organizations around the
world. </span></p>
<p><span>After the occupation of the West Bank
and Gaza Strip in 1967, the GUPW began
responding to the most immediate needs of
Palestinian women and children, including
by establishing health centers and
orphanages. In the late 1960s Fatah took
over the GUPW, and has since dominated the
organization. Unlike some leftist
political factions Fatah </span><a
href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2537876?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents"><span>lacked</span></a><span>
an articulated stance or vision for
Palestinian women. Despite this, the GUPW
succeeded in opening branches in the
diaspora, and has been particularly active
in the Arab states with large Palestinian
refugee populations. Today, it continues
as an institution under the PLO.</span></p>
<p><span>Around the time of the formation of
GUPW, Palestinian women were also involved
in armed resistance, and most major
militant political factions established
training camps for female revolutionaries.
A particularly well-known revolutionary
was Layla Khaled, a member of the leftist
Palestinian Front for the Liberation of
Palestine (PFLP) who captured
international attention for her role as
commander of the Dawson’s Field operation,
which made her the first woman to hijack
an airplane. Khaled went on to become a
speaker in the international solidarity
scene. Another member of the PFLP, Shadia
Abu Ghazaleh, was among the first
Palestinian women to take part in military
resistance after 1967. She later died
while preparing an explosive device. Dalal
Mughrabi, a Fatah member, was involved in
a 1978 military operation that resulted in
her own death as well as the deaths of 38
Israeli civilians.</span></p>
<p><span>Khaled, Abu Ghazaleh, and Mughrabi
broke many traditional and nationalist
conventions that had limited women’s role
in the liberation struggle to caregivers
of sons or husbands, whether fighters or
prisoners. Although organizing and
participating in armed resistance helped
challenge traditional assumptions about
gender roles, tensions between female
emancipation and nationalism remained
entrenched. Indeed, many Palestinian
leaders privileged national liberation
over the emancipation of Palestinian
women, so much so that this stance became
the norm. </span></p>
<p><span>Two decades later images of women and
girls throwing stones, challenging
soldiers, and leading marches during the
First Intifada showed promising signs of a
social restructuring. Women’s groups were
solidifying their involvement in social
works and political organizing during this
period. This allowed women more movement
outside of the home under the pretext of
the struggle, bringing them into spaces
that had previously been male only, such
as political meetings and the front lines
of demonstrations. This inevitably
contributed to an erosion of the familial
patriarchal authority. </span></p>
<p><span>Yet the First Intifada is also often
romanticized in collective memory and
writing, not only in terms of resistance
and community organizing, but of the role
of women in the struggle. It is important
to note that some women faced societal
backlash for political participation. For
example, although many women who were
imprisoned were glorified during their
incarceration, soon after their release
they often faced social obstacles,
including not being able to marry or find
employment. Furthermore, women were still
often seen in relation to male figures,
such as mothers and wives, as </span><a
href="https://www.palestineposterproject.org/"><span>demonstrated</span></a><span>
by many political posters from the
period. </span></p>
<p><span>Several years into the First
Intifada, the Palestinian delegation at
the 1991 Madrid Conference included two
women (Hanan Ashrawi and Zahira Kamal) out
of 21 figures. Yet the Oslo Accords
several years later did not feature any
women. Palestinian women were not the only
ones to be marginalized at Oslo, as
refugees in the diaspora and Palestinian
citizens of Israel were also excluded.
Oslo created a framework, albeit a limited
one, in which the exiled male Palestinian
leadership was empowered, rather than a
framework for the empowerment of the
Palestinian people as a whole. This
exclusion further increased the tension
between the national struggle and the
women’s movement. </span></p>
<h2><b>Depoliticizing Palestinian Women</b></h2>
<p><span>The tension between nationalism and
feminism has continued in the post-Oslo
period, and has been accompanied by the
trend of Palestinian women facing multiple
forces that actively suppress their
politicization and participation in
political spaces. The overarching force
has been and continues to be the Israeli
regime, which has oppressed Palestinian
women since the day it was established
through gendered forms of violence as well
empowering patriarchal structures through
its relentless colonization and
fragmentation of land and communities. Yet
it is also important to recognize the
forces within the Palestinian and
international communities that contribute
to the weakened political role of
Palestinian women. </span></p>
<h3><strong><i>The NGO-ization of the Women’s
Movement </i></strong></h3>
<p><span>The Oslo Accords not only created a
new framework for “peace” and
“state-building;” they also set in motion
a fundamental </span><a
href="https://al-shabaka.org/briefs/palestinian-civil-society-what-went-wrong/"><span>transformation
of Palestinian civil society</span></a><span>,</span><span>
including the women’s movement. Foreign
aid flooded into Palestine and created a
situation in which civil society became
dependent on external patronage. Whereas
before Oslo political parties mainly
supported civil society organizations, the
post-Oslo era saw a deliberate weakening
and breaking of these ties. Many scholars
have identified this process as
“NGO-ization,” which Islah Jad aptly </span><a
href="https://www.awid.org/sites/default/files/atoms/files/changing_their_world_-_demobilization_of_womens_movements_-_palestine.pdf"><span>describes</span></a><span>
as circumstances in which “issues of
collective concern are transformed into
projects in isolation from the general
context in which they arise, without
consideration of the economic, social, and
political factors affecting them.” </span></p>
<p><span>The professionalization and
bureaucratization of civil society
organizations created a distance between
them and local grassroots communities. The
focus became centered on project
deadlines, budgets, funding proposals, and
annual reports, all of which were
answerable to the international donor
community. The shift to a donor-led agenda
also distanced many organizations from the
politicized rhetoric of liberation and
nationalism. Many groups and organizations
within the women’s movement were also
subject to this transformation. </span></p>
<span><span><a
href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=http://ow.ly/hpFf50v5QvW&text=Many%20Palestinian%20leaders%20have%20privileged%20national%20liberation%20over%20the%20emancipation%20of%20Palestinian%20women&via=AlShabaka&related=AlShabaka"
target="_blank" rel="noopener
noreferrer">Many Palestinian leaders
have privileged national liberation over
the emancipation of Palestinian women </a></span><a
href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=http://ow.ly/hpFf50v5QvW&text=Many%20Palestinian%20leaders%20have%20privileged%20national%20liberation%20over%20the%20emancipation%20of%20Palestinian%20women&via=AlShabaka&related=AlShabaka"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Click
To Tweet</a></span>
<p><span>This change is particularly
noticeable in the post-Oslo lexicon of
women’s rights within Palestinian civil
society. Many terms or buzzwords used to
obtain project funding have been defined
by UN agencies and other international
organizations that place their own
meanings and conditions upon them. For
example, the term “empowerment” is </span><a
href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/46526231_Empowerment_as_Resistance_Conceptualizing_Palestinian_women's_empowerment"><span>limited</span></a><span>
to socioeconomic empowerment and
participation in “decision-making,” rather
than empowering women to resist the
occupation and build a vision for a
postcolonial world. Indeed, </span><a
href="http://palestine.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/economic-empowerment"><span>many
projects</span></a><span> focus solely
on household economic empowerment, aiming
to help women become financially less
dependent on male breadwinners. This
stands in stark comparison to the many
female-led cooperatives established before
Oslo that attempted to gain economic
independence from Israel and were
articulated as a form of resistance, such
as </span><a
href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41858974?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents"><span>the
women’s produce cooperatives</span></a><span>
established by the Palestinian Union of
Women’s Work Committees in the West Bank
and Gaza during the First Intifada.</span></p>
<p><span>A more recent example of this
donor-led transformation can be seen in a
week-long campaign launched in early 2019
by UN agencies, international
organizations, and Palestinian</span> <span>NGOs.
The campaign, called “My Rights, Our
Power,” was meant "to raise awareness on
women's fundamental human rights" and
domestic violence in particular. It
focused on five areas of concern: the
right to a life free of violence, the
right to achieve justice, the right to
seek help, the right to equal
opportunities, and the right to make one's
own choices. The campaign omitted the
Israeli military occupation of the West
Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as its
overall structure of apartheid, as major
contributing factors to rights violations
committed against Palestinian women.
Indeed, the words “occupation” or
“Israel," let alone “apartheid” or
“colonialism,” did not appear in </span><a
href="https://www.unicef.org/sop/press-releases/my-rights-our-power-joint-campaign-launched-palestine-raise-awareness-womens"><span>press
releases</span></a><span> and campaign
materials. This reflects a</span><span> trend in
the international aid and donor
community’s discourse in which “issues”
and "barriers" to women's rights are
spoken of in a political vacuum to avoid
any Israeli discomfort. </span><span>This
is a clear example in which dependency on
the donor community rendered organizations
unwillingly complicit in the
depoliticization of the Palestinian
women’s struggle. </span></p>
<p><span>While this process of NGO-ization has
demobilized many groups within Palestinian
society, women remain disproportionately
affected due to institutional patriarchal
tendencies to exclude women from the
political sphere.</span></p>
<h3><strong><i>The Veneer of Institutional
Inclusion</i></strong></h3>
<p><span>The return of the PLO to the West
Bank and Gaza Strip and its subsequent
devolution into the Palestinian Authority
(PA) left many on the ground frustrated,
particularly women grassroots activists
from the First Intifada who then lost
their leadership roles to predominately
male politicians, highlighting once again
the tensions between the national struggle
and women’s liberation. In 2003, in part
to alleviate this tension, the PA
established the Palestinian Ministry of
Women’s Affairs, and between 2012 and 2014
under Minister Haifa Al Agha it </span><a
href="http://thisweekinpalestine.com/achieving-gender-equality/"><span>created</span></a><span>
gender units in all Palestinian
governmental agencies. These units are
supposed to deal with gender issues,
particularly female participation in
institutional politics, yet their
implementation and outcomes remain
minimal. In reality, it is likely that
they were established to appease certain
requirements, particularly those of
funders, and respond to both domestic and
international pressures to create a more
gender-balanced political structure. </span></p>
<span><span><a
href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=http://ow.ly/hpFf50v5QvW&text=The%20%E2%80%98NGO-ization%E2%80%99%20of%20Palestinian%20civil%20society%20has%20demobilized%20many%20groups%2C%20but%20women%20remain%20disproportionately%20affected&via=AlShabaka&related=AlShabaka"
target="_blank" rel="noopener
noreferrer">The ‘NGO-ization’ of
Palestinian civil society has
demobilized many groups, but women
remain disproportionately affected </a></span><a
href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=http://ow.ly/hpFf50v5QvW&text=The%20%E2%80%98NGO-ization%E2%80%99%20of%20Palestinian%20civil%20society%20has%20demobilized%20many%20groups%2C%20but%20women%20remain%20disproportionately%20affected&via=AlShabaka&related=AlShabaka"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Click
To Tweet</a></span>
<p><span>The current inclusion of women within
institutional Palestinian politics in the
West Bank and Gaza Strip remains very
shallow. Although the Palestinian
Legislative Council has maintained a 20%
quota of women since 2006 – a development
Palestinian activists and women’s
organizations fought hard for – the
percentage remains low. Moreover, other
bodies have even lower proportions of
inclusion. Of the PLO Executive Council’s
15 members, only one is female – Hanan
Ashrawi. Out of the 16 governorates in
the West Bank and Gaza, only the
governorate of Ramallah and El Bireh has a
female governor – Laila Ghannam.
Similarly, the government as of April 2019
headed by Mohammad Shtayyeh has a mere
three female cabinet ministers out of 22 –
Mai Kaileh, Minister of Health; Rola
Maayya, Minister of Tourism; and Amal
Hamad, Minister of Women’s Affairs. These
women, with the exception of Ashrawi, come
from a Fatah background. This is
unsurprising considering the domination of
Fatah over the Palestinian political scene
and the </span><a
href="https://al-shabaka.org/memos/abbas-and-the-farce-of-palestinian-democracy/"><span>recent
efforts</span></a><span> by President
Mahmoud Abbas to consolidate power within
his party. </span></p>
<p><span>These attempts to consolidate power
are indicative of the politics inherent in
the PA, namely those of one-man
leadership, rule by presidential decree,
and a failure to separate legislative,
judicial, and executive powers.
Furthermore, the lack of democracy and
democratic processes – Abbas is well into
a decade past his mandated term – has
allowed for nepotism and patronage. It is
thus unsurprising that under the PA
patriarchal tendencies have solidified. </span></p>
<p><span>The PA attempted to elevate the
status of Palestinian women in 2014 when </span><span>it
acceded to the UN Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women (CEDAW) without any
reservations. It was the first country in
the Middle East and North Africa to do so
and was heralded by some, including those
in the international community, as
demonstrating significant progress on
women’s rights. Yet several issues render
the accession less significant than it
might seem. Firstly, the CEDAW text </span><a
href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/06/11/human-rights-watch-womens-centre-legal-aid-and-counselling-and-equality-now-joint"><span>has
not been published</span></a><span> in
the PA’s Official Gazette and as such
remains non-binding for domestic law.
Secondly, a November 2017 decision by the
Supreme Constitutional Court, which
regulates the status of international
agreements in the Palestinian legal
system, allows for courts to not apply
agreements that conflict with Palestinian
law. </span><a
href="https://www.birzeit.edu/en/news/bzu-professor-examines-recent-supreme-constitutional-court-decision"><span>This
allows for unregulated executive powers</span></a><span>
and for the legislature’s maintenance of
the</span><span> overarching patriarchal
authority. </span></p>
<h3><strong><i>Weaponizing Women’s Bodies</i></strong></h3>
<p><span>The fact that Palestinian women are
often lacking the most basic legal
protections and political representation
means that they are particularly
vulnerable when it comes to the
weaponization of their bodies. Sexual
harassment and violence are sensitive
topics in Palestinian society, and a
social stigma is often attached to those
who have suffered them. The threat of
sexual violence and the use of sexual
harassment are therefore particularly
powerful weapons. Both the Israeli regime
and the PA have used such gendered
violence to deter women from being
politically active. </span></p>
<p><span>Since its establishment the Israeli
regime has systematically used gendered
tactics to oppress Palestinians. This has
contributed to the enforcement of gender
stereotypes and patriarchal narratives,
excluding women from the political sphere
or targeting those who are politically
active. Targeting manifests itself in a
variety of ways and can include
harassment, threats of sexual violence,
and imprisonment, the latter being the
most effective way to curtail political
work. Indeed, female political leaders
have been consistently imprisoned by the
Israeli regime, including legislator </span><a
href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/11/08/why-is-israel-afraid-of-khalida-jarrar/"><span>Khalida
Jarrar</span></a><span>. </span></p>
<p><span>During imprisonment, Palestinian
women are often subjected to gendered
violence in an attempt to “break” them.
For example, Khitam Saafin, the leader of
the Union of Palestinian Women’s
Committees, spent three months in Israeli
administrative detention. During that time
</span><a
href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/in-depth/features/Palestinian-women-haunted-by-abuse-in-Israeli-jails-658416317"><span>she
reported</span></a><span> that Israeli
soldiers took pictures of her on their
phones and subjected her to unnecessary
strip searches. The Israeli prison
authorities are also </span><a
href="https://jps.ucpress.edu/content/46/4/46"><span>known</span></a><span>
to deny women sanitary towels and restrict
their access to bathrooms when they are
menstruating.</span></p>
<span><span><a
href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=http://ow.ly/hpFf50v5QvW&text=The%20current%20inclusion%20of%20women%20within%20institutional%20Palestinian%20politics%20in%20the%20West%20Bank%20and%20Gaza%20Strip%20remains%20very%20shallow&via=AlShabaka&related=AlShabaka"
target="_blank" rel="noopener
noreferrer">The current inclusion of
women within institutional Palestinian
politics in the West Bank and Gaza Strip
remains very shallow </a></span><a
href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=http://ow.ly/hpFf50v5QvW&text=The%20current%20inclusion%20of%20women%20within%20institutional%20Palestinian%20politics%20in%20the%20West%20Bank%20and%20Gaza%20Strip%20remains%20very%20shallow&via=AlShabaka&related=AlShabaka"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Click
To Tweet</a></span>
<p><span>Interrogations by Israeli soldiers or
security forces also often include sexual
harassment or threats of sexual violence
to pressure women and girls to sign
confessions or give information. This was
demonstrated in a </span><a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkkSORwIbnQ"><span>leaked
video</span></a><span> of the December
2017 interrogation of the teenager Ahed
Tamimi, who was arrested for slapping an
Israeli soldier who had invaded her home
and had previously been part of a raid
that resulted in her cousin being shot in
the head. Ahed was subjected to an
interrogation in which two male officers
verbally harassed her and made comments
about her body. </span></p>
<p><span>In recent years the PA has
increasingly cracked down on activism and
activities that challenge its
authoritarianism, using such </span><a
href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2018/10/23/two-authorities-one-way-zero-dissent/arbitrary-arrest-and-torture-under"><span>brutal
techniques</span></a><span> as
detention, interrogation, surveillance,
limitations on mobilization, and cyber
attacks. It has adopted gendered
mechanisms similar to those used by
Israeli forces to deter female
participation in political activities.</span></p>
<p><span>Demonstrations and protests have
often been sites of gendered violence. PA
security forces use insults and
insinuations that often amount to verbal
sexual harassment, in addition to telling
women they should be at home and not in
the streets. This draws on misogynist and
global notions of honor and shame, which
can also be mobilized against women’s
families. PA security forces have been
known to visit women’s and girls’ fathers
to “discuss” their activism. For some
women, this has serious repercussions and
means they are prevented by their families
from taking part in political activities.
There have also been cases in which
security forces have gone to a female
activist’s place of work and have spoken
to her employer in an attempt to get her
fired. This type of sabotage occurs more
easily via social media, as rumors and
slanderous language can be spread quickly
and anonymously in ways that become nearly
impossible to refute. </span></p>
<p><span>In more severe cases physical sexual
harassment occurs, with women grabbed and
groped at demonstrations. This was the
case at a June 2018 protest demanding the
PA lift the sanctions on Gaza, in which
Fatah loyalists </span><a
href="https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/pa-attacking-people-gaza-sanctions-180615100149988.html"><span>harassed
and assaulted women</span></a><span> at
the behest of the PA security forces. The
sexual harassment of women in such spaces
aims to punish and deter them from taking
part, but it also encourages male
activists to deter female participation
out of fear for women’s safety. </span></p>
<p><span>It is important to note that
Palestinian women have not been passive in
the face of gendered violence. They have,
for instance, long confronted the
weaponization of their bodies through such
tactics as recognizing their right to
remain silent during interrogations and
remaining in groups or pairs at
demonstrations. Another tactic is to
mentally compartmentalize. Indeed, one
activist told this author, “I mentally
prepare myself before the demonstration, I
tell myself, ‘Today my body is not
mine.’” </span></p>
<h2><b>Liberating All Palestinian People </b></h2>
<p><span>The aim of this policy brief has not
been to romanticize the pre-Oslo period,
but rather to address how the political
marginalization of Palestinian women has
accelerated with the entrenchment of the
military occupation, the increasingly
repressive Palestinian authorities, and
the weakening connection between civil
society and the grassroots. Moreover, the
entire Palestinian liberation project has
been geographically, socially, and
politically fragmented, resulting in a
situation of historic vulnerability. While
discussions revolve around efforts to
revive it, the important question
Palestinians must ask themselves is
whether they can reignite a path to
liberation with half of their population
marginalized from the process. </span></p>
<span><span><a
href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=http://ow.ly/hpFf50v5QvW&text=Both%20the%20Israeli%20regime%20and%20the%20Palestinian%20Authority%20have%20used%20gendered%20violence%20to%20deter%20women%20from%20being%20politically%20active&via=AlShabaka&related=AlShabaka"
target="_blank" rel="noopener
noreferrer">Both the Israeli regime and
the Palestinian Authority have used
gendered violence to deter women from
being politically active </a></span><a
href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=http://ow.ly/hpFf50v5QvW&text=Both%20the%20Israeli%20regime%20and%20the%20Palestinian%20Authority%20have%20used%20gendered%20violence%20to%20deter%20women%20from%20being%20politically%20active&via=AlShabaka&related=AlShabaka"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Click
To Tweet</a></span>
<p><span>With this in mind, what follows are
recommendations for disrupting this
process of political marginalization and
revitalizing the liberation struggle
through feminism: </span></p>
<p><span><strong>1.</strong> Palestinian
women, collectives, groups, and
organizations pursuing women’s rights and
gender equality need to be restructured
and revitalized into an autonomous women’s
movement that struggles for women’s
liberation in all spheres, including
political, economic, and social spheres.
The need for women’s autonomy is
imperative in a context of patriarchy,
where male domination is present in all
areas. Organizational autonomy does not
mean a separation of struggles, but rather
provides a space for women to think more
freely and collectively about liberation.
Women’s rights must be both individual and
collective and must not be separated from
the collective right of indigenous
Palestinians to be free of settler
colonialism.</span></p>
<p><span><strong>2.</strong> Women’s groups
and organizations must find a way to
reconnect both with the grassroots and the
liberation discourse. One way to do this
is to return to collectivism and tackle
elitism within the NGO network by making
processes more </span><a
href="https://al-shabaka.org/briefs/palestinian-civil-society-what-went-wrong/"><span>democratic
and representative.</span></a><span>
This also requires moving toward
self-sufficiency to weaken the grip of
donors, which could include a
membership-based system, and pave the way
for economic sovereignty. </span></p>
<p><span><strong>3.</strong> Groups and
activists must engage with the political
marginalization of women. In particular,
men in these spaces need to be aware of
the power dynamics that prevent women from
participating and support women in
fighting against them. For example, in
meetings, discussions, and demonstrations,
men should step aside and create space so
that women can take leading roles.
Additionally, rather than telling women
not to stand on the front line out of fear
their bodies will be weaponized against
them, men should join women in coming up
with tactics to tackle this
weaponization. </span></p>
<p><span><strong>4.</strong> While bearing in
mind the specific context of settler
colonialism, Palestinian women should also
examine recent examples of other women in
the region who have been part of processes
of great political change, such as in
Tunisia and Sudan. It is equally important
to rebuild historic solidarities, such as
with the Kurdish Women’s Movement, rather
than looking toward the West, to learn and
develop by example.</span></p>
<p><span><strong>5.</strong> Palestinian
nationalism has long focused around macho
imagery embodied in the male fighter or
prisoner, with women often only discussed
in relation to men. This has resulted in a
liberation politics that is not only
exclusive and dominating of women but also
oppresses men. There is therefore an
urgent need to incorporate feminism into
the Palestinian political project through
the adoption of a new document of
liberation, a document that would
understand feminism not only as a theory
but also as a practice and way of life
that works toward the liberation of all
people.</span></p>
<p><span>Only through such actions can the
Palestinian leadership and civil society
begin to tap the strength of Palestinian
women in the Palestinian struggle for
freedom, justice, and equality.</span></p>
</div>
</div>
</article>
</section>
<section>
</section>
</div>
</div>
<section>
</section>
</section>
_________________________<br>
<h5><a href="https://al-shabaka.org/en/author/yara-hawari/">Yara
Hawari</a></h5>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Yara Hawari is the
Palestine Policy Fellow of Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian
Policy Network. She completed her PhD in Middle East
Politics at the University of Exeter. Her research
focused on oral history projects and memory politics,
framed more widely within Indigenous Studies. Yara
taught various undergraduate courses at the University
of Exeter and continues to work as a freelance
journalist, publishing for various media outlets,
including Al Jazeera English, Middle East Eye and the
Independent.</span></p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://freedomarchives.org/">https://freedomarchives.org/</a>
</div>
</body>
</html>